RUSH: We're gonna start in Santa Cruz, California. This is Jay. Great to have you, sir. You are up first today.

CALLER: Hey, mega dittos Rush. We love you.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: Mega prayers.

RUSH: Love you, too, my man. Love you too.

CALLER: Based on these slashed projections, why can't Trump take charge of the situation and tell Fauci, "You know what? You guys have one week to come up with guidelines for us to make suggestions to the American people and put the American people back in charge of their personal choices and get this country going?"

RUSH: Don't be offended. I need to ask the audience something. Does anybody find something odd about Jay's question here? I understand your point, Jay, but my first reaction is, "You said, 'Why can't Trump take charge and then tell Fauci to come up with...?'" What the hell does Fauci have to do with it? Fauci's the medical guy. Fauci's already spoken.

Fauci says (summarized), "You can't shake hand again! We're never gonna shake hands again. You shouldn't shake hands. Maybe we can go back to school. Maybe we can do summer camp. Maybe we can do..." I'm sorry, but, you know, Fauci can make his recommendations all day long. Trump's gotta make the final decision, and the governors have to be involved in this because these are gonna be state-by-state rollouts.

You've hit it. (sigh) I'm sorry, you've hit one of my red flag sore spots. It's the way your question's phrased. But I understand what you mean. The thrust of your question is, "We've got a week. We need somebody to tell us in one week how this is all gonna start revving up again. We can't wait until June. We can't wait 'til July. We're talking Great Depression time if we do that. We're talking more federal spending if we do that.

"We're talking greater expansion of government, socialism if we do. We need a plan. We need something out there that people look down the road to that's somewhat definite, make plans for, have optimism surrounding it that gets people thinking about getting back out there and revving things up again." That's what you're talking about, and you think that Trump needs to command some people to give us whatever the guidelines are gonna be to enable this to happen so we can do it?

CALLER: Absolutely. Trump has excellent instincts. He's proven that time and time again, and he initially wanted to get this country going again by the end of the month. Easter was originally his plan. But now with these slashed numbers, why doesn't he go back to his instincts and get this country going again?

RUSH: Because, because, because he talks to the experts every day, and they're telling him that the numbers are being slashed not because the models were wrong in the first place and not because they're wrong now. They're saying, "The numbers were always right. It's that our social distancing requirements that people adhered to are the reason why the numbers are being slashed."

So they're gonna make the case, "We shouldn't open up yet, Mr. President. We ought not. We ought to continue social distancing all the way through May." That's what he's gonna be told. He probably already has been told that. I'm glad you called, Jay.

BEAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Somebody said to me, "Trump can't reopen, Rush, because the next death that happens after we reopen, he's gonna get blamed for it -- and there come Democrat campaign ads." Yeah. Yeah. Well, I have an answer to that. I just don't have time to tell you what it is right now. So don't go anywhere. I won't forget. I won't lose my place.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Somebody said to me, "Rush, you gotta be really, really careful here. I mean, you're urging opening up the economy; Trump's gotta do it.

"Don't you realize, Rush, that the moment Trump opens the economy that the next death that happens, it's gonna be all on him. The next death that happens is gonna be in the news for weeks. The person's gonna be a hero, 'cause it's gonna be the person that will defeat Donald Trump -- and Trump knows this, Rush. Trump knows the first death that happens after he reopens the economy, it's all gonna be on him.

"He's gonna get all the blame. Fauci, none of the others doctor are gonna any blame. He's gonna get all the blame." Folks, we are never going to reach a point where nobody is gonna get coronavirus ever again, and we are never gonna reach a point -- not in the immediate future -- where people aren't gonna die from it. If that becomes the reason we can't open up (Snort!), because it will lead to bad political ads?

Donald Trump has never been afraid of that. Donald Trump has never been worried about it. Donald Trump... That's not the Donald Trump that ran for office and got elected. The Donald Trump that ran for office and got elected pulled us out of the Iran deal. The Donald Trump that ran for office and got elected pulled us out of the Paris accords.

The Donald Trump who ran for office and got elected redid NAFTA and all these other trade deals. He stuck it to the ChiComs. He knows all this. He knows full well what the left and the media are gonna try. But if that is the reason to not open the economy, then we're never gonna open it. If you're trying to avoid political blame, if you're trying to avoid negative ads...

"Donald Trump opens economy; people die!" If you're worried about that ad from the Democrat Party leading up to the presidential election (sigh), then why ever open up? That's defensive. That is not Donald Trump. That's a defensive stance. The Donald Trump that ran for office and got elected was on offense. He was running against the Washington establishment, whatever you want to call it. The ruling class.

He ran against it. He made a point of not using them. He made a point of draining the swamp. He was fearless about it. None of the usual caveats stopped him. So why should they now? And I'll tell you, the Donald Trump that ran for office and got elected is the Donald Trump that his supporters still expect is there and operating. Along those lines, there are two pieces today.

One is from our friend Dr. Angelo Codevilla. The other is a Wall Street Journal editorial board editorial -- and the Journal, you know, is a bunch of Never Trumpers. Their editorial today is about the briefings and how they've turned bad and that they're a total waste of time and that they've turned counterproductive for Trump as far as the Journal is concerned.

Codevilla's concern is much different. The headline to his piece: "Is the President Forgetting Politics 101? -- Regardless of when Trump acts to reopen the country, the ruling class will do whatever is in their power to prevent him from exiting the path to political perdition which he has entered."

Codevilla is afraid that Trump is joined unwittingly or has been compromised by the ruling class. He says, "In times of confusion, it is best to focus on fundamentals. What follows is an invitation to do so. Americans elected Donald Trump..." By the way, Codevilla is not a Trumper. He didn't vote for Trump. He didn't like Trump. He didn't. He didn't want Hillary, but he was not a gung-ho Trump supporter.

But he realizes Trump is the only thing standing between us and the nation changing forever. He's worried now. He writes, "Americans elected Donald Trump -- his negatives notwithstanding -- because they disliked what the ruling class had been doing to the country, because they distrusted its pretense of wisdom, and because he promised to rule by a sense that defies that of the ruling class but that he has in common with the people at large.

"That is why the ruling class's nonstop campaign to show in every imaginable way that Trump is outside all of its norms only strengthened the people's preference for him over them." In other words, the Trump-Russia collusion, every attempt the ruling class made to portray Trump as a buffoon and out of touch and not knowing what is going on, just solidified Trump's support with his base all the more.

"As the mutual disdain that divides the American people and the ruling class continues to grow, and as Trump stands unmistakably as the 's protector against the , the fundamental law of politics (who is on whose side?) guarantees his re-election by a bigger margin.

"Unless, of course, Trump himself sides or is perceived to be siding with the against the ruled. In that case, his fate is even surer to be that of the ... salt that has lost its savor, 'thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.' Since the Ides of March, President Trump has placed himself on a path that the fundamentals suggest leads to political suicide.

"He did this by surrendering to the ruling class -- Drs. Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx, et al, not to mention ... Nancy Pelosi -- his judgment on whether and for how long, and how the country should be shut down." In other words, Codevilla believes that once Trump allowed those people to determine the country gets shut down -- when and for how long -- he has lost his distance from the ruling class and has surrendered to them.

This is what has Codevilla concerned. He says: "This is of the greatest concern to the American people in general and to his voters in particular. By giving his imprimatur," his support to Fauci and Birx, "while suggesting that he is acting against his own better judgment, he fulfills the dictionary definition of tragedy. President Trump is an intelligent, practical man, conscious of his peculiar responsibility as the one and only person elected to be responsible for the whole country."

He knows that Fauci wasn't elected. He knows that Birx is not elected. He knows that he was. "He knows how wrong Fauci was in the professional judgments he had given in January and February minimizing the novel coronavirus's effects -" Fauci did. Fauci minimized the effects of it, and he's not being held responsible for it. He's not being held accountable for it. He is being given a pass by his acolytes in the Drive-By Media.

"Even as Trump was damned as a racist for closing down air traffic from China on January 31." Trump did respond to the threat, responded to it responsibly. They called Trump a racist. Fauci said no problem, nothing to worry about here. He gets a pass on his missing the boat. "Every day, Trump (and the country) learns the ostensibly professional estimates by which Fauci, the Democrats, and the media have been flogging since mid-March are proving wrong by huge factors." 2.2 million, a hundred thousand, 140,000, 240,000, now 60,000, all these computer models, not a one of them has been correct yet. They are routinely cited as gospel by Fauci and Birx and people in the protected elites.

Trump learns that the numbers they have been flogging are wrong. "And Trump knows that they are wrong because they are based on numbers that do not reflect reality. Like all who pay attention, Trump knows that the number of confirmed cases means nothing because most infections do not result in 'cases.'" Meaning, most people that get the infection don't have symptoms. Hence, "the real number for infections is surely higher, possibly by an order of magnitude. Also, the counting of deaths from COVID-19 is being revised downward because many of these deaths result from other causes and are attributed to COVID-19 only because the person happens also to have tested positive," or died from something else but had COVID-19 so they chalk it up to COVID-19. We talked about this yesterday.

"That is why the curves Fauci, the medical establishment, the media, and Democratic governors cite for keeping the country shut down mean nothing." We don't know how many people have had the disease and survived it. We don't know how many people got it, have it, are asymptomatic. We don't know nearly enough. What we know is that not a single number they have used so far has proven out. Can we all admit that? Not a single number they have used has proven out: 2.2, 100,000, 200,000, 240,000, now we're down to 60,000, and these people get to revise their models with impunity. Never held to account. Never asked, "How the hell could you been so wrong?"

"Trump also knows that this establishment is hurting Americans by restricting the use of hydroxychloroquine -- while physicians on the front lines, and millions of people who feel endangered, are benefiting from it or yearning for it. Yet, in the face of criticism from the establishment, he has muted his statements of what he knows to be true about it. Trump is eager to open the country. And he knows that the American people will hold him, not Fauci or anybody else, responsible for the pain that adherence to the ruling class's estimates is causing and will cause us. Speculating why, nevertheless, Trump persists in lending legitimacy to these flawed professionals, indeed why he lets them speak in his name, is pointless."

What he's talking about here, he doesn't understand turning these briefings over to Fauci and Birx. Now, when Trump leaves the podium I think people tune out and don't watch anymore, but still he's turning his briefings over to Fauci and Birx this week. That's what Codevilla is reacting to. Trump is lending legitimacy to them, and it's not what got him elected.

The whole point of this piece is that Trump has forgotten politics 101, meaning who's on whose side? Trump's running the risk of making it look like he's joining this crowd because he either wants their acceptance or because it's so serious he's gotta defer to them.

Codevilla writes: "One thing is certain: That the ruling class savors the grip on us that it has achieved during the past three weeks." Above all, they savor the presumption we must quietly accept whatever they say about our behavior. "They're not gonna give up that grip without a fight. Regardless of when Trump acts to reopen the country, they will do whatever is in their power to prevent him from exiting the path to political perdition which he has entered. They won't give him a pass out of it, no matter what. Nothing that happens in April, or in May, June, or whenever, nothing that any curve does, will induce any of the ruling class to say, 'OK, let's all wash our hands, take precautions to protect the old and the obese, and get back to normal.'"

They're gonna do nothing but blame everything that goes wrong on Trump.

"Fauci has warned that perhaps this virus will return with every flu season. This is more than enough for such as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ... to greet any suggestion to move toward normalcy with the charge that," we never can. "Anyone who may wish to lead America out of the quandary into which it has slipped because of our health officials' incompetence ... will have to return to its fundamentals. To wit: Start from the fact that the ruling class is discredited." They are as discredited as when Trump ran for office against them, "Separate yourself from," the ruling class, do not join it. Remember politics 101. That's Angelo Codevilla's point.

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