Politics Trump complains that Americans like Fauci more than him by Alexander Nazaryan National CorrespondentYahoo News•
The next morning, Fauci appeared on “Good Morning America,” an appearance during which he described hydroxychloroquine as “not effective.”It was a question on hydroxychloroquine that prompted Trump to discuss Fauci and insist that the two men continued to maintain a “good relationship.”Tuesday’s turn marks Trump’s continued attempt to show that he is in control as the coronavirus continues to devastate large parts of the nation. But much like the briefings that were a springtime staple, this one turned contentious.In particular, Trump appeared bothered by a question from CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins about a video Trump had shared — and which Twitter subsequently removed — in which a Houston doctor makes false claims about coronavirus cures and maligns the wearing of face masks.“Mr. President, the woman that you said was a ‘great doctor’ in that video that you retweeted last night said that ‘masks don’t work’ and there is a cure for COVID-19, both of which health experts say is not true,” Collins said when called on by Trump. “She’s also made videos saying that doctors make medicine using DNA from aliens and that they are trying to create a vaccine to make you immune from becoming religious—”Trump cut her off, saying that he had seen the doctor on television and found her to be “very impressive.”“I thought her voice was an important voice,” Trump said, “but I know nothing about her.” He then walked out of the briefing room.
“Nobody Likes Me”: Donald Trump Compares Anthony Fauci’s High Approval Rating To His Own
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At his latest coronavirus press briefing, Donald Trump insisted that he had a “very good relationship” with Dr. Anthony Fauci, even though the president retweeted harsh criticism of the infectious diseases expert.
But Trump also lamented that Fauci was getting a higher approval rating while he was not.
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Fauci has “got this high approval rating, so why don’t I have a high approval rating … and the administration, with respect to the virus?” Trump said, touting the total number of coronavirus tests, the delivery of personal protective equipment.
“So it sort of is curious: A man works for us — with us, very closely, Dr. Fauci, and Dr. [Deborah] Birx also highly thought of. And yet, they’re highly thought of, but nobody likes me. It can only be my personality. That’s all.”
In recent weeks, media outlets have keyed in on the hot and cold relationship between Trump and Fauci, who the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force.
The New York Times reported that Trump was annoyed last week when Fauci was scheduled to throw out the first pitch as the Washington Nationals season opener, to the point where the president announced that he would do the same at the Yankees game on August 15. The announcement came as a surprise to Yankees officials, the Times reported, but the president canceled over the weekend.
Later in the press conference, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked him about his retweet of a video that featured Stella Immanuel, who has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus cure.
Collins asked, “Mr. President, the woman that you said is a great doctor in that video that you retweeted last night said masks don’t work and there is a cure for COVID-19, both of which health experts say is not true. She’s also made videos saying that doctors make medicine using DNA from aliens, and that they’re trying to create a vaccine to make you immune from becoming religious.”
“So what’s the logic in retweeting that?”
Trump answered, “I can tell you this: She was on air, along with many other doctors. They were big fans of hydroxychloroquine, and I thought she was very impressive in the sense that, from where she came…”
Collins then noted that what Immanuel was saying was misinformation. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have removed the video.
Trump replied, “I don’t know which country she comes from, but she said that she’s had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients. And I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her.”
He then tried to move on to another question, but as Collins tried to follow up, Trump ended the briefing.
Iran moves mock aircraft carrier to sea amid U.S. tensions
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran has moved a mock aircraft carrier to the strategic Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S., satellite photographs released Monday show, likely signalling the Islamic Republic soon plans to use it for live-fire drills.
An image from Maxar Technologies taken Sunday shows an Iranian fast boat speed toward the carrier, sending waves up in its wake, after a tugboat pulled her out into the strait from the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.
Iranian state media and officials have yet to acknowledge bringing the replica out to the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes. However, its appearance there suggests Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is preparing an encore of a similar mock-sinking it conducted in 2015.
The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, which patrols Mideast waterways, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The replica resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the U.S. Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the waterway. The USS Nimitz, the namesake of the class, just entered Mideast waters late last week from the Indian Ocean, likely to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea.
It remains unclear when or if the Nimitz will pass through the Strait of Hormuz or not during its time in the Mideast. The USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed last year as tensions initially spiked, spent months in the Arabian Sea before heading through the strait. The Eisenhower came through the strait early last week.
The replica carries 16 mock-ups of fighter jets on its deck, according to the satellite photos taken by Maxar Technologies. The vessel appears to be some 200 meters (650 feet) long and 50 meters (160 feet) wide. A real Nimitz is over 300 meters (980 feet) long and 75 meters (245 feet) wide.
The mock-up strongly resembles a similar one used in February 2015 during a military exercise called “Great Prophet 9.” During that drill, Iran swarmed the fake aircraft carrier with speedboats firing machine guns and rockets. Surface-to-sea missiles later targeted and destroyed the fake carrier.
That drill, however, came as Iran and world powers remained locked in negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. Today, the deal born of those negotiations is in tatters. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord in May 2018. Iran later responded by slowly abandoning nearly every tenant of the agreement, though it still allows U.N. inspectors access to its nuclear sites.
Last summer saw a series of attacks and incidents further ramp up tensions between Iran and the U.S. They reached a crescendo with the Jan. 3 U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport that killed Qassim Soleimani, head of the Guard’s expeditionary Quds, or Jerusalem, Force. Iran retaliated with a ballistic missile attack that injured dozens of American troops stationed in neighboring Iraq.
Given the timing of Iran moving the replica to sea, with satellite photos showing it being tugged out out of port on Saturday, a drill targeting it may be a direct response from Tehran to an incident last week. That event involved a U.S. F-15 fighter jet approaching a Mahan Air flight over Syria, which saw passengers on the Iranian jetliner injured.
Iran’s navy shoots missile at mock-up of US aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz
Iran’s navy fired a missile from a helicopter at a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday – a fake one, which Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard had towed into the strategic waterway as part of war games and military drills that illustrate the persistent threat of conflict between Tehran and Washington.
Footage broadcast on Iranian state TV showed the replica vessel being struck by the projectile as part of an exercise Iran called „Great Prophet 14.” Iranian commandos subsequently fast-roped down from the helicopter onto the mock Nimitz-class carrier –resembling a ship the U.S. Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf – as other Iranian navy vessels encircle the vessel, likely a barge, kicking up white waves in their wake.
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Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said in an emailed statement that the Navy was aware of the Iranian military exercise that involved attacking a mock-up of a vessel similar to a motionless aircraft carrier.
„This exercise has not disrupted coalition operations in the area nor had any impacts to the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters,” she said.
Still, Al Udeid Air Base and Al Dhafra Air Base military bases in the United Arab Emirates housing American troops and aircraft went on high alert when Iran sent several missiles to the southern Arabian Gulf as part of military exercises.
„The safety and resilience of our servicemembers and coalition partners is a top priority,” said Navy Capt. Bill Urban, spokesman for Central Command. „The United States condemns these irresponsible missile launches in the vicinity of a congested maritime shipping lane.”
In a similar exercise in 2015, Iran’s navy sank a replica U.S. aircraft carrier. About 20% of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, the entry point to the Persian Gulf.
Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have sharply escalated since 2018, when President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have restricted Tehran’s oil exports and brought its economy to a standstill. Last summer, Washington blamed Tehran for a series of mysterious incidents targeting the region’s oil tankers, and the two nations appeared to be on the brink of war in January after a U.S. drone strike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles targeting U.S. forces in Iraq.
While the coronavirus pandemic has effectively distracted both nations for months, there have been signs of a renewed potential for outright confrontation as the U.S. has pushed to extend a United Nations weapons embargo on Tehran. It expires in October.
Inside Iran: America’s history in Iran leads to mix of anger, wonderment and weariness
Last week, Iran reacted angrily after a U.S. F-15 fighter jet conducted what the Pentagoncalled a „standard visual inspection” of an Iranian commercial airliner as it flew over Syria. Iranian state media alleged that the U.S. fighter jet undertook „dangerous” maneuvers close to an Iranian passenger plane and released videos showing apparently shaken and injured passengers. The Pentagon said it believed the aircraft had strayed from an established commercial air corridor.
In recent weeks, there have also been a series of unexplained fires and explosions in Iran at key military, security and industrial sites, including at Iran’s major nuclear facility at Natanz. The authorities have in some cases blamed accidents or human error, but the number of incidents and their locations have also prompted speculation that sabotage by an external power – Israel, for example – or a dissident group could be a factor.
„We have a long-term policy over the course of many administrations not to allow Iran to have nuclear abilities,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said this month, adding to the conjecture. „We take actions that are better left unsaid.”
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iran fires at fake US aircraft carrier in Strait of Hormuz war games
Iran missiles target fake carrier as US bases go on alert
The drill — and the American response to it — underlined the lingering threat of military conflict between Iran and the U.S. after a series of escalating incidents last year led to an American drone strike killing a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Tehran responded to that strike by firing ballistic missiles that wounded dozens of American forces in Iraq.
While the coronavirus pandemic has engulfed both Iran and the U.S. for months, there has been a growing confrontation as America argues to extend a yearslong U.N. weapons embargo on Tehran that is due to expire in October. A recent incident over Syria involving an American jet fighter approaching an Iranian passenger plane also has renewed tensions.
Iranian commandos fast-roped down from a helicopter onto the replica in the footage aired Tuesday from the exercise called “Great Prophet 14.” Anti-aircraft guns opened fire on a target drone near the port city of Bandar Abbas.
State television footage also showed a variety of missiles being fired from fast boats, trucks, mobile launchers and a helicopter, some targeting the fake carrier. A commander said the Guard, a force answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, planned to fire “long-range ballistic missiles” as well during the drill that will continue Wednesday.
Ballistic missile fire detected from the drill resulted in American troops being put on alert at Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Al-Udeid Air Base, the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command in Qatar, the military said. Troops sought cover during that time.
“The incident lasted for a matter of minutes and an all clear was declared after the threat … had passed,” said U.S. Army Maj. Beth Riordan, a Central Command spokeswoman.
Both bases are hundreds of kilometers (miles) away from where Iran put the replica aircraft carrier.
Al-Dhafra also is temporarily home to five French-built Rafale fighter jets on their way to India for that country’s air force.
Other footage from the exercise aired by state television showed fast boats encircling the mock-up, kicking up white waves in their wake. While Iran’s naval forces are dwarfed by the U.S. Navy, its commanders practice so-called “swarm” tactics aimed at overwhelming the U.S. carriers that pass through the strait on their way in and out of the Persian Gulf.
It wasn’t immediately clear if all the footage was from Tuesday, as one overhead surveillance image that appeared to be shot by a drone bore Monday’s date. The exercise had been expected as satellite photos released Monday showed the fake carrier being moved into place by a tugboat.
A black-and-white satellite photo taken Tuesday by Colorado-based firm Maxar Technologies showed damage to the replica’s bow and several of its fake jet fighters.
“Our policies to protect the vital interests of the dear nation of Iran are defensive, in the sense that we will not invade any country from the beginning, but we are completely aggressive in tactics and operations,” Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of the Guard, was quoted as saying. “What was shown today at this exercise at the level of aerospace and naval forces was all offensive.”
State TV footage also showed Guard scuba forces underwater, followed by a cutaway to a blast hole just above the waterline on the replica carrier.
That appeared to be a not-so-subtle reminder of U.S. accusations last year that Iran planted limpet mines on passing oil tankers near the strait, which exploded on the vessels in the same area. Iran has repeatedly denied the actions, though footage captured by the American military showed Guard members remove an unexploded mine from one vessel.The replica used in the drill resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the U.S. Navy routinely sails into the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the waterway through which 20% of all oil traded in the world passes. The USS Nimitz, the namesake of the class, just entered Mideast waters late last week from the Indian Ocean, likely to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea.It remains unclear when or if the Nimitz will pass through the Strait of Hormuz or not during its time in the Mideast. The USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed last year as tensions initially spiked, spent months in the Arabian Sea before heading through the strait. The Eisenhower came through the strait early last week.To Iran, which shares the strait with Oman, the American naval presence is akin to Iranian forces sailing into the Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Florida. But the U.S. Navy stresses the strait is an international waterway crucial to global shipping and energy supplies. Even as America now relies less on Mideast oil, a major disruption in the region could see prices rapidly rise.Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet that patrols the Mideast, said officials were aware of an Iranian exercise she described as „attempting to intimidate and coerce.”“While we are always watchful of this type of irresponsible and reckless behavior by Iran in the vicinity of busy international waterways, this exercise has not disrupted coalition operations in the area nor had any impacts to the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters,” Rebarich said._Associated Press journalists Amir Vahdat and Mohammad Nasiri in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
