Trump still thinks COVID-19 will someday disappear, because for Trump, it’s always about “how it looks”.

x Trump says he's not sure a mandate is needed, but “I'm all for masks,” and would wear one “in a tight situation with people.” He says “I sort of liked the way I looked” one time he wore one, it was okay — “like the Lone Ranger.”Ã¢ÂÂ Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 1, 2020

On Wednesday, he sounded a different tone, saying, “I had a mask on. I sort of liked the way I looked. OK. I thought it was OK. It was a dark black mask, and I thought it looked OK. “It looked like the Lone Ranger,” he continued, a reference to the fictional law-and-order character from the American Old West who wore a black eye mask. “I have no problem with that, and if people feel good about it, they should do it.” x After resisting wearing a mask in public, President Trump now says he thinks it makes him look like the Lone Ranger – and he likes it.https://t.co/LwzGXP5aqG

Ã¢ÂÂ The Associated Press (@AP) July 1, 2020

x I don't know. pic.twitter.com/YliUmeWCr6

Ã¢ÂÂ S.V. DÃÂ¡te (@svdate) July 2, 2020

Tonto is a fictional character; he is the Native American (either Comanche or Potawatomi) companion of the Lone Ranger, a popular American Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. Tonto has appeared in radio and television series and other presentations of the characters' adventures righting wrongs in 19th century western United States.[2]

In Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, “tonto” translates as “a dumb person”, “moron”, or “fool”. In the Italian version the original name is retained, but in the Spanish dubbed version, the character is called “Toro” (Spanish for “bull”) or “Ponto”. Show creator Trendle grew up in Michigan, and knew members of the local Potawatomi tribe, who told him it meant “wild one” in their language. When he created the Lone Ranger, he gave the moniker to the Ranger's sidekick, apparently unaware of the name's negative connotations. en.wikipedia.org/…

x The Republican Party in 2020 in one quote. https://t.co/lngDvlliP3 pic.twitter.com/CZtNKh4HPk

Ã¢ÂÂ Isaac Chotiner (@IChotiner) June 30, 2020

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Gaslight is next

x Grown men came to me, they were sobbing, sir, they said, sir, thank you for inventing masks, tremendous, manly masks, we never knew that we could wear a mask, or what a mask did, my uncle, he was at MIT, smart guy, I got his genes, the grown men couldn't believe how smart I am”Ã¢ÂÂ Ohm (Unit of Resistance)Ã°ÂÂÂÃ¯Â¸Â (@HereToResist) July 1, 2020

x So True! Ã°ÂÂÂÃ°ÂÂ¤ÂÃ°ÂÂÂ» pic.twitter.com/s7RVOYG4xJ

Ã¢ÂÂ Dion (@Noid68) July 1, 2020

x New: President Trump's resistance to intel warnings about Russia led his national security team to verbally brief him less often on Russia-related threats to the US (Reporting adapted from my upcoming book Ã¢ÂÂThe Madman Theory: Trump Takes on the WorldÃ¢ÂÂ)https://t.co/0jnk9fzs7s

Ã¢ÂÂ Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) July 1, 2020

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“According to one former senior intelligence official, the President's briefers had one simple rule with Trump: never lead with Russia.”

“It creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where he hears less and less of what he doesn't want to hear and therefore starts to believe more and more that the Russians aren't doing anything bad,” a former senior NSC official said.

“Trump's briefers discovered that when his oral briefing included intelligence related to Russia's malign activities against the United States…Trump would often blow up at them, demanding to know why they kept focusing on Russia and often questioning the intelligence itself”