Daily Archives: March 11, 2020

President Donald Trump says something about the spread of the coronavirus on Tuesday.

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with the markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings, Donald Trump said in a 2007 deposition for a lawsuit he filed against journalist Tim OBrien for reporting that Trump was not a billionaire. Let me just understand that a little, said OBriens lawyer. Your net worth goes up and down based upon your own feelings? Yes, Trump said, even my own feelings, as to where the world is, where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day.

Im surfacing that exchange now because its a useful window into our present moment. The president of the United States has long believed three things: The first is that reality isnt real, theres only narrative. The second is that he controls that narrative in accordance with his feelings (and Fox News). The third is that only his feelings are real or worth considering. Tempting though it may be to dismiss these as the ravings of a solipsist, its to Trumps credit that he has gotten a surprisingly large number of people to subscribe to these three tenets. Much of the apparatus of the executive branch is now led by people who bow to his whims and go to shocking lengths to make the things he says at least seem true. His attorney general has waved away investigations into the corruption he denies. The National Weather Service formally instructed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration not to correct the presidents Sharpie modification of Hurricane Dorians path, even if it meant giving Americans in danger the wrong information. The director of national intelligence is refusing to brief Congress on electoral interference, reportedly over concerns he might say things Trump would find upsetting.

Now Trump is trying to force-of-will a pandemic into not being a pandemic at all. Its going to disappear. One day its like a miracle, it will disappear, Trump said at the White House on Feb. 28. On March 4, he said he had a hunch the mortality rate was a fraction of 1 percent. When it became a scandal that the United States simply didnt have enough tests to screen peopleand that an early version of the test was faultyTrump said that the tests are all perfect. Like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Its a telling comparison: His slow coronavirus response and his extortion of Ukraine are linked together in his mind as two things he needs to narrate as the opposite of what they are.

Hes also trying it on the economy. Stock Market starting to look very good to me! he tweeted Feb. 24 after the Dow dropped over 1,000 points. Good for the consumer, gasoline prices coming down! he tweeted Monday, as stocks plunged so quickly they triggered a pause in trading. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on, he said as conferences were canceled all over the country, universities moved to online classes, and the numbers of infected people crept up. But investors didnt seem to believe him. The man has spent so long successfully outshouting facts that its clear he knows no other way.

For a time, it seemed to be working. This is their new hoax, Trump told a crowd at a rally on Feb. 28, turning criticism of his coronavirus response into a battle cry. He has dismissively compared COVID-19 to the flu (which has a much lower mortality rate). And, as ever, hes found enablers. Rep. Matt Gaetz wore a gas mask to the floor of the House to mock lawmakers whod wanted to appropriate funds for the pandemic. (Hes now in self-quarantine after being exposed to a coronavirus carrier at CPAC.) Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity downplayed the threat of the virus to their elderly (and vulnerable) Fox News viewers and blamed Democrats for weaponizing it. Trish Regan gave a halting, sinister speech to Fox Business viewers Monday night about the coronavirus impeachment hoax, implying that concern over a pandemic that has all but brought China and Italy to a halt and started an international price war over oil is the dark work of Democrats trying to make the president look bad. If the virus is threatening Trumps image, then either the virus must be dismissed as no big deal or Democrats must be blamed.

And yet the virus keeps spreading, and the stock market keeps roiling.

That has Trump trying to do two things at once: Hes trying to reassure Americans that everything is fine when its visibly not while overpraising himself for work he didnt do to prepare. If the effect is bizarre and confusing, the result is that Americans are flying blind into a pandemic. The unforgivable shortage of testsand the hoops doctors have to jump through before they can get patients testedhas created a situation where no one knows how many people are actually infected. Medical professionals have complained in frustration that CDC guidance is almost useless. Because the administration is built on sycophancy, the officials who should be spending their time and energy on the publics health are instead wasting valuable effort on strenuously maintaining Trumps fiction. The surgeon generalwho is in his mid-40ssaid on Sunday, absurdly, that Trump sleeps less than I do and hes healthier than what I am. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, began his remarks to the American people by praising Trump for his decisive leadership. I think thats the most important thing I want to say, he said. Trump nodded.

This Trump-pleasing weakness in government isnt just superficial lip serviceits having real effects. We now know that health officials at the CDC wanted to recommend that elderly and physically fragile Americans avoid flying on commercial airlines. The White House ordered that the air travel recommendation be removed, endangering the very people the virus is likely to affect most severely. CDC officials couldnt explain why they refused to use the World Health Organizations coronavirus test and instead tried to develop one that failed. Trump himself has been quite forthright about wanting to cultivate ignorance on the number of infected Americans: Not knowing the real number is as good as the number not existing.

There is a silver lining herenot because its good news but because its useful to have clarity in alarming and confusing times, when different sources are saying different things. Its this: The least trustworthy president in recent memory should be understood as a film negative during this crisis. The truth is an almost perfect inversion of what he says. He told the country it was OK to go to work with coronavirus. His economic adviser Larry Kudlow claimed on Friday that the virus was contained. White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News viewers the virus was contained, and all thanks to Trumps quick action, too!

Its possible the coronavirus has become too big to spin. Even the GOP has been forcedby literal infectionsto recognize its severity. At CPAC, several lawmakers were exposed to a carrier who shook their hands. In the meantime, Redfield, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, and coronavirus czar Mike Pence have all contradicted Trump in one way or another over the past week. Azar corrected Trump when he said there would be a vaccine within months. You wont have a vaccine, Azar said. Youll have a vaccine to go into testing. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, threw cold water on Trumps theory that the virus might just disappear when the weather gets warmer: We have no guarantee at all that this is going to happen with this virus. These are some signs that Trumps efforts to mash the coronavirus into the story he wants to tell is failing, but thats hardly reassuring. It is bad for Americans when the vice president and the HHS secretary, both charged with communicating the governments plans to the public, cant even agree with each other. We dont have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward, Pence told reporters last Thursday. There is no testing kit shortage, nor has there ever been, Azar told reporters the next daya lie so blatant one cant help but wonder whether hed been pressured by a certain disgruntled figure in the White House and succumbed.

Trumps handling of other disasterslike Hurricane Maria in Puerto Ricohas worked to the extent that his response has not been treated as the national scandal it is. We still dont know the death toll in Puerto Rico; thats how slow and bad the government response was. Thousands of Americans died, parts of the island were without electricity for 11 months, and yet its rarely mentioned as a major failure of Trumps presidency. I think we did a fantastic job in Puerto Rico, Trump said. To the extent that this line worked, its because the people suffering were brown Americans with no electoral power, whose plight virtually everyone has subsequently ignored.

The coronavirus, however, is very much on the mainland, and it has populations with power in its sights. Its already affecting the well-offcruise ship passengers, international travelers, conference attendees, stock market investors. Its even capable of affecting old white men who spend a lot of time in a dense places like D.C. Those are realities Trump has a much harder time denying. And its impact is expanding over time, rather than taking place in one fell swoopand across two planes, one medical, one economic. Trump can propose an insufficient payroll tax break and say that reports of fear and uncertainty are fake news, but the alarms being raised by cities and schools and businesses show that few are buying what hes selling. Americans are facing drastic disruptions to their lives. Every day that this continues, Trump will wake up facing an ever-widening choice between the facts on the ground and the story he prefers to tell. We know which one hell choose. In the meantime, Americans are responding to this crisis as best they canby operating on the assumption that what the president says isnt true.

Link:

Why Donald Trump Cant Just Tweet Through the Coronavirus - Slate

Two telling clues reveal these suits to be frivolous. First, all three lawsuits target opinion piecesnot news reports asserting factual claims. While in theory an opinion piece could meet the Supreme Courts high bar for defamation of a public figure, in practice this is very hard to imagine. Second, the statements alleged to be defamatory in the three suits havent been proved falserather, theyve been vindicated. The Times piece said Russia helped Trump in 2016 because it anticipated pro-Russia policies if Trump won. The Post piece said Trump invited foreign election interference in 2020. The CNN piece said Trump has deliberately not taken steps to prevent the solicitation of foreign election interference in 2020. All of these statements have been corroboratedthe first by Robert Muellers report, the second by Trumps own words, and the third by Trumps own (non)actions.

But even if these lawsuits are unlikely to succeed, they can nevertheless do great harm. As Trump runs for reelection, the campaign may use these suits to boast that Trump is fighting the media, or what he calls fake news. The intention, it seems, is to scare away media outlets from publishing opinion pieces that use particularly critical words to describe his relationship with Russia. These tactics likely wont work against the Times, the Post, or CNN. But think of smaller, local media outletswhether newspapers, radio stations, TV news programs, or websitesthat already are struggling to stay afloat as hundreds of other media outlets go under nationwide. For them, the prospect of having to litigate a defamation suit against the behemoth of the Trump campaign is intimidatingperhaps even prohibitively intimidating. An editor or lawyer at those outlets may pause on a particular adjective used to describe Trumps relationship to Russia, think about the suits against the Times, the Post, and CNN, and then think really, really hard about softening that language. Going one step further, an individual writer may pause before even drafting words critical of Trump and his familya likely effect of a November 2016 lawsuit filed by Melania Trump against a 70-year-old political blogger who writes from his Maryland townhouse.

Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner: Why a free press matters

That hesitation alone would amount to a severe blow to the free press that Americans rightly cherish and that the First Amendment protects. But Trumps project seems even more malevolent. As he seeks reelection in the face of dismal approval ratings and widespread unpopularity, hes given every indication that he will try to weaponize the organs of the government to help him. Trump already tried to exploit American military aid and diplomacy in order to damage a political rival via Ukraine. He has already asked his attorney general to investigate the very investigators who identified and prosecuted criminal activity by high-ranking figures associated with his 2016 campaign. And he already removed and replaced his acting director of national intelligence when a top official working for him briefed Congress honestly on 2020 election interference, installing a politically minded sycophant instead.

Read more:

The True Danger of the Trump Campaigns Defamation Lawsuits - The Atlantic

In the two months since Covid-19 was first diagnosed in China, the Trump administrations response has been incompetent, short-sighted, and disastrous, and it may have increased the number of lives lost and the scale of the economic disruption caused by the disease.

Trump has, from the beginning of this crisis, consistently sought to minimize the impact of the coronavirus by not preparing for it.

His administration initially failed to set up a program for mass testing and allowed infected Americans to fly home on a commercial flight, which almost certainly caused more Americans to contract the virus. When his health officials suggested telling the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, lung disease, and diabetes, to avoid air travel, Trump overruled them. He even suggested that he wanted passengers stuck on a cruise ship to remain offshore because if they stepped foot on American soil it would increase the number of Americans stricken by the coronavirus and thus make him look bad. Going back further Trump, two years ago, closed down the office on the National Security Council tasked to deal with potential pandemics leaving the nation woefully unprepared for exactly the scenario unfolding right now.

Most disturbing, however, have been his public statements that have misstated the threat from the coronavirus and played down its potential impact on public health.

Trump has claimed that the virus is contained (its not). He said that the number of cases in the United States was going to be down to close to zero (they werent). He suggested that warm weather would wipe out the virus, even though its unknown at this point. In fact in Australia, where its summer, there are 100 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and three deaths as of Tuesday. Trump also claimed that anyone who wants a coronavirus test can get one (they cant). He even said that he is such an expert on the coronavirus that every one of these doctors said, how do you know so much about this? Maybe I have a natural ability."

Trumps rationale for saying things manifestly untrue is born of an apparent belief that he can prevent economic disruption and in particular a market sell-off by convincing Americans that the coronavirus is no big deal. This decision has, to put it mildly, backfired. If anything, Trump has made the economic downturn that is probably coming exponentially worse. Yet, the president doesnt see things that way.

According to NBC News, Trump has been advised by some close to him to let public health officials, rather than the politicians, take a more forward-facing role, according to a person familiar with the conversation. But a person close to the White House said Trump thinks it helps him politically to keep doing what he has been doing.

Spoiler alert it doesnt.

Indeed, with the stock market in free fall and businesses and consumers facing the possibility of serious economic disruption, Trumps chances of reelection may have taken an insurmountable hit.

Trump has been a historically unpopular president whose ability to keep his head above political water is a direct result of an extraordinarily strong economy. Without low unemployment and strong economic growth rate, Trump would probably be far more unpopular and this is a hypothesis that will be tested in the weeks to come. But for Trump to not take a political hit for a potentially severe economic disruption would be unprecedented.

Thats not even taking into account the possibility that many Americans blame Trump for the botched response to the coronavirus. There may be enough true Trump believers out there that the presidents numbers wont completely crater, but even a loss of support from a small segment of the electorate could be enough to doom his chances of a second term.

What is truly remarkable, however, is that this is even in question. The presidents response to the coronavirus is unmatched evidence of how woefully unprepared he is to deal with a major crisis. Trump is unable to look past his own ego to consider what is best for the American people. He ignores evidence, spreads lies, and makes clearly self-interested and heartless arguments. Last weekend, in the midst of a growing crisis, he was playing golf. His actions to date have undercut the US response to the pandemic and may have done direct economic and personal harm to Americans. How could he not pay a political price for the mess hes created?

After three years of watching Trumps poll numbers remain steady even in the face of unspeakable incompetence, cruelty, and mismanagement, I no longer make any assumptions about public opinion. But at some point there needs to be a reckoning for Trump. If he is not held responsible by Americans for his coronavirus failures, if they cannot see how completely over his head he is and that means even his supporters then we have more problems than just an emerging pandemic.

Have a point of view about this? Write a letter to the editor; well publish a select few. (Were experimenting with alternatives to the comment section for creating online conversation at Globe Opinion over the next month; you can let us know what you think of our experiments here.)

Michael A. Cohens column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him on Twitter @speechboy71.

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Will the coronavirus topple Donald Trump? - The Boston Globe

Trump made 67 false claims from February 17 through February 23; that was the 11th-highest total of the 34 weeks we've fact checked at CNN. He added 48 false claims from February 24 through March 1; that week ranked 25th out of 34. As usual, many of the false claims were ones he has uttered before.

Trump made 55 of the 115 total false claims at the four rallies: 19 in Las Vegas, 17 in Phoenix, 10 in Colorado Springs and nine in North Charleston, South Carolina. He added 13 false claims in his speech to CPAC, nine in his press conference in New Delhi and six apiece at three events -- one of which was a press conference on the coronavirus.

As concerns about the possible economic impact of the virus mounted, Trump made 27 false claims about the economy. He made 16 about health care, 15 about trade, 14 about China.

Trump is now up to 1,990 false claims since July 8, when we started our counting at CNN. He is averaging about 59 false claims per week.

The most egregious false claim: "Russia, if you're listening"

Trump was at a press conference at his Doral resort in Florida in 2016 when he made his "Russia, if you're listening" request for help obtaining Hillary Clinton emails. The journalists in the room were silent as he spoke.

The most revealing false claim: The flu mortality rate

It is not. Trump, though, has preferred during the coronavirus crisis to own the spotlight himself, while frequently providing inaccurate or incomplete information, rather than cede airtime to experts who could convey accurate information.

The most absurd false claim: Ronald Reagan's crowds

Here is the full list of 115 false claims, starting with the ones we haven't included in one of these roundups before:

Viruses

Awareness of Ebola in 2014

Ebola mortality

On two occasions, Trump contrasted the fatality rate for the coronavirus with the fatality rate for the Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016, saying "in the other case (Ebola), it was a virtual hundred percent" and that "with Ebola -- we were talking about it before -- you disintegrated. If you got Ebola, that was it."

"It was never 100%. That is just patently untrue," Fischer said.

The flu death rate

Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent, told Trump at a press conference, "Mr. President, you talked about the flu and then in comparison to the coronavirus. The flu has a fatality ratio of about 0.1%." Trump said, "Correct." But Trump later disputed the figure, saying, "And the flu is higher than that. The flu is much higher than that." -- February 26 coronavirus press conference

Apple and China

"When you look at the parts that are done in China, we have reopened factories, so the factories were able to work through the conditions to reopen. They're reopening. They're also in ramp, and so I think of this as sort of the third phase of getting back to normal. And we're in phase three of the ramp mode," Cook said.

Immigration

Who is paying for the border wall

Bernie Sanders and deportations

Facts First: Sanders has not said he will "never do a deportation." He is calling for a temporary deportation freeze, not a permanent ban. While he is also proposing a permanent end to deportations of undocumented immigrants who have been in the US for five or more years, this is just one portion of the undocumented population.

Crowds and rallies

The time of Trump's Las Vegas rally

Trump's 2015 rally in Phoenix

President Ronald Reagan's crowds in Las Vegas

"There's never been this. You know, Ronald Reagan was great. I thought he was a great guy, great president, didn't like his policy on trade, that's OK ... but if he came to Las Vegas, you know, they'd have a ballroom. They'd have 500, maybe a thousand people." -- February 21 campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada

Russia, the Russia investigation and criminal justice

"Russia, if you're listening" and the media

"Remember this thing, 'Russia, if you're listening'? Remember, it was a big thing -- in front of 25,000 people. 'Russia if you're ...' It was all said in a joke. They cut it off right at the end so that you don't then see the laughter, the joke. And they said, 'He asked. He asked for help.' Right? 'Russia, if you're listening ...' A very famous -- they cut that thing so quick at the end because they didn't want to hear the laughter in the place and me laughing. It was just 'boom.'" -- February 29 speech at Conservative Political Action Conference

Facts First: Trump's story was comprehensively inaccurate. Trump did not make his famous 2016 "Russia, if you're listening" request -- for help obtaining deleted Hillary Clinton emails -- at an event with "25,000 people," nor did he laugh after he said it; he made the comment at a July 2016 news conference, with a straight face, and there was no audible laughter in the room. News outlets did not deceptively edit the footage.

Roger Stone and the Trump campaign

The jury foreperson in the Roger Stone trial

Trump accused the foreperson of the jury in Roger Stone's trial of bias. He added, "And you know how they caught her? When he was convicted and then a statement was made, she started jumping up and down screaming, 'Yes, yes.'" -- February 21 campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada

Navy sailor Kristian Saucier

The FBI and "go get him"

Democrats

Bloomberg's endorsers and campaign finance law

"And there are a lot of campaign finance violations there. There's no way you can do what he's doing. You know, you go into a town, you give somebody a contribution, two days later the guy comes, 'I'd like to support Mini Mike Bloomberg.' There's something strange with that whole deal." -- February 29 speech at Conservative Political Action Conference

"So long as we are talking about campaign contributions within statutory limits made without an explicit promise to do or not do something, there is nothing illegal going on," said Richard Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine and an expert on elections law.

Chuck Schumer and Trump's deal with China

Trump claimed on three occasions that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had falsely claimed Trump's "phase one" trade deal with China involved Trump taking off tariffs.

After Trump made a previous version of this accusation on January 15, Schumer responded the same day: "I know what's in the deal. I'm not sure the president does. If he knows what's in the deal -- he should throw it away and take China back to the negotiating table. I will cheer him on if he does."

Biden's debate claim about guns

Hunter Biden

Trump claimed Hunter Biden, the son of Biden, "didn't have a job until his father became vice president." -- February 21 campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada

At the time Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings in 2014, he was a lawyer at the firm Boies Schiller Flexner, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's foreign service program, chairman of the board of World Food Program USA, and chief executive officer and chairman of Rosemont Seneca Advisors, an investment advisory firm. He also served on other boards.

Tom Steyer's performance in New Hampshire

Mark Kelly

Trump said of Mark Kelly, a Democratic Senate candidate in Arizona: "He wants to raise your taxes, open your borders, give away free health care to illegal immigrants, and he wants to obliterate your Second Amendment." -- February 19 campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona

Facts First: Trump was misrepresenting Kelly's immigration positions.

Media coverage of Trump donating his salary

California water rules

When Qasem Soleimani was killed

"So we took out Al-Baghdadi, and then, we just took out two weeks ago, the world's top terrorist Qasem Soleimani of Iran and his evil reign of terror forever." -- February 21 campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada

A labor dispute in 2016

"Last time I had a strike in my building during the election. The only reason -- we would've won this state. Like brilliantly -- to save three cents. I could have settled the strike before the election. I wanted to save two dollars. Total. That was a brilliant move ... But we almost won the state despite I had a big strike." -- February 21 campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada

Facts First: There was a dispute between Trump and labor unions in Las Vegas during the 2016 election, and workers did picket his hotel, but there was not a strike; workers did not walk off the job, and Trump's company had not recognized the union in the first place.

Waivers for military athletes

The Muslim population of India

Trump's 200 million figure for the present Muslim population is about right.

The ratings of 'The Apprentice'

Trump claimed that "The Apprentice," his reality television show, steadily climbed in ratings all the way to the very top: "And then the show goes -- started at 10, went to eight, went to seven, went to five, went to four, went to two, it went to one. I had the number one show in all of television. Number one." -- February 21 campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada

There are various ways to slice and dice television ratings, so Trump might be able to point to some specific night, time slot, show category or viewer group in which "The Apprentice" was number one. But it certainly wasn't the top-rated show in all of TV, as he has long suggested.

Repeats

Here are the repeat false claims we have previously included in one of these roundups:

Economy

The estate tax

Trump claimed four times that he had eliminated the estate tax.

Apple and factories

The steel industry

Energy production

Wage growth

Median usual weekly warnings went from $330 per week in the second quarter of 2014 to $349 per week in the fourth quarter of 2016.

The Dow's starting point under Trump

Facts First: The Dow didn't start the Trump era at 16,000 points -- whether you're looking at its level on Trump's first day in office or whether you go back to the day after his election, as he sometimes argues we should. The Dow opened and closed above 19,700 points on Trump's inauguration day in January 2017; the Dow opened above 18,300 the day after Trump's election in November 2016.

Women's unemployment

Trump claimed three times that the women's unemployment rate is the lowest in "71 years."

The unemployment rate

Trump claimed three times that the unemployment rate is at its lowest level in "over 51 years."

Ivanka Trump and jobs

Trump claimed twice that Ivanka Trump is responsible for "15 million jobs" or more through the Pledge to America's Workers initiative.

The Waters of the United States and puddles

Venezuela's wealth

Facts First: Venezuela was not the wealthiest country in Latin America or South America either 15 or 20 years ago.

"Venezuela was one of the richest countries in the world 60 years ago. The richest in Latin America 40 years ago. But not 20 years ago," Ricardo Hausmann, a former Venezuelan planning minister and central bank board member, said in response to a previous version of this Trump claim. Hausmann, now a Harvard University professor, was chief economist of the Inter-American Development Bank from 1994 to 2000.

Venezuela's per capita gross domestic product in 2005 ($5,420) was lower than that of Mexico ($8,189) and Chile ($7,600), according to International Monetary Fund figures from 2019. Venezuela's per capita gross domestic product in 2000 ($4,824) was lower than that of Argentina ($8,387), Mexico ($7,016), Uruguay ($6,817) and Chile ($5,072).

Trade and China

Who is paying for Trump's tariffs on China

Trump claimed three times that the revenue from his tariffs on Chinese imports "came from China."

The trade deficit with China

On two separate occasions, Trump claimed that the US used to have a trade deficit with China of $500 billion or "more than $500 billion."

Facts First: The US has never had a $500 billion trade deficit with China.

China's peak agricultural spending

Trump said three times that China had never spent more than $16 billion on US agricultural products in a year.

Facts First: China spent $25.9 billion in 2012, according to figures from the Department of Agriculture.

The size of Trump's trade agreement with China

Trump claimed that his trade agreement with China was the "biggest trade deal ever made."

The US record at the World Trade Organization

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Fact check: Donald Trump made 115 false claims in the last two weeks of February - CNN

This article is part of our latest Museums special section, which focuses on the intersection of art and politics.

SAN FRANCISCO A towering persona stands in the police criminal evidence warehouse here: a 6-foot-5, clay-and-silicone sculpture depicting a naked Donald Trump, with grotesquely exaggerated features, including a protruding belly.

The police seized the statue during the presidential campaign in August 2016 when Indecline, an anonymous activist art collective, caused a sensation by placing figures in prominent public spots in San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Cleveland and Los Angeles.

The collective said it planned to grab headlines again this year with its most ambitious schedule yet of illegal street displays.

Indeclines agenda goes beyond presidential politics. Other subjects include gun violence, with a display scheduled for Las Vegas, scene of a mass shooting in which 58 people were killed and more than 800 injured at a concert in 2017.

It would be an audacious, possibly offensive act in a city still recovering from the tragedy, but it is emblematic of Indecline. The group, which had troubling beginnings, has evolved after nearly two decades to become celebrated for political art, even though the artists themselves are unknown.

Indeclines body of work is predominantly illegal activities, virtually all of them felonies, said the groups spokesman, who declined to give his name. Thats the predominant reason we stay anonymous.

In recent years the artists removed commercial billboards to turn them into tents for homeless people in Oakland, Calif., and transformed a suite in Manhattans Trump International Hotel and Tower into a rat-infested presidential jail. After the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Indecline hung clownish Ku Klux Klan effigies from a tree in a Richmond park.

Ron English, the contemporary artist nicknamed the godfather of street art, called Indecline the Beatles of political art.

They are this new thing thats taking something that has been done for millennia and making it fresh and new and capturing a new market, bringing it to a new generation, Mr. English said.

The art itself is fleeting, typically removed by the authorities shortly after installation. The K.K.K. exhibit in Richmond, for example, was cordoned off as a crime scene almost immediately.

The Trump statues in 2016 were seized within hours, although the San Francisco version remained in the citys Castro neighborhood for an entire day. The local police declined requests to view the statue in its current lockup, where it remains even though the district attorney and city attorney ultimately decided not to press charges.

Its in a secure location, said Officer Robert Rueca, a San Francisco Police Department spokesman.

With so little public display time, Indeclines work often gets wider exposure via the news media. The group also photographs and videotapes its work to distribute on social media.

These things arent meant to really stay up very long, said the artists spokesman. Much of this is built for the day of instantaneous posting and social media, so it lives indefinitely on the internet.

Heather E. Dunn, a professor at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts in Portland, Maine, said Indecline represents a hybrid of artist and activist known as artivists.

Its a way to engage the masses that maybe wouldnt go to a museum, Ms. Dunn, an expert in street art, said. Its a way to bring art to them. Its a way to bring a political message to them. In a lot of ways, I find that street art is more powerful than just about any other art thats being made at the moment.

Ms. Dunn said that even though illegal art created on other peoples property had long existed, street art with a more political focus gained momentum in the United States in the 1980s, when new laws in places like New York changed graffiti from a misdemeanor to a more serious crime. The art became a de facto antigovernment act.

Now, with heightened security and surveillance, the decision by some artists to be anonymous is an additional act of resistance. Its really hard to remain anonymous in the culture that we have right now, Ms. Dunn said. She noted other street artists doing similar political work, like Denis Ouch in New York and Plastic Jesus in Los Angeles.

Indeclines anonymous status is due, in part, to a dark past. The group was born amid outrage and legal strife with the 2002 video Bumfights: A Cause for Concern.

As young men, the groups four original members encountered homeless people in Southern California and Las Vegas, and we created this shockumentary, Indeclines spokesman said.

We start filming the going-ons of the homeless community, which for us was this really eye-opening experience, he said. Like, people are pulling their teeth out with pliers because their teeth hurt, and theyre drinking, theyre fighting, theyre doing whatever. Its insanity. And so Bumfights was supposed to be kind of a wake-up call.

Instead, the video was widely condemned as exploitative and demonizing. Scenes depicted homeless men performing seemingly dangerous stunts and acts of cruelty and violence for the camera. But the video became a sensation when promoted by radios Howard Stern, and 300,000 copies were sold at about $20 each.

The filmmakers, Daniel Tanner, Zachary Bubeck, Ryen McPherson and Michael Slyman, faced lawsuits and criminal charges. Plea bargains and settlements followed. The collective today consists of new members scattered across the country, but two of the founders remain active in the group, according to the spokesman.

Indecline has not monetized its notoriety on the scale of other street artists like Shepard Fairey or the anonymous Banksy, whose works can sell for millions. Instead, the spokesman said that collective members have jobs to support themselves, and that the group takes donations and sells merchandise to help fund projects.

Still, there are signs that Indecline could be headed toward a more mainstream future.

Two German galleries recently displayed a version of the Trump prison cell. The collective is producing a documentary about resistance art, featuring prominent artists, like Mr. Fairey. Theres also a satirical political play planned for September and a book in the works.

If all of that does not sound abrasive enough for Indecline, well, This year were also going to try to team up with PornHub, and were going to direct our first porno, the spokesman said. A political porno film.

Will it feature Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film actress linked to Mr. Trump? Shes definitely someone well be contacting, the spokesman said.

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From Homelessness to Donald Trump, This Art Group Takes on All - The New York Times