If I Ran the Zoo: President Trump is threatening to defund the World Health Organization, claiming it did a bad job warning and preparing the world for the coronavirus pandemic.

  “We’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it and we’re going to see,” Trump said during yesterday’s coronavirus briefing. Although the WHO issued its warning before Trump and his administration, the President said, “They called it wrong. They call it wrong. They really, they missed the call.”

  Trump called it even worse in the early days, dismissing the threat and saying the virus would magically go away in spring.

  Despite that, Trump gave the WHO 30 days to “commit to substantive improvements.”

Dr. Caligari’s Cabinet: In effect taking his own medicine, Trump says he’s taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a hedge against the coronavirus even though it has no proven effect against the disease and might be dangerous. 

  Two members of the White House staff tested positive for the disease.

  Although the FDA has warned against using the drug for the coronavirus, and Trump stopped talking about it publicly, he’s taking it. The President said, “All I can tell you is, so far I seem to be OK.”

  He won’t wear a mask, but he’ll take an unproven drug. “I’m not going to get hurt by it,” Trump said. “It has been around for 40 years for malaria, for lupus, for other things. I take it. Front-line workers take it. A lot of doctors take it. I take it.”

  MD Magazine reports that known side effects of  hydroxychloroquine include agitation, insomnia, confusion, mania, hallucinations, paranoia, depression, catatonia, psychosis, and thoughts of suicide.

  None of the reporters present also asked whether the President is also drinking bleach.

  As Trump revealed his medical regimen, the stock market was rocketing on news that the first test of a coronavirus vaccine on eight people produced the right kind of antibodies. In laboratory testing, those anti-bodies were able to block growth of the coronavirus. Larger and longer studies will be required to determine whether the vaccine works on the general population.

The Stat Board: Coronavirus deaths in the US have crossed the 90,000 mark; 90,369 to be exact. The world is approaching five million cases with 318,857 deaths. 

Dirty Dishes: President Trump told reporters yesterday he’d rather have a government employee washing the Secretary of State’s dinner dishes if his wife isn’t there to do it.

  The inspector general at State was fired last Friday after opening a couple of investigations involving Secy. of State Mike Pompeo. The IG, Steve Linick, was asking questions about a government employee performing personal tasks for Pompeo and about arms sales to Saudi Arabia. 

  “Look, he’s a high quality person, Mike. He’s a very high quality, he’s a very brilliant guy,” Trump told reporters at the White House . “And now I have you telling me about dog walking, washing dishes and, you know what, I’d rather have him on the phone with some world leader than have him wash dishes because maybe his wife isn’t there or his kids aren’t there, you know.”

  Pompeo said Linick was “undermining” the work off the state department. Trump said he would be glad to fire an inspector general appointed by President Obama.

  Ruth Marcus writes in The Washington Post that, “This is, in a nutshell, what we have been witnessing from the very start of the Trump administration: a concerted and disturbingly successful effort to dismantle the multiple mechanisms of accountable democracy, and to tilt the constitutional balance in favor of the executive.”

The Obit Page: Actor Ken Osmond, who famously played the two-faced Eddie Haskell on the 1950s and 60s television series “Leave it to Beaver,” has died at age 76.

  Eddie Haskell became an American archetype, scheming when he was with the boys, unctuous with the adults; “Oh, what a lovely dress Mrs. Cleaver.”

  Osmond later gave up acting and became an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. In 1980, he was shot five times by a suspected car thief. He was put on disability and retired from the force in 1988.

The Corona Corner: Michelle Obama plans to host a virtual prom for high schoolers on MTV. — The University of Notre Dame said it will re-open for classes on Aug. 10 and complete the fall term without a break by Thanksgiving. — As President Trump pushes to re-open the economy, a report by The Congressional Oversight Commission finds that the Treasury Department had spent little of the $500 billion designated to help businesses and local governments. — With Americans scared to take public transportation during the pandemic, bicycle shops in some cities can’t peddle fast enough to keep up with buyers.

Senate Intelligence: Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has named Florida’s Marco Rubio to be acting chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Intelligence and Rubio are not often in the same sentence. 

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