I was reading something yesterday and it made me reflect upon the pandemic under Trump and how all the current Trump supporters must have a truly short memory, or they just don’t care about the hundreds of thousands of Americans who died needlessly because of how poorly the pandemic was managed under Trump. As a quick reminder, the death count in the U.S. was something like 1.2 million which is more than twice the number of deaths in India, the worlds most populous country.
Trump not only downplayed the severity of the pandemic from the very beginning but was so focused on how it would affect his re-election, he routinely ignored the advice of his own public health professionals. He certainly does deserve some credit for funding and pushing for the rapid development of a vaccine. However, that is negated by his refusal to abide by normal public health recommendations such as social distancing and mask wearing and actually turning them into sources of political division.
He also pushed medically unsupported treatments such as possibly injecting bleach or one of his favorites, hydroxychloroquine. By the way, a subsequent study found that 17,000 people died either directly or indirectly from taking hydroxychloroquine. Trump’s supporters rail against Black Lives Matter protests. But for Trump, it’s clear that American Lives Don’t Matter! Of course, his supporters will use all kinds of convoluted logic to rationalize Trump’s response to the COVID pandemic (or lack thereof), but facts are facts! (Unless Kellyanne Conway is involved and then there are ‘alternative facts’!).
Trump likes to pawn himself off as an astute businessman. The fact is, if he had been CEO of a public corporation that handled a crisis the same way he managed the COVID pandemic, the Board would have fired him in short order. Most stockholders in that corporation would probably applaud such a move and believe it was the right thing to do. However, with Trump in the White House, he obviously comes with a cloak of invincibility or some mysterious ability to erase people’s memories. It is quite odd and scary. It has all the hallmarks of a true cult of personality. It certainly isn’t competence.
I wonder if any of his supporters ever think about things like, “How would Trump handle a crisis like the attack on the U.S. in September, 2011”? Given his obvious dislike of Muslims and Africans (remember he called them ‘shithole’ countries) would he just drop a nuclear bomb on someplace like Afghanistan? The simple fact is, the only real crisis Trump had to deal with during his time in office was the pandemic and he failed miserably!! It’s a scary thought game but one I wish more of his supporters would engage in. Of course, as I said before, his supporters would find a way to rationalize away his incompetence or any doubt about his leadership abilities.
A lot has been written about what Trump will do if he is elected to a second term. Most of those articles are focused upon domestic issues such as using the Department of Justice as a personal vendetta tool. Or purging the government and installing nothing but Trump supporters. Or dismantling parts of the government and finally building the infamous border wall. The only foreign policy change that he has talked about is pulling out of NATO, which would certainly result in consequences we can’t even imagine at this point, none of which are good.
All those things will be bad. However, I believe that the United States could be in much more peril if there is another crisis like 9/11 or the COVID pandemic if Trump is at the helm. He has shown that he can be irrational, non-strategic, and always looking at things through the Trump lens, e.g., what’s in it for me? And on top of that, despite all the bravado and bluster, I believe Trump is basically a coward. Add to that the fact that Trump will surround himself with ‘yes men’ who are probably not going to be the A-team of individuals who you’d want in place during a real crisis.
Despite the legal woes facing Trump and despite the fact that he tried to overthrow the government, is this really the leadership that most Americans would like to have in place to deal with any large crisis? The world’s buzzards are circling overhead just hoping Trump wins so they can swoop in and start picking at the carcass of American democracy. A Trump win will make their job so much easier.
