On Friday, the number of COVID-19 cases hit a staggering milestone. As compiled by The New York Times, 98,859 cases were reported on Friday. That alone would be a huge increase over any previous day and a horrible indicator of just how Donald Trump’s move toward herd immunity is driving the health system toward destruction and bringing on an inevitable tide of illness and death. But over at WorldOMeters, their tally came to a slightly different value: 101,461. That difference doesn’t seem that great in terms of numbers (though just the difference is more cases than all but a tiny number of nations experienced on Friday), but psychologically, it’s a gut punch.
100,000 cases in a day is one of those moments when it’s clear that not only has the government surrendered any effort to slow the spread of the virus, it was never making any effort in the first place. Donald Trump never broke out his Sharpie to scribble a single executive order that enforced social distancing guidelines, never closed a single business, never made a single restriction. In fact, when Trump did break out an executive order concerning the pandemic, it was to force mostly immigrant workers at meat processing plants to stay on the job, even though their working conditions were so patently unsafe that hundreds were dying from COVID-19.
100,000 is just a number. But it’s also a reminder: This is what Donald Trump wanted all along. This is his plan.
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In the last few weeks, as retired radiologist Scott Atlas has taken over as Trump’s coronavirus whisperer, the drive toward unattainable “herd immunity” has become far more obvious. Experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci had long been driven to the sidelines, and even Dr. Deborah Birx, who sat silently by as Trump steamrolled over facts, is no longer welcome in his sight. Atlas—with no experience in either infectious disease nor the logistics of dealing with a pandemic—gives Trump exactly what he wants. Nothing.
Nothing is what Trump always wants to do, in every circumstance, because he’s intrinsically lazy. That’s exactly why Trump is so insistent on talking about how hard he works, and why he insists that his White House paint him as always on the job. Because Mr. Executive Time really doesn’t want to do anything but shuttle between his bed and his golf cart, with generous stops at the buffet table in between. The hardest thing Trump does is when he gets on his feet for an hour to talk about what a hard worker he is, before returning to his nice plane, with a big bed, that we all pay for.
But when it comes to COVID-19, there is more than laziness driving Trump’s inaction. From nearly the beginning of the pandemic, all the way back in March, Trump weighed up the options and considered taking action … he just didn’t. He deliberately cancelled plans for a national testing and contact tracing system because he thought it would be a good thing if more Americans died. Because Trump thought those deaths would be in areas controlled by Democrats, and political genocide was just fine with Trump.
That’s why Trump made the decision to deliberately downplay the coronavirus long after he knew the kind of threat it represents. Because he wants more people to die.
That’s why Trump sent those “LIBERATE!” tweets in an effort to open up states. Because he wants more people to die.
That’s why Trump has continually attacked the utility of masks. Because he wants more people to die.
That’s why Trump has continued to insist on less testing, and even had CDC guidelines on testing rewritten to make them weaker. Because he wants more people to die.
That’s why Trump has taken away public data that used to be shared by the CDC and given it to a private contractor run by one of his big donors. Because he wants more people to die.
That’s why Trump has insisted on in-person schools, on big sporting events, on encouraging people to attend public gatherings. Because he wants more people to die.
With Atlas running what remains of the coronavirus task force, the inaction has become more deliberate. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has said it, and others have confirmed it—they’re not attempting to control the pandemic. They’re encouraging it.
Because Trump is still convinced that the people who are dying will be people who deserve it. People who are weak. People who don’t have “good genes.” People who are Black, or poor, or simply inferior.
Trump’s plan for COVID-19 is on display everyday, right where it has always been: in the numbers. If he wanted to do something, he could do something. He doesn’t. He views people who get ill as weak. He views his own recovery—thanks to half a million dollars’ worth of drugs unavailable to everyone else, and a team of specialists—as a sign of his own strength. Why is Donald Trump suddenly mentioning Barron at every rally, when he’s never brought up his youngest son before? Because Barron’s apparently easy course through COVID-19 represents those good genes in action. Those good, tall, white, German genes.
100,000 cases a day may be a horror for everyone else. For Trump … it really is a victory.