I’m just gonna let these speak for themselves.
May 10, 2018
The top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic has left the administration, and the global health security team he oversaw has been disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton.
The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer’s departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack.
www.washingtonpost.com/...
January 30, 2020:
“We’re working very closely with (China) and with a lot of other people and a lot of other countries” on combating the outbreak, Trump said in a speech at an auto parts manufacturer in Warren, Michigan.
“We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment,” he said.
www.reuters.com/...
February 24, 2020:
February 27, 2020:
And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.
www.whitehouse.gov/...
March 10, 2020:
Here’s Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the FDA today in USA Today.
Q. Looking at the big picture, where are we, and where are we headed?
A. I think the next two weeks are going to be very difficult. I think that this is going to play out over the next two months, but you're really going to see a change, I think, in the country's perception and mood and approach over the next two weeks. We're entering a period probably of rapid acceleration in the virus in United States.
www.usatoday.com/...
Donald Trump, his followers, and his movement have been a long exercise in denying reality. But sooner or later, reality crashes down on you and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Trump is in a situation similar to that of another self-deluded megalomaniac. When Germany invaded Russia on June 22, 1941, Soviet leader Josef Stalin refused to believe it was true, even though US and British intelligence had been warning him for months that such an attack was coming. He barricaded himself for weeks. Meanwhile countless Russians died.
As the number of cases and deaths pile up over the coming weeks, even Trump’s supporters will be forced to grapple with the reality of what their collective self-delusion has done. Problem is, all of us will have to grapple with it as well.