Q: When will there be enough tests available so that everyone who needs one can get one?
Q: Why doesn’t the Federal Government order American companies to make more gowns, masks, ventilators, and hospital beds?
Q: When will the Defense Production Act be utilized?
Q: When will the government order a “shelter in place” for all citizens?
And so on. These are the recurring questions that the Trump Administration keeps dodging with excuses and deflections at its now daily press briefings. Ignoring his disabling bone spur injury, this self-anointed wartime president is dancing as fast as he can to ensure that he gets credit for defeating the invisible foe that has so far managed to outflank his efforts. The reality is that deploying the vast resources at his command may be a case of too little, too late. For a man who many believe is defined by his enemies, Trump has finally met one who has his number. In a matter of weeks, Trump has gone from declaring the virus a “democratic hoax” to proclaiming that he knew well before his so-called experts that this was a pandemic.
Trump has a habit of repeating or over-emphasizing what it is that he has just come to learn. My theory is that the moment when he comes to an understanding of an issue, so too has his audience. And so, he repeats the word or phrase, not for emphasis, but rather as an acknowledgment that he had just ingeniously coined a thought:
Daring to get into the president’s mind, I would offer that an incoherent excuse is an answer to any question that threatens his reality. The reporter was asking about the president’s obvious change in tone from prior news conferences—taking the situation more seriously now. After soft-pedaling the dangers of the covid-19 virus up to this point, his response at first deflects the questioner’s intent, then denies her premise. In a series of tweets and at each daily briefing Trump seems to animate an Alfred E, Neuman “What me worry?” meme. Setting the record straight, Trump actually did try to minimize the coming impact of the virus as Kristen Welker had noted:
Jan. 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.”
Feb. 2: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China. It’s going to be fine.”
Feb. 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
Feb. 25: “CDC & my administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
Feb. 25: “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away. They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
Feb. 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
March 4: “If we have thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work – some of them go to work, but they get better.”
And let us not forget, that in an answer to Welker’s question about taking responsibility for the lack of preparedness in providing test kits as a way of “flattening the curve”, he unapologetically responded, “No. I don’t take responsibility at all...” even as he blames others like Obama and China. Even as he utters nonsensical inanities at his press conferences, prompting patsies like Mike Pence and Anthony Fauci to be responsible while deciphering and correcting his administration’s enigmatic policies.
As I write this, there are now over 39,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S. and more than 450 have died. The first reported case of the virus was revealed back on January 21, and as you can note above, Trump declares that “it (the virus) is totally under control”. In that period, this president’s apathetic approach had dampened national concern in support of the pandemic. Large gatherings and gathering places could have been banned as early as February 1, which would have shut down the New York airports, spring break, and Mardi Gras—all sites of the pandemics greatest surge. Quick action and reliance on expert data could have changed protocols for accepting American nationals back from trips abroad and cruises. Trump-induced governmental malaise in ramping up precautions, severely hampered later efforts to protect medical workers and first responders who ventured into workplaces that were both dangerous and poorly equipped for the massive onslaught of the disease. Finally, the adamant stance by the CDC, triggered by Trump’s xenophobia and/or ignorance, against procuring test kits from any available source ignited the spread of the pandemic by placing blindfolds instead of masks on our nation’s medical experts as the virus hid among asymptomatic carriers who infected their pointlessly unknowing friends, family, and colleagues.
So, as Millenials, spring breakers, and everyday Americans who were lured to toxic workplaces and beaches and parks assumed the reckless tone of their president, the virus multiplied, feeding on his morbid irresponsibility. The curse of Donald Trump’s election has come to pass. To those who believed that he was tolerable or even preferable to the hopelessly competent Hillary, this was both a predictable and likely event. To think that an incurious, crude, and narcissistically naive man was better than a woman, or a democrat, or any other alternative— or that it was time for a reality show-themed presidency after eight years of boring proficiency of the Obama era-- is now exposed for what it was. We are learning that there is never a good time to choose chaos over order. There is always a price to be paid for choosing mediocrity. The more mediocre, the higher the tariff. In this case, the cost is well beyond the value of our entertainment. As Trump dillies and dallies with plans and promises vetted by his notorious “gut”, America stands at the precipice of disaster. There was a time when science, and knowledge, and grit could have eased the impact of the virus-- time to avoid the catastrophe. There was a time our country could have avoided electing this poor excuse for a president. Sadly, that time has long passed. If history could actually be rewritten, the edit would have occurred that day in November 2016 --a day many Americans may not even live to regret.
Q: “What me worry?”
A: “You bet!”