Donald Trump has now opened Phase II of his maximal carnage campaign in the ongoing battle with the coronavirus. I'm not talking about the hollow phases put forth by the White House—these are the substantive toothy phases of Trump's work to exact the absolute most death and destruction possible on the American people.
Phase I of Trump's carnage campaign was the period in which he ignored every possible warning coming from his own intelligence operatives, Americans working at the World Health Organization, and even officials within his own administration that an infectious disease was on the move in China, and it could be headed for U.S. shores.
During that period, Trump repeatedly praised China's handling of the outbreak despite being routinely warned about the burgeoning crisis for months.
“China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency," Trump tweeted Jan. 24, even though as early as November U.S. intelligence officials concluded China was experiencing a "cataclysmic event." But Trump wasn't worried. "It will all work out well," he wrote, "In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
In fact, Phase I included Trump regularly telling Americans it was all under control and U.S. cases would soon be "zero," while simultaneously declining to take any precautions such as stockpiling test kits and protective gear in the event of an almost inevitable U.S. outbreak. When Trump finally realized he had what he considered to be a PR problem around mid-March, he hijacked the coronavirus task force briefings and began filling the airwaves with hollow talk of national guidelines and increased testing after early stumbles by his administration.
But it was all a sham, a ruse—Trump wasn't developing any national plan with discernible testing goals and milestones for safely resuming normal activity. Trump isn't capable of thinking in months, weeks, or even days. Hour by hour, he was trying to win the news cycle. But by early- to mid-April, performance reviews in the form of polls revealed that he was absolutely bombing. GOP lawmakers began begging him to stop. Even his own campaign manager and top officials at the Republican National Committee and White House took it upon themselves to personally relay the dire news to Trump. It did not go well.
So it was only a matter of time before Trump scrapped the briefings altogether. The task force's increased profile was never intended to be an information source for the American people. Rather, the briefings were a platform for Trump to project a 2-D image of himself as commander in chief. If Trump was a flop, may as well just scrap the briefings and dissolve the task force altogether, which is exactly what the White House was in process of doing this week when news leaked of the task force's sudden demise. Of course, once the West Wing realized the horrendous optics of dismantling the group just after the U.S. death toll blew past the total number of U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam, it quickly backtracked. But without Trump gleefully helming its briefings with a rush of life-threatening disinformation, the task force will never have the same level of prominence going forward. Trump won’t stand for it.
Besides, Trump has moved on Phase II of his maximal carnage campaign, officially christened "TRANSITION TO GREATNESS!" in a Saturday morning tweet. After thoroughly hobbling the entire U.S. pandemic response in the first phase and then feigning concern, Trump's second phase is all about leading a completely unprepared country into the buzz saw of an economic reopening.
Naturally, Trump has laid no actual groundwork to avoid a public health calamity, he's simply greased the skids to shirk responsibility for the mounting death toll. Governors will be on hook for the potentially catastrophic consequences of his reckless push to reopen the economy; and a skyrocketing American death toll is simply the price that must be paid in order for Trump to maintain his grip on power. That's why Trump has evolved from promising a limited number of casualties, to briefly lamenting the increasing death toll, to now simply embracing it as a marvel of the germ's ferocity.
"This is a very brilliant enemy," Trump told Fox & Friends Friday morning, "And it happens to be invisible."
Phase II marks Trump's transition from a so-called 'wartime president' supposedly battling a pandemic to one who is fighting for the economy he desperately needs to get reelected in his estimation. And within that struggle, Trump has now cast Americans as the potential collateral damage in his victory.
"We have to be warriors," he told the public this week when he was asked directly whether the country should simply accept death as a consequence of reopening for business. "We can’t keep our country closed down for years and we have to do something. Hopefully [death] won’t be the case, but it could very well be the case.”
The virus has beaten Trump at death, but that was never his real concern. The economy (i.e. his reelection) is the hill Trump came to die on, everything else is secondary.
But epic stories never involve just two acts. In the final months leading up to the November election, Trump will roll out Phase III, a fantastical effort to gaslight America about the trauma it continues to endure, who's really at fault (not Trump—China, the governors, Obama!), and whether it's even real (the body count's fake news!).
And so continues the saga of Trump's reality TV presidency. As he tinkers with script amid a global pandemic, Americans keeping dying with no end in sight.