In this coronavirus briefing on Tuesday afternoon, Donald Trump once again spoke about how, when a vaccine is available, it will be rushed to the American public by the military. “Logistically we’re using our military, our great military group of people,” said Trump. “Their whole life is based around logistics and bringing things to and from locations, and they’ll be able to take care of this locationally and bringing it where it has to go very, very quickly. They’re all mobilized. It’s been fully set up. A very, very talented general is in charge.”
This wasn’t the first time Trump has announced this plan to use the military to distribute vaccine around the nation. It wasn’t even the second. Trump has spoken about this at least four times just in his less-than-regular briefings on the COVID-19 crisis. And there’s just one problem with his big military distribution plan—it doesn’t exist.
As McClatchy reports, not only does the military not have a plan for distributing vaccines, they haven’t even been asked to come up with such a plan. That’s true for both the regular military and the National Guard. No one has been told to plan. No one has started to prepare. In fact, according to officials from both the Defense Department and the White House, it is “unlikely the military will be involved” in any phase of distributing vaccine.
While some officials did note that the military could assist with distribution—it does, after all, have a few planes and trucks at its disposal—this would be an unusual process. The military doesn’t have either the information on regional healthcare requirements or the contacts that would make them the best means of making this distribution, which officials called “highly unusual.”
In fact, the Department of Health and Human Services has made the Pentagon aware that HHS may need assistance in reaching “remote sites”—which could include getting vaccine to military bases and outposts outside the country. But even this is a supplemental role, where the military may not be needed at all.
This is 180-degrees from the way Trump is presenting the distribution of vaccine. Not only has Trump repeatedly said that the military is in charge of that distribution, but he has also repeatedly claimed that the whole process has already been planned out. ”They’re all mobilized,” said Trump. “It’s been fully set up.” They’re not mobilized. It’s not been set up.
With Donald Trump still promoting a drug that does more harm than good and undercutting the use of masks to slow the spread of the virus, this whole “A very, very talented general is in charge,” story may seem like a sideshow. But it also illustrates how Trump cannot be honest about anything. This lie doesn’t gain him anything. It’s just another lie for the sake of lying.
In Trump’s mind, his “it’s been fully set up” lie shows him as a guy who is ready to slice through the red tape to rush that vaccine to every door. What it actually shows is a man who is so enamored with his own BS that he can’t be trusted to be truthful on a single issue.
