By Hal Brown
I was reading this article on Politico:
Despite Covid-19 raging throughout the spring and summer, the president is giving himself high marks heading into election season
Reading this I thought about the world of magical virus thinking where Trump has been feeding his hunger for positive pandemic information with misinformation about how he could beat the pandemic and win the election.
I didn’t get far into the article, four paragraphs to be exact….
A pandemic summer marked by testing delays, supply shortages and continued spread of the coronavirus has set the stage for a disheartening start to the fall across much of the U.S., with the shuttering of schools and cancellation of college football seasons that officials had once hoped would herald a return to normalcy more than six months into the crisis.
But inside the White House, Trump’s top political aides are increasingly assured about their response — feeling like they’re finally getting a handle on how to fight the disease.
As the crippling crisis turns toward a third season, an alternate reality is taking shape inside the White House even in the face of spiking case counts, long lags in test processing and a Covid-19 death toll that regularly tops 1,000 Americans a day. Trump aides are growing confident about what they see as measurable progress: new therapeutic measures, delivery of health recommendations tailored to individual states, extensive support for vaccine development and steps to ensure hospitals have enough protective equipment and ventilators.
Officials internally are also pleased with two changes from Trump himself: the president wearing a mask at times, after avoiding the preventive measure for months, and his resumption of near-daily press briefings, which they feel show Trump is attuned to the crisis and driving the response despite the wide-ranging nature of the events.
… until I got to this sidebar advertisement:
Somehow it seemed to fit the theme of the article. I imagined Trump’s “beating Covid ain’t no big thing” cheerleader squad posing on top of it in a classic pyramid pose with Trump on the peak. I envisioned this spring loaded apparatus about to hurl them into oblivion. I pictured them being hurled into political oblivion with a humiliating resurgence of infections and deaths in states where Trump must be victorious in order to win.
As I read on it became apparent that Trump is deeply enmeshed in wishful thinking supported by his refusal to hear the science based warnings from those expert doctors who originally were on the coronavirus task force who may or may not be allowed in the same room with him.
There are always outliers with medical degrees who believe fringe theories or just want to be in the limelight on Fox News or better yet in the proximity of Donald Trump. He found one, Dr. Scott Atlas, who, surprise, surprise, came from Fox News and before that the Republican establishment.
Atlas served as a senior advisor for health care to Republican presidential campaigns in 2008, 2012, and 2016. He isn’t an expert on infectious disease. He is a neuroradiologist who is considered one of the world’s leading experts in the clinical applications of novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques in disorders of the brain and spine. Wikipedia.
Consider this from Politico:
Some allies in recent weeks have questioned whether Trump’s resumption of regular press briefings is helping his reelection case, worrying that the largely optimistic sessions — punctuated by the president’s insistence the virus will eventually “disappear” — are at odds with deepening economic and health crises playing out on the ground.
The White House in recent weeks has moved to sideline its less optimistic health officials and rely more heavily on Dr. Scott Atlas, a new senior adviser whose Fox News appearances and vocal push to reopen schools caught the attention of top aides such as Jared Kushner and Hope Hicks.
Covid-19 is not enamored by Donald Trump, it’s a virus, however assume it actually had a group mind and personality that just wanted to be taken seriously by the President of the United States, what would it be thinking?
It might just be thinking “no blustering self-aggrandizing liar is going to diminish my power. I’ve got my pride, too. I’ll show him who has the real power.”