Bob Woodward’s hours of interviews with Donald Trump have yielded yet another confirmation that Trump does not care about the lives of ordinary Americans, including his own supporters.
In an April 13 interview, Trump says the coronavirus is “so easily transmissible, you wouldn't even believe it. I was in the White House a couple of days ago. Meeting of 10 people in the Oval Office. And a guy sneezed, innocently. Not a horrible—just a sneeze. The entire room bailed out, okay? Including me, by the way.”
So before April 13, even with all of the testing being done on people in proximity to Trump, people in the White House were seriously afraid of being in a room with a person showing any kind of symptoms at all. On April 13, Trump got up and held a news briefing in which he insisted: “Everything we did was right.”
On April 17, as CNN’s Manu Raju pointed out, Trump tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” as part of his push to reopen. Around the same time, Trump called on governors to reopen “very, very quickly, depending on what they want to do.” On April 28, it was: “Many States moving to SAFELY & QUICKLY reopen!”
Except Mr. “The entire room bailed out … including me” knew damn well it wasn’t safe, as the entire nation spent the summer learning.
On April 13, there had been 23,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. Five months later, it’s 194,000. Donald Trump knew. He feared for his own safety when in the presence of a sneeze, despite everyone in his presence having been tested. But he was telling the U.S. to go ahead and reopen. He was opposing mask-wearing and pushing schools to return to in-person learning. He’s gone on to hold indoor rallies, justifying it because hey, he's not in danger. Trump’s contempt for other people’s lives is enormous, and he shows it every single day.