The Trump “Plan” for Post-Hurricane Laura: Incompetence all Over Again
Dr. Warner Woodworth
warnerwoodworth@gmail.com
I’m a registered Utah Republican and have been for years. Late at night on August 26, 2020, I watched television at 2:00 AM in Utah, seeing the increasing devastation of Hurricane Laura as the storm went ashore in Louisiana, Texas, and beyond. I began wondering what Donald Trump would do beginning the next morning. Would he visit and toss rolls of paper towels to victims as he did after the Puerto Rico destruction? I remembered my own experiences mobilizing Americans in working to help rebuild after earlier natural disasters around the globe including when Hurricane Mitch wrecked Central America, and later as the Asian tsunami flooded 11 countries. Between them both, hundreds of thousands died, millions were homeless, and the economic toll still continues.
These two devastating experiences over the years sensitized me to the potential suffering that would occur from Hurricane Laura. Watching the news that night, I knew Donald Trump was sound asleep in his big, comfortable, luxurious bed, dreaming of the great success of his imaginary but hoped-for wonderful, positive, heartwarming RNC convention program. Such a vision was obviously a contrast to the ugliness of ranting, misinformed GOP speakers condemning social justice marches, bragging about their “successful” COVID-19 campaign, thrilling over criminals pardoned by Trump, howling for more white power, condoning police brutality, and more. It was about glorifying darkness instead of light, hate rather than love. Speaker after speaker read their prepared, pre-recorded “talks” pronouncing the many “successes” since 2016’s election when the carnage of the inaugural speech was unleashed on our nation: Kids in cages, criminals in the White House, tariffs wrecking the lives of American farmers and blue-collar workers, hate speech against Mexicans and Muslims, healthcare being attacked and eroded continuously. The nightmare continued the next day.
Hurricane Laura struck the coast of Louisiana early that Thursday, August 27 as a Category 4 storm, packing winds of 150 miles (240 kilometers) an hour. So far, it has been blamed for at least 26 deaths in Louisiana and Texas, a million folks without electricity, hundreds of thousands having no water, along with some $9 billion in damage, and more.
That night, I could almost envision Trump’s news conferences to follow about Hurricane Laura’s toll on the South. He didn’t say much until the Republican convention was over. But a few days later, when he finally recognized that the destruction may be a problem for his campaign, he flew down. I expect we’ll soon again hear him declare that “It’s going to go away.” We will hear the genius logic clearly: “It will just disappear.” Eight months ago, in January 2020, he assured us about COVID-19, “We pretty much shut it down. It’s going to be fine.” In early 2020, he first became aware of how critical the coronavirus pandemic would be and decided to have no plan, make no preparations, downplay its significance, and reject all reality. Denial is his modus operandi.
Soon Trump and his minions will blame the hurricane as he sought to blame the Coronavirus, squarely on the Democrats. In the coming weeks, we will likely see familiar GOP media campaigns warning citizens like their recent GOP rhetoric whining about the "media's obsession with weaponizing the coronavirus against President Trump remains at pandemic levels." Similarly, TV coverage of Hurricane Laura will be the Republican Party’s newest efforts to confuse the country. Probably soon, Trump and his minions will begin to blame the hurricane on Joe Biden, like he’s often said of Democrats: “This is their new hoax.”
Will the feds develop a plan for reconstruction after these storms? Hopefully. We will hear promises about new solutions and plans as we heard about the pandemic from the White House from March to August. In fact, we were recently assured Trump would have a pandemic plan again, but so far nothing. My guess is the White House is hoping the hurricane’s devastation will only help Trump retain votes for November’s election. What the Postal Service doesn’t accomplish, the weather will.
Instead, Trump will want businesses to reopen from the storm’s destruction. Get students back to school. Open up even the damaged churches for this Sunday’s services. Wading through mud and water should be “no problem.”
We now know this is exactly how he manages difficulties and challenges. He lies about them. He dismisses them. He gets angry about them. He blames others for them. And he takes “no responsibility,” as he’s said various times about the Coronavirus. Remember his famous words that now define his presidency: “It is what it is.”
The best one can say about Trump’s leadership is that it’s fraught with naïveté and ignorance. The worst is what we see him say and do every day. Distort. Lie. Ignore. Whine. Hate. Scream. He has built his administration on a single principle from the old British premise of the 1300s: “Every man for himself.”
The sooner the United States gets the paralyzing official Trump monster off its neck, the sooner we can rebuild from Hurricane Laura, as well as the terrible suffering from what many now call “The Ugly Trump Virus.”
