As a Democrat, this blogger has thought since his 2016 campaign that Donald Trump was totally incapable of being a competent and responsible president. Since then, he has continued to demonstrate, in my opinion, that that conclusion was correct. Now that is further corroborated by his “performance” to date during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The details of that “performance” are set forth in lengthy articles in the New York Times and Washington Post.[1] The conclusions of such analyses were brilliantly set forth by Finian O’Toole, an Irish author, literary critic, historical writer and political commentator,[2] and by Michael Gerson, who was an aide to President George W. Bush for policy and strategic planning and speechwriting, author of books (Heroic Conservatism and City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era) and now a nationally syndicated columnist. [3]
According to O’Toole, “Trump’s narcissism, mendacity, bullying, and malignant incompetence were obvious before the coronavirus crisis and they have been magnified rather than moderated in his surreal response to a catastrophe whose full gravity he failed to accept until March 31, when it had become horribly undeniable. The volatility of his behavior during February and March—the veering between flippancy and rage, breezy denial and dark fear-mongering—may not seem to demand further explanation. It is his nature. Yet there is a mystery at its heart. For if there is one thing that Trump has presented as his unique selling point, it is “utmost Vigilance,” his endless insistence that, as he puts it, “our way of life is under threat.”
Gerson set forth his conclusions this way. “[T]he fact of Trump’s deadly negligence is now demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt. . . . It is now evident that Trump:
- ignored early intelligence reports of a possible pandemic;
- delayed the ramp up of practical preparations;
- was often more focused on political considerations, on the news cycle and on stock market performance than on epidemiological reality;
- deceptively played down what he knew to be a rising threat;
- coddled China when it should have been confronted;
- instinctively distrusted experts and seemed unable to absorb simple information and sound advice;
- lashed out at aides who took the crisis seriously;
- shifted reluctantly and belatedly from a strategy of containment to mitigation;
- is strangely obsessed with unproven treatments for the novel coronavirus; and
- has systemically lied about the promptness of his own response.”
Gerson concluded, “These accounts reveal a White House staffed by incompetent loyalists, distracted by turnover and riven by feuds. A White House carefully pruned and shaped to resemble the chaos in Trump’s mind.”
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[1] Lipton, Sanger, Haberman, Shear, Mazzetti & Barnes, He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus, N.Y. Times (April 11, 2020); Rucker & Costa, Commander of confusion: Trump sows uncertainty and seeks to cast blame in coronavirus crisis, Wash. Post (April 2, 2020); Abutaleb, Dawsey, Nakashima & Miller, The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged, Wash. Post (April 4, 2020). See also Lemire, Miller, Colvin & Alonso-Zaldivar, Behind Trump’s Botched and Delayed Coronavirus Response, Huffpost (April 12, 2020); Parker & Gearan, Coronavirus crisis highlights Trump’s resistance to criticism—and his desire for fervent praise, Wash. Post (April 8, 2020); Frum, This Is Trump’s Fault, The Atlantic (April 7, 2020).
[2] O’Toole, Vector in Chief, N.Y. Review of Books (May 14, 2020).
[3] Gerson, The horrendous reality at the heart of Trump’s pandemic response, Wash. Post (April 13, 2020).
President Donald Trump reportedly has a “small personal financial interest” in a drugmaker that produces hydroxychloroquine, a drug he has been enthusiastically touting as a possible treatment for the new coronavirus, according to a Monday New York Times report In addition, a number of close associates have investments in Sanofi.