Donald Trump, MD

There is nothing Donald Trump likes more than being in front of television cameras, except maybe being in front of thousands of his groupies at political rallies, where he can say anything he wants to and people will cheer. Why anyone would enjoy sitting and listening to someone brag about himself (untruthfully most of the time) is a question for another day. But since public gatherings are verboten, Trump has to settle for his daily coronavirus “briefings,” which have turned into a bizarre collision of reality TV and political campaigning.

Most politicians in similar circumstances would allow the scientists and medical experts to give the briefings. Not Trump. This is free publicity, and he simply cannot resist the chance to try to look important. Unfortunately for him, these briefings have turned into quite a fiasco for the president. As the weeks have passed and the death toll has mounted, the briefings have morphed from Trump trying to convince voters that he has handled the pandemic excellently to him insisting that we need to open the economy prematurely to him promoting a miracle cure (hydroxychloroquine) to him spouting abject nonsense (wondering aloud about the possibility injecting disinfectants). None of this, of course, should surprise anyone. Nor should the fact that his administration’s handling of the pandemic has been one long, horrific train wreck.

As I write, the total global death toll from COVID-19 is 204,274. The data is incomplete from many countries, but this number represents the confirmed and reported deaths from the novel coronavirus. Deaths of Americans number 54,256. To put this in perspective, the United States has a population of around 328.2 million. World population is about 7.8 billion. In other words, the U.S. is home to 4.2 percent of the world’s inhabitants. But we currently have experienced 26.6 percent of the world’s coronavirus fatalities. The numbers don’t lie. The U.S. government has handled this pandemic in an incredibly incompetent manner. By comparison, South Korea has only 242 deaths. South Korea has 51.6 million inhabitants, which is .66 percent of the world’s population. They have experienced .11 percent of the world’s coronavirus deaths. Taiwan has 23.8 million residents, or .31 percent of the world’s population. They have experienced 6 deaths. Yes, 6, which translates into a minuscule .00003 percent of the world’s coronavirus deaths.

What is the difference? Well, there are several factors, but first among them is the fact that these countries (and others in Asia) were ready for the virus and took it seriously very early on. They had learned from the SARS outbreak in 2003. Taiwan had a fully operational national health command center and immediately took steps to control the spread of the virus. Next, testing and tracking were handled expertly. Their leaders also were more concerned about the health of their people than in how the pandemic would reflect upon them.

By comparison, the pandemic has revealed the Trump administration to be exactly what it is: a pathetic mixture of incompetence, political posturing, and blame evasion. Yes, the U.S. did not prepare well for this after the SARS scare or the H1N1 outbreak. But exactly five years before the current pandemic, President Obama warned of just such a potential disaster and pleaded with Congress to take the necessary steps, because, he said, this is not a partisan issue. This obviously didn’t happen. But even though Trump has sought to blame his predecessor (as he does for just about everything), most of the blame must fall on Donald Trump. When he was first warned about the virus and the danger it presented, he was more concerned about his reelection prospects and the stock market than about the human lives early action could have spared. His deflections and empty assurances are well documented and should never be forgotten.

But in addition to Trump’s senseless delays, we must add his administration’s complete failure to provide for adequate testing and tracking of the active cases. As is only appropriate, Trump’s administration was caught with its pants down. And when this failure became all too obvious, what did Trump do? He punted. It’s up to the states to do the testing and to get their own supplies. And so we have a mad scramble with states bidding against states for scarce commodities instead of having a coordinated national plan. The contrast between America and the countries that dealt expertly with the pandemic could not be starker in this regard. So, here we are, nearing the end of April, and we still don’t have enough swabs or reagents to test adequately enough to “open the economy” safely, even though Trump is chomping at the bit to do just that and some of his Republican governors are throwing caution to the wind. But opening the economy without adequate testing and tracking is just an invitation to see a spike in new infections and deaths.

Of course, Trump gives his administration an A+ grade for its handling of the pandemic, but the numbers alone reveal the truth about that lie. Instead of competent leadership, what we get every day is two hours of Trump offering up “miracle” cures, empty hopes, and, now, dangerous nonsense. The pandemic briefings have gotten so monstrously idiotic that Trump’s aides and advisors (whatever that term even means to such a self-absorbed bore) are worried that he is damaging his reelection chances with his obnoxious, self-centered performances. Yes, this is still all about Trump, not about the tens of thousands of Americans who have died, usually without having family members present. But if he does stop the daily coronavirus carnival, it will not be because he wants to let the real experts speak, but because his sad act is hurting his reelection campaign.

Personally, I’m torn. I would love to see him go hide somewhere and just shut up―and stop tweeting. Maybe he will, but I doubt he can resist the allure of the spotlight for more than a day or two. On the other hand, part of me wants him to continue with his “briefings,” but only because they let everyone who watches see just what a disaster he is as a president, as a leader, and as a human being. I am sure that his aides are correct. If he keeps dominating the briefings, he will lose the election, which would be the only silver lining on this particularly dark cloud.

Have you noticed that Trump has not once even tried to be our Consoler in Chief? Do you remember Obama singing “Amazing Grace” after one terrible massacre and weeping on camera for the victims of another? Do you remember George W. Bush after 9/11? Do you remember Bill Clinton after the Oklahoma City bombing? These were appropriate responses to horrific disasters, but these calamities pale in comparison to the steady carnage of this pandemic. Yet Trump has no consoling words for a devastated nation. He still thinks only of himself, of optics. How pathetic.

What I cannot believe is that there are still so many Republicans who support this massively unfit president who has been revealed by the smallest of organisms to be the smallest man to ever occupy that great office.

I placed the letters MD after Trump’s name in the title to this post. Although he fancies himself to be a medical expert, those letters do not stand for medical doctor. They stand for moronic demagogue, or perhaps moral disaster. Both are accurate. Take your pick. But please, don’t vote for this utterly contemptible man in November.