OPINION: Trump’s Viral Circus

By Trevor K. McNeil

A Question of Leadership.

Many American presidents have faced great obstacles. To their credit, most have risen to the occasion with some degree of grace and intelligence befitting the office. Most of the catastrophes have been military-and at times self-inflicted, such as Teddy Roosevelt’s half-cocked 1898 invasion of Spanish controlled Cuba. “Remember the Maine!” More recently, terrorism has been the challenge. After 9/11, somehow overnight, George W. Bush became a military genius. That genius led us into an unending conflict in the Middle East. Though, to his credit, he did better than most would have expected. Ulysses S. Grant, not widely known for his intelligence, statesmanship, or sobriety did attempt to rebuild the nation after the terror of the Civil War, and as expected, failed abysmally.

Guns and Ammo

Sadly, Woodrow Wilson, simultaneously facing World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic resorted to lies and misinformation to tamper down public fears. God forbid anyone stop the production of guns and ammunition.  The 1918 experience of a rapidly spreading virus, and a government unprepared for the challenge, should be an eye opener. The COVID-19 outbreak has been compared to the Spanish Flu pandemic. If that proves correct we could be on the brink of total disaster. In fact, Wilson’s public response to Spanish Flu may prove sterling in comparison to Trump’s Coronavirus press briefings.

Wishful Thinking

In the case of president Trump, the lies come so fast and furious it is often hard to separate intent from stupidity. In an instance of whimsical optimism unseen outside of a Peter Pan production, Trump publicly suggested people should just “go to work”, and it will all miraculously “just go away.” Reporting indicates Trump was warned in early December 2019 that COVID-19 was as serious as it gets, and was headed like an armed missile directly at us.

A Wave of His Hat

While buttressed by a colossal ego, Trump, is a man of limited concentration, meager intellect and atrophied vision. With con-man confidence he angrily pushed aside the dire warnings from within his own administration with a dismissive wave of his red campaign hat. At the time he was consumed with resurrecting fracking, and protecting the over-leveraged banks funding that industry.  Trump took the  offensive, defining the deadly virus as “a hoax”, ginning up campaign rally goers with barbs, slurs and attacks on his political adversaries.

Changing Times

At the time, there were only 15 known COVID-19 cases in the United States.  He happily informed the national audience that according to “his calculations”, by the end of the week, that number would probably be “down to zero”.  Right, and if you really believe in fairies, sprites and elves, you should clap your hands. He wasn’t done, however. In an act of political paranoia worthy of Stalin or Mao Zedong, he accused the “Democrats” and “leftist media” of making up the “virus thing” to discredit his administration and steal the 2020 election from him. He also probably checks under the bed for boogeymen before going to sleep.

Stiff as a Board

Newspapers reported coronavirus was spreading, and the death toll was rising in the United States. The epidemic could no longer be ignored, even by Trump. In a classic case of on-a-dime flip-flopping, Trump on March 12th announced an Oval Office address to the American people. As the cameras focused on Trump he stiffened and attempted to project somber concern. Instead he came off halting and strained, as well as ignorant and inadequate. Displaying all the thespian skill of an elementary school talent show, the leader of the free world made The Queen’s Christmas Message look like Shakespeare.

TV Folly

His eyes glued to the teleprompter, most people surprised he could read, completely contradicted everything he had previously said, while speaking off the top of his head and directly out of his spray-tanned, orange ass. The speech, staged to calm and reassure, in fact highlighted his weaknesses, his narcissism and his xenophobia. It is not a good sign when the White House spends the rest of the night clarifying what he said. Most observers believe Trump’s speech was directly responsible for the next day’s record-breaking Dow Jones sell-off.  Disaster, upon disaster. But he wasn’t done yet. There was still more “winning” to come.

Self-Defense

The xenophobe in the Oval Office blamed the virus on everyone but himself. He repeated over and over that the coronavirus was not his fault, channeling the kids in the Family Circus cartoons, who blame all their misdeeds on a metaphysical force known as, “Not Me”. One of the main targets of Trump’s unhinged ramblings was the nation of China, where the outbreak seems to have originated. Pitching to his base of rednecks and racists, Trump started calling the coronavirus “a foreign virus”, the “Chinese Flu”, and the “Kung Flu”. He also banned travel from Europe which was another place hard hit by the COVID-19 epidemic.  Naked racism and flagrant xenophobia long ago being established as his default setting. If he could devise a way to blame women he would have a hat trick.

Agitate and Misinform

Hoping to stem the falling stock market numbers, Trump and Co. devised a new means to continue to agitate, misinform and rattle the public. Now, partly convinced of the reality of a pandemic; that the rest of the world had accepted for months, Trump began a series of coronavirus news briefings. The president jammed himself on to a small stage with other government officials and preached social distancing. While he shook hands with everyone, the experts encouraged elbow bumps. The optics were bad. But, making a bad situation worse is something that Trump exceeds at.

The Strongest Economy Ever

The most darkly amusing element of Trump’s coronavirus press briefings are his repeated lies,  misstatements and confrontational episodes with the press.  Many observers believe Trump’s actions and his unbridled speech have likely accelerated an already looming recession. Some experts claim the spiraling economic nosedive will rival the Black Friday Crash in 1929, leaving millions of Americans out of work. All the while the idiot in the White House continues to claim that America is enjoying its best economy in history, and that there are no shortages of medical resources needed to defeat the virus.

Shortages Denied

Despite Trump’s verbalized delusions to the contrary, state governors were reporting a desperate shortage of beds, masks, and ventilators, let alone tests for the virus itself. The World Health Organization offered millions of tests to the Trump administration. Trump rejected the plan, explaining that “America’s test” was better than anything used by those stupid other counties. Secretly, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is a stake holder in a company that produces coronavirus tests. How comforting that is, I’m not sure. We all know the orange baboon couldn’t find Alaska on a map, but he is in charge of public policy. America’s for-profit medical system, the only one in the developed world, appears woefully ill-equipped to handle the coronavirus emergency.

Good Journalist Called Bad

Trump’s attempt to re-set the national conversation and elevate his presidential image has been an abysmal failure. Observers of the president, forecast the charade couldn’t last long. With the attention span of a amnesic goldfish, Trump settled back into his usual habit of attacking the main stream press. In a memorable coronavirus press briefing last week, a journalist asked a very reasonable question about how the president was going to address the rising concerns of the public. The softest of softball questions, that even Larry King would find feeble. Trump responded in his usual, infantile way by calling his perceived inquisitor a “very bad reporter” and accused him of asking a “nasty question”.  Such responses by the president of the United States will not slow the spread of COVID-19, but instead, diminishes the credibility of the government to handle the crisis.