In defending Trump’s indefensible handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak, every diehard Trump supporter brings up that he banned travel from China as proof that he did a good job. If they are really foolish, they also point out that China denied how serious it was early on, and even more ominous, that China silenced its scientists who warned that the novel coronavirus was serious.
But of course, Trump trumped the Chinese. He called COVID-19 a hoax, lied and said it was contained, fired several top scientists, threatened to fire Dr. Fauci several times for telling the truth (only the strong reaction of the public and of his advisors stopped that firing — instead he gave Fauci less air time).
And, let’s not forget that two years ago, in May 2018, Trump and his administration largely disbanded the pandemic response team that Obama put in place.
For more than a month Trump dithered. He made no effort to lead the country in the most critical test of his presidency. He took no leadership in ramping up supplies of safety equipment, testing supplies, or taking emergency measures. Instead, he declared on March 13, “I don’t take responsibility at all.”
It is squarely because of Trump’s lack of leadership that the US has the highest number of cases and the highest number of deaths of any country in the world! The hit to the economy and the vast number of unemployed would have been substantially lower with real leadership.
Michael Frandzel
Portsmouth, NH
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