If the current numbers hold, sometime in mid- to late-September, the
United States will likely reach the horrific marker of 200,000 people
dead due to the coronavirus crisis. No doubt, the media will widely
report on this artificial but significant milepost. If, tragically, the
trend ticks up slightly after some schools reopen in late summer and
after flu season begins in October, this grim headline could appear
shortly before Election Day: “COVID-19 Death Count in the US Tops a
Quarter of a Million.” One puzzle is why
resident Donald Trump does not
seem to realize that these nightmarish statistics—and the news stories
they will generate—could spell doom for his reelection prospects.
By now it’s damn clear that Trump is a narcissistic sociopath who
cannot express an ounce of regret over the deaths caused by the virus.
He has boasted about the swell TV ratings of his pandemic briefings; he
has said almost nothing of those Americans killed by the pandemic. “It
is what it is,” he nonchalantly and ghastly
observed the other day. Since the start of this epidemic, Trump has gushed out a
series of idiotic and false remarks:
The virus is no big deal. It will go away. This is a hoax. We will have
a national testing program within days. We will have a vaccine within
months. Try hydroxychloroquine. Maybe injecting bleach will help. Case
numbers are high because of testing. I take no responsibility. I’ve been
right all along. We’ve done an amazing job.
He has pushed to reopen state economies and schools before guideposts
established by US government experts were met. He has politicized and,
thus, discouraged the most basic practice to arrest the pandemic:
wearing masks. Imagine being able to prevent tens of thousands of deaths
of your fellow Americans with one easy action—and not taking that step.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the president of the United States. In
recent days, yes, Trump has begrudgingly shifted his stance on masks.
His campaign sent out an email to supporters telling them that it is
“patriotic”
to wear a mask. Yet during his latest White House briefings, when he
reads his opening statement that includes encouraging the use of masks,
Trump hurries his way through this one line and hardly highlights the
point. It’s as if he is swallowing a bitter pill. And this reluctant
about-face may have come too late to persuade his live-maskless-or-die
followers. The damage has been done.
Trump’s self-obsessed behavior, his dismissal of expert advice, his
attacks on news media outlets that report the awful truths of the
pandemic, his focus on the positive economic indicators that exist
within an economic calamity (look at the Dow Jones!)—none of this is
shocking. But what is surprising is that Trump, perhaps the most
self-interested man ever to reside in the White House, cannot see that
his own and much-cherished personal interests—notably, getting
re-elected—are aligned with the public interest of curtailing the
pandemic.
Do Trump and his campaign minions believe that he can be reelected as
the number of COVID deaths top 200,000 or 250,000? Shouldn’t he be
doing whatever he can to prevent these headlines in the final weeks of
the campaign? What the hell gives?
The responsible course for the
resident was not tough to discern.
Follow the recommendations of public health experts. Model the
appropriate conduct. (Wear a mask!) Assist front-line medical workers.
Seek to help the economically dislocated. Mourn the dead and address the
national fear and anxiety. Yet Trump’s own inner compass is so broken
that he could not even fake concern for his own political benefit. His
deep-rooted pathologies—I know best, I can bullshit through
anything—blocked him from adopting simple measures that would actually
advance his own personal agenda.
One small example: In the early weeks of the pandemic, Trump picked a
fight with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat. She is a popular
pol in the Wolverine State. She was elected 53 to 43 percent in 2018.
And she was doing a good job responding to the crisis.
Michigan is (or,
now, maybe was) a key state for Trump. It was part of his “beautiful”
electoral map in 2016, and he could well need it again to win. Yet he
appeared more eager to feud with Whitmer than to help the state acquire
equipment it needed to combat the coronavirus.
“Don’t call the woman in Michigan,” Trump
said
he told Vice President Mike Pence. Why piss off Michiganders when you
desire their votes? It’s in Trump’s nature. (See the story of the
scorpion and the frog.) He placed his
love of revenge over his own political survival.
Consider Trump’s treatment of Dr. Anthony Fauci. This highly esteemed
scientist is much-respected by the public. About two-thirds of
Americans
trust
what he says about the pandemic. (Only 30 percent have confidence in
what Trump utters about the crisis.) Trump was fortunate to have Fauci
on the White House coronavirus task force. He should be riding the Fauci
wave.
Instead, the Trump White House has been backstabbing—and
front-stabbing—this acclaimed public servant. Recently, Trump
whined about Fauci’s high-approval ratings and complained, “Nobody likes me.” He
declared that Fauci’s analysis about the ongoing coronavirus surge is “wrong.” (Trump also
turned on Dr. Deborah Birx, the ever-loyal coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, tweeting “Pathetic!” at her.)
Trump has the LeBron James of public health on his team, and he only wants to dump on him.
That’s not a winning strategy.
Neither was Trump’s me-first insistence on holding me-me-me political
rallies while the virus wildfire raged. Herman Cain—the co-chair of the
president’s Black Voices for Trump outfit—sadly died of COVID-19 weeks
after attending that indoor rally in Tulsa, where he and thousands of
others sat shoulder-to-shoulder and, emulating Trump, did not wear
masks. It’s unclear when and where Cain contracted the virus, but
the episode suggests a basic lesson: Insisting on a premature return to
normal can yield deadly results and cause serious political
embarrassment. Yet for Trump, there are no teachable moments.
Trump cannot stop himself from lying. (Last month, the
Washington Post‘s
database of Trump’s false statements hit the 20,000 mark.) Trump cannot stop himself from self-aggrandizing. (Trump
at the Centers for Disease Control
in March: “Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much
about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.”) Trump cannot throttle
back on his racism (“the China virus”), his ignorance (“supposing you
brought the light inside the body”), or his egotism (“we had a lot of
people watching, record numbers watching…in the history of cable
television, there’s never been anything like it”).
But the former
reality TV celebrity, who became famous by exploiting the tabloid press,
does know a thing or two about PR. So is it that difficult for him to
comprehend that this continuing march of death threatens the only thing
he cares about: his own standing? Grasping this simple notion should
compel him to take immediate and extensive action to limit the number of
lives lost to this killer virus—not for the good of others, but for his
own sake.
Yet Trump’s demons are in control. He is fueled by spite and by
self-glory. Moreover, he appears incapable of peering into the future
and considering the effects of his statements and actions. Last month,
Trump publicly vowed that he would sign and enact a comprehensive health
care plan within two weeks. The fortnight came and went; there was
nothing. This was yet one more sign that Trump is 100-percent
situational. He says whatever he thinks he needs to say at the moment to
gain whatever advantage he seeks, without an iota of regard for later
being held accountable. It sure sounds swell to promise everyone a
signed, sealed, and delivered health care package within 14 days. Why
not say that? So what if there is no new national health care program in
two weeks? Trump will deal with that then. Or not. It doesn’t matter to
him. Neither present truth nor future consequences hold much reality
for him.
Perhaps this explains Trump’s inability to fully fathom the threat he
faces. The appalling body count of the present doesn’t move him toward
empathy or effective policy, and the prospect of hideous headlines to
come also doesn’t motivate him. Not even when his own political career
is in jeopardy. Maybe he figures that he will BS his way through all
this or rig the system somehow to retain power. Or that he will just get
dumb-lucky via an external incident (a vaccine!) that changes the
now-dark landscape. But Trump’s inability to make a simple calculation—I
should heed the experts and implement the counter-pandemic fundamentals
to save lives and (also!) win reelection—is stark and disturbing. It
shows Trump cannot perceive or escape the vortex of his own
self-destruction. The immense tragedy is that thousands of Americans
have died and will continue to die because Trump cannot help
even himself.
