TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SERVES NO USEFUL PURPOSE
Pandemic illustrates indifference and incompetence
News Analysis
By Steven A Cohen
Considering its response to the coronavirus pandemic, there doesn’t seem any purpose to Donald J. Trump’s administration, other than to enrich him and to stroke his enormous ego. His is an imperial presidency, which America has no use for.
Trump likes to characterize himself as a wartime president, yet he accepts no responsibility for lost battles in the war against the pandemic. He’s clearly developed a taste for power, though, which explains his angry outbursts over developments that threaten his reelection in November. Trump often calls news conferences, and then he explodes over questions from reporters who don’t see the world through the same rose-colored lenses that he evidently wears. He abruptly walked out of a news conference recently, on the day that virus-related deaths in America passed 80,000 — which equals he number of deaths estimated from the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, at the end of World War II.
Comparative statistics bandied about as the U.S. approached the 85,000 mark in mid -May include the fact that only about 260 people died from the disease in South Korea, which translates to a death rate 60 times higher in the U.S. when the difference in population is taken into account. That is because South Korea acted quickly on testing, social distancing and hygiene, whereas Trump responded to the threat by insisting that it was contained. Scientists attribute 90 percent of the deaths in America to the delay.
No federal guidelines
Now, with Trump insisting that that the economy be reopened without providing meaningful guidance on how to do it safely — or the needed testing and other resources — infectious disease experts worry about a growing infection rate that could lead to 3,000-plus deaths per day and 146,000 dead in America by August. That many dead compare with an estimated 129,000 to 226,000 killed in the the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 in 1945, the only uses of nuclear weapons in armed conflict. Many experts believe the covid-19 death rate in the U.S. is underreported, because people who died at home haven’t been tested for the virus. The administration says the opposite, claiming the rate is exaggerated.
My wife and I recently were surprised to receive a letter over Trump’s signature telling us that our economic impact payment had been direct deposited in our bank account.
“My Fellow American,” the letter began.
“Our great country is experiencing an unprecedented public health and economic challenge as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic. Our top priority is your health and safety.”
That would be reassuring if true. But I know that Trump’s only priority is staying in office. If that weren’t the case, this letter never would have been sent.
Every citizen should be proud: Trump
“I am pleased to notify you that…you are receiving an Economic Impact Payment of $2,400 by Direct Deposit. We hope this payment provides meaningful support to you during this period.”
The president goes on to say:
“Every citizen should take tremendous pride in the selflessness, courage and compassion of our people. America’s drive, determination, innovation and sheer willpower have conquered every previous challenge –and they will conquer this one too. Just as we have before, America will triumph yet again –and rise to new heights of greatness.
“We will do it together, as one nation, stronger than ever before.”
This in a letter from a president who displays selfishness, cowardice and contempt toward anyone who disagrees with his point of view on anything, which often is developed by watching hours of cable television and expressed through streams of endless, often childish, tweets. Trump needs to be the center of attention every single day. He created controversy early in his term to ensure this, and he turned what were billed as daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic into hours-long, prime- time televised rallies during which he fantasized about what should have been reality in America. Now he wants states to reopen their economies no matter the cost in lives, because with the economy in the tank, most people will have no reason to vote for him in November. Despite 1.4 million Americans having been infected by Covid-19 and nearly 85,000 dead, the president is willing to defy science and risk exacerbating the problem by gambling with people’s lives. That’s also why he opposes mail-in balloting. The fewer people who vote, the better his chances in November’s election, and he’s willing to shut down the postal service if he thinks that will prevent mail-in voting.
Rather than providing leadership in a time of national crisis, Trump tries to duck blame by saying the governors are responsible for their own states, while at the same time seeking credit for inflated claims of federal help. He claims that quick action by him saved thousands of lives, and if you don’t buy that, he lays blame for cupboards bare of masks and other personal protection equipment on his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, who left office three years before the pandemic struck.
Fauci allegedly plays “all sides of the equation”
Meantime, the Trump administration has withheld guidelines on reopening state economies, because no state can meet the guidelines that were written by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the president accused the nation’s top viral disease expert, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci , of playing both sides against the middle by urging caution at a Senate hearing on reopening schools in the fall.
Fauci wants to “play all sides of the equation,” Trump said a day after the doctor testified at the televised hearing. “To me it’s not an acceptable answer.” The president has insisted that schools reopen in the fall.
Dr. Rick Bright, who headed the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority until Trump removed him in February, told a House committee that the country will face its “darkest winter in modern history” next year if schools and the economy reopen without careful planning. Bright, who filed a whistleblower complaint against the president, says he was fired for warning of a coming pandemic at a time when Trump was saying the virus might simply disappear. His former office oversees all vaccine research in the country.
One of Bright’s claims is that he was removed from his post after raising objections to the administration pushing the use of the malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus. These drugs since have been found to be of little use in fighting the coronavirus, and they have caused life-threatening problems for some patients. Doubtless, Trump ‘s legacy also will include his suggestion at a news conference that disinfectants might kill the virus in the body — causing manufacturers to issue warnings against ingesting poisonous products.
Bright said that early inaction by the government had, in fact, cost lives, because the country was unprepared to protect healthcare workers. He alpso expressed doubt about Trump’s claim that a vaccine will be ready by year’s end, and he told the committee that the country continues to suffer from unfocused leadership.
The president can be impeached again
In fact, it’s difficult to find any benefit to the general public from the Trump presidency. Taxpayers have spent millions of dollars to finance his weekend trips to his golf resorts, which have charged inflated rates for rooms rented to his secret service details. Prior to the pandemic, the most significant legislation that he signed into law was a tax bill that devastated the middle class by effectively transferring $2 trillion to the richest Americans.
Meanwhile, he’s asking the Supreme Court to prevent Congress and prosecutors from subpoenaing his tax returns, and an appeals court in mid-May refused to throw out a lawsuit that seeks to prevent him from profiting from state and foreign governments at his Trump International Hotel, which opened down the street from the White House around the time Trump became president. That also will be decided by a right-leaning Supreme Court, which includes two members appointed by Trump. There are countless other examples of the Trump Organization profiting, or attempting to profit, from the presidency, and the administration also is asking the court to throw out the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) altogether, because the funding provision, which required most people to have health insurance, was repealed. That probably won’t be settled until after the election. It would leave an additional 20 million Americans without health insurance, and it would do away with the provision in the law that protects people with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage. Trump hasn’t filed an alternative healthcare bill, despite a campaign pledge in 2016 to preserve protections for people with pre-existing conditions, nor has he made good on his promise to reduce prescription costs.
Trump was impeached by the House in December but remains in office courtesy of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, the Senate Republican leader, and the Republican majority when the case was tried in that chamber. That case was limited to Trump’s effort to get Ukraine to interfere in the coming election, in part by investigating ex-Vice President Joe Biden, who now is the presumptive Democratic nominee. That predated the pandemic and the thousands of lives lost due to the administration’s indifference and incompetence. There is no reason for the House not to impeach the president again, on a new complaint of malfeasance for ignoring the threat posed by the coronavirus. McConnell barred witnesses from testifying at the first trial. With his own seat on the ballot in November, and unemployment reaching depression-era levels, he might be less willing to toe the line with Trump a second time around.
Also, the American public deserves to know before November that their lives matter far less to this president than his reelection.
