Opinion | When a Pandemic Meets a Personality Cult - The New York Times - "The Trump team confirms all of our worst fears."
So, here’s the response of the Trump team and its allies to the coronavirus, at least so far: It’s actually good for America. Also, it’s a hoax perpetrated by the news media and the Democrats. Besides, it’s no big deal, and people should buy stocks. Anyway, we’ll get it all under control under the leadership of a man who doesn’t believe in science.
From the day Donald Trump was elected, some of us worried how his administration would deal with a crisis not of its own making.
For the last three years, all the crises that this admin has had to deal with are self-created ones. Until now.
But the coronavirus is looking as if it might be the test we’ve been fearing.
And the results aren’t looking good.
Some years back, the Trump admin ordered the cutting of a lot of funds for disease surveillance. Despite experts warning of dangerous microbes spreading unchecked.
But the Trump administration has a preconceived notion about where national security threats come from — basically, scary brown people — and is hostile to science in general. So we entered the current crisis in an already weakened condition.
Weakened condition? In analogy with a big risk factor for getting very sick with coronavirus.
The Trumpers, as Paul Krugman called them, first considered the virus a Chinese problem - a problem that would be good for the US. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that it would “accelerate the return of jobs to North America.”
As the virus spread, Rush Limbaugh said about it: “It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump. Now, I want to tell you the truth about the coronavirus. … The coronavirus is the common cold, folks.”
But financial-market participants didn't agree that the virus was a hoax. The Dow Jones average dropped 3,000 points over a week. That seems to bother the admin much more than the prospect of people dying, so the admin's top economist, Larry Kudlow, declared it "contained". Contrary to the CDC's assessment.
When the admin recognized that it needed to do something more, it proposed paying for a response by cutting low-income heating subsidies.
Trump held a news conference with much of it devoted to incoherent jabs at Democrats and the media, but he also announced his pick to lead the fight against the virus: Mike Pence. Lots and lots of groans. "And now, according to The Times, government scientists will need to get Pence’s approval before making public statements about the coronavirus."
So the Trumpian response to crisis is completely self-centered, entirely focused on making Trump look good rather than protecting America. If the facts don’t make Trump look good, he and his allies attack the messengers, blaming the news media and the Democrats — while trying to prevent scientists from keeping us informed. And in choosing people to deal with a real crisis, Trump prizes loyalty rather than competence.
Maybe Trump — and America — will be lucky, and this won’t be as bad as it might be. But anyone feeling confident right now isn’t paying attention.
I think that the big question at this point is what Republican politicians will do about that. Will they choose safety from the virus at the risk of antagonizing Trump? Or will they stand by Trump at the cost of their constituents health -- and lives?
