If you take the time to put together the timeline of facts and events, it is clear that Trump’s lack of judgment and integrity is already responsible for thousands of American deaths. Not only did he completely fail to contain the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus in America, he then mounted a disinformation campaign downplaying the virus, that continues to this day. Unfortunately, while only his supporters are still listening to him, their reckless actions threaten everyone around them. In short, Trump failed to provide effective leadership to stop the pandemic. Thereafter, he has failed to take a leadership role in the mitigation of the outbreak he failed to contain. Trump is not a leader, and his woeful lack of judgment and integrity are responsible for both the severity of the outbreak, and the deadly consequences of Covid-19 in America.
So, here is the first question we need to answer. How could it possibly be that we have over 30% of the world’s cases and 17% of the world’s death toll? The U.S. represents less than 5% of the world population. So, what is going on? Well, no matter how you slice it, when you look at the facts along the timeline since November, this virus has been grossly mishandled by the Trump Administration. In fact, it has been so grossly mishandled that only profound incompetence or intentional malice could be responsible for what is happening. Either way, it is entirely unacceptable.
The first fatal error Trump committed took place years ago with the dismantling of the apparatus that is responsible for stopping potential pandemics; The Pandemic Response Team (PRT) of the NSC. There are conflicting opinions regarding the Team’s demise, but it is certain that Trump chose to no longer maintain it. Now, fast forward to November, 2019, when Trump received reports from the U.S. military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), another “deep state” apparatus. The Center compiled an intelligence report regarding a potential coronavirus outbreak, in which “analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event.” In January, Trump was again warned by multiple intelligence agencies who warned him of the impending danger. We definitely have one of the best intelligence networks in the world. Of course, those networks are useless when the president chooses to treat them as enemies, disregard their warnings, and make decisions based solely upon matters of personal and financial gain.
Instead of heeding any of the “deep state” intelligence, Trump repeatedly lied to the American people, downplaying the threat and, not surprisingly, even calling it a “Democratic hoax” at one of his rallies. Think about that for a minute. He had known for months that the coronavirus was a potential disaster, and still chose to downplay and politicize it. I watched an interview with a supporter after the rally, in which she stated “the coronavirus was just a hoax made up by the Democrats”. When asked for clarification, she confirmed that she believed the virus did not even exist. At this point, there are video montages of Trump’s downplaying, lying, and “aspirational” comments which are entirely misleading to the American people. At the time of this writing, not only has Trump yet to issue a national “stay at home” order, he is again pushing to prematurely open the economy. In other states (all red), the “stay at home” order doesn’t apply to “religious gatherings”. Really? So now one person’s individual liberties outweigh the public health? That logic defies all reason. Everyone needs to follow “stay at home” orders in order for it to be effective. To quote a recently popularized analogy, making exceptions in this situation “is like making a peeing section in a swimming pool.” At this point, everyone who has made stopping the virus their first priority agrees that Trump should have issued a national “stay at home” order many weeks, if not months ago. Fortunately for most Americans, their governors, local leaders, and engaged citizens have provided the leadership that the Federal government has failed to provide.
So, now let’s go back to early January, when Trump again is advised by multiple intelligence agencies that the coronavirus is very dangerous, could become a pandemic, and measures should be taken to protect ourselves from it. Well, it is universally agreed that the first thing you do to stop a pandemic is test, test, test. Instead of requesting immediately available tests from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Trump Administration chose to make their own tests. This decision resulted in delays that effectively eliminated the “containment” phase. But, why? Well, so a well connected pharmaceutical company would get the contract to produce the tests. It’s that simple. Of course, the well-being of American citizens was a secondary consideration to potential political and financial gain for the president. Containment requires extensive testing, tracing, and quarantine. The most important element of any containment strategy is time. This was an urgent, time-sensitive situation, and we had a chance to get ahead of the outbreak as far back as November. Trump alone is responsible for ignoring the warnings and failing to use existing and available testing to contain the virus. Although he was fully aware of the impending pandemic, he did nothing to prepare for it. Obviously, snatching up and deploying any available tests available through the WHO in January would have been the right thing to do. To this day, he incessantly congratulates himself for his “early” actions to stop the virus. As usual, nothing could be further from the truth.
So, for the aforementioned reasons, instead of obtaining the available WHO tests, the Administration chose to make their own tests. This choice, which included failures in production, resulted in a delay of many weeks. By the time any meaningful testing was even available, it was far too late, and any chance of containment was long gone. This crucial phase, which is the only way to prevent a pandemic, was foolishly squandered due to a series of poor choices by a president that lacks sound judgment. We were now too late for the containment phase, and had already entered into the mitigation phase. Thousands have already died as a result of the failure to conduct early testing. To this day, we hear reports from the front lines that adequate testing is still not available. Thereafter, Trump’s poor judgment and lack of integrity were on display as he consistently downplayed the severity of the virus. In short, his choices starting in November put us behind the virus by months. In time, people will see the enormity of the death and destruction caused by his failures and deception. He had the warnings and the time to prepare, but he was only ever concerned with the economy, and how it would reflect on him personally.
Imagine if we had failed to contain the Ebola virus. The Ebola virus had a roughly 50% death rate. If it had shaken loose in the US like coronavirus has, the devastation would have been apocalyptic. Thankfully, Ebola was stopped dead in its tracks here by our “deep state” professionals under the Obama Administration’s direction. There were 11 cases here, that were isolated and stopped. Obama sent our Pandemic Response Team (PRT) to Africa to stop it there as well. These were the “deep state” professional public servants that risk their lives to keep us all safe. Trump decided that the PRT was unnecessary, and it was disbanded in 2018. In the opinion of many, Trump disbanded the Team for no reason other than the fact that Obama had created it. The program’s merits seem to have received no consideration. Obviously, it was just another poor choice by Trump.
Once we had reached the mitigation phase, scientific trend modeling painted an ugly picture. Trump received both warnings and advice from state leaders, but still refused to take action. Governors began to unilaterally put their states on “stay at home” orders. Most of the Governors were wise enough to disregard the “15 day guidelines”, listen to the medical and scientific community, and prepare accordingly. Those Governors who shut down their states in order to “flatten the curve” have already saved untold thousands of lives. In their foresight, those same people called upon the President to enact the Defense Production Act, and start producing the supplies that would be needed to fight this pandemic. Although those calls began months ago, Trump did not invoke the Act until days ago. Instead of taking a leadership role and making sure that we were prepared to fight the pandemic, he sowed the seeds of chaos by telling governors they had to procure the necessary equipment on their own. This led to a bidding war between states, which was later joined by FEMA to make matters even worse. Taking a leadership role and coordinating the purchase and production of supplies through one buyer would have eliminated the bidding and subsequent price gouging. (This principle is also true in healthcare, but we’ll leave the single-payer conversation for another time.) To anyone who understands business, it is easy to see how everyone would have benefited from a coordinated effort, organized by the Federal government.
More than a month ago, it was evident that the Federal government was actually making things worse, and we would have to look to local leadership for answers and direction. Other than that, we were on our own. If you were lucky enough to have a sensible Governor like we do in CA, you are in a safer place. Thus far, it seems that the early decisions to order citizens to stay at home has “flattened the curve”. Unfortunately, Trump’s refusal to order a national “stay at home” order diminishes the effectiveness of the state orders. We have seen that the FL Spring Break debacle turned into a virus distribution center. Those folks carried on as usual, then returned to the states they had come from, bringing the virus with them. It wasn’t until last week that Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and Trump loyalist, was finally forced to make the order under overwhelming political pressure. The Spring Break “distribution” is also what happened in New Orleans, with their famous Mardi Gras celebration. People came from all over the country to celebrate as usual, and unwittingly carried the virus back home with them.
The White House’s “Coronavirus Briefings” have to this point been nothing more than a show. For the trained eye, it is clear to see the consistent discord and insincerity of the players arranged on the stage. Even to the untrained eye, it was clear that some briefing were designed to glorify the Administration and avoid discussion of the Coronavirus. Last week, one of the “coronavirus briefings” was actually a self-congratulatory briefing on stopping the war on drugs? Frankly, it was bizarre. We now also see that Dr. Fauci is excluded from some briefings. This comes after Fauci publicly disagreed with Trump’s continued refusal to issue a national “stay at home” order. To this point, he has been one of the few members on that “briefing” stage that has any integrity. His commitment to truth naturally put him at odds with Donald, and has now resulted in his exclusion. Fauci will now join the scrapheap of remarkably talented people who have found it impossible to tolerate Trump. In short, there is no point in watching another “White House Coronavirus Briefing” if you are looking for leadership or truth regarding the coronavirus.
Every legal and logical means of stopping Trump was used. There were so many offramps for GOP leaders to be rational, sensible, and lawful. All they had to do was sincerely abide by the oath each of them had taken. Instead, they blindly followed their misplaced party loyalty, caused the Constitution to fail for the first time in history, and left a dangerous man in the White House. Well, today the consequences of their failures can be measured by a rising toll of dead Americans, and the displacement of our entire economy. It will take decades to repair the damage that Trump’s lack of judgment and integrity has already done to this country.
– Rondym Kiefe