By now it should be clear that President Trump seems intent on just wishing away the covid-19 pandemic so that it doesn’t interfere with his re-election chances.
Thus his proclamation yesterday that all schools have to re-open in September, so that we can pretend that everything’s normal again.
- Notwithstanding that the federal government has no control over school hours or openings, which is generally a function of local (and not even state) government.
- Notwithstanding that states like Arizona, Florida, Texas and South Carolina are breaking records in new coronavirus infections.
- Notwithstanding that a lot of hospitals in those states are already at full capacity.
Trump is still calling it the “China” virus; he’s still claiming that jobs are coming back (they’re not); he’s still claiming the economy is coming back (it’s not); and it’s all for one thing: to get him re-elected.
Now if Trump really wanted to bring the economy back, he would invoke the Defense Production Act in a much more serious way, and get us the testing and contact tracing that we need. That would allow parts of the economy to re-open safely, as has been done in (for example) South Korea.
You would think that at some point Trump’s supporters would pick up on the fact that he doesn’t give a shit about their lives.
But they haven’t.
Our malignant narcissist keep’s proving over and over again that the only person or thing he cares about is himself.