"It's not you, it's him."
excerpt from the Robert Hubbell Newsletter, March 30, 2020
It is a sad reality of this pandemic that our president is making it more difficult for Americans to endure its effects. We all wish it were otherwise. In this challenging time, we want a strong, compassionate leader in whom we trust. In Trump, we have the opposite. His mishandling of the government’s response to the pandemic has increased the threat to our health and safety. That is what matters most; Trump has endangered lives. But it also matters that Trump is attempting to exploit the pandemic to political advantage. The audacity of his narcissism has no precedent in our history. Americans are dying, and Trump sees that tragedy as an opportunity to increase ratings and gain votes. To preserve our mental health, we should acknowledge that the person to whom we are looking for leadership is making it harder for us to endure the uncertainty and anxiety of life in the time of the coronavirus. It’s not you; it’s him.
On Sunday, Trump sent a tweet in which he referred to himself in the third person, comparing his ratings during the daily Coronavirus Task Force briefing to the ratings of the reality t.v. show, The Bachelor:
President Trump is a ratings hit. Since reviving the daily White House briefing Mr. Trump and his coronavirus updates have attracted an average audience of 8.5 million on cable news, roughly the viewership of the season finale of ‘The Bachelor.’ Numbers are continuing to rise . . . .
Of course, Trump ignores the possibility that eight million Americans are watching the Task Force press conferences because they are desperate to know what the government is doing to help them—not because they want to watch Trump preen and bloviate.
Trump’s Sunday’s tweet capped forty-eight hours of hyper-partisan actions that beggar belief. It began when Congress passed a several trillion-dollar relief package designed to help workers, small businesses, and major corporations alike. The package was the result of intense negotiations between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. McConnell played a secondary role, and Trump was not a player in the talks. Yet, when it came time to sign the bill, Trump excluded Democrats from the signing ceremony—including Nancy Pelosi.
Trump’s actions were petty and stupid. They were petty because Trump is going to need the cooperation of Speaker Pelosi again, and soon. They were stupid because Trump and his Republican colleagues packed themselves shoulder to shoulder in the White House Petri Dish—I mean Oval Office. See Rawstory, “Internet mocks Trump’s social distancing fail at stimulus signing: ‘Not even trying to follow the CDC’. Take a look at the photo in the Rawstory article and you will most of the line of succession to the president if he becomes incapacitated by the virus. Such a stupid decision endangers American political security and stability. Just ask the UK, which is dealing with the fact that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for the virus. See NYTimes, “Boris Johnson Contracts Coronavirus, Rattling Top Ranks of U.K. Government.” The most disappointing revelation in the photo is that Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx are included in the non-social distanced photo. What were they thinking???
The relief package will include checks mailed to tens of millions of Americans. Usually, a civil servant from the relevant agency signs checks sent to recipients. Here, Trump wants his signature to appear on the relief checks—implying that the money is coming from him or because of his actions. See Market Watch, “Trump wants his signature to appear on coronavirus stimulus checks.” In other words, Trump wants to convert relief checks into a campaign mailer—just as he did with the CDC guidelines.
Immediately after signing the relief package, Trump rejected the provision of the legislation that establishes a Congressional oversight commission to ensure that the corporate relief payments are distributed according to need, rather than political favoritism. See WaPo, “Trump takes immediate step to try to curb new inspector general’s autonomy, as battle over stimulus oversight begins.”
As he was signing the relief package, Trump told reporters that he was urging Vice President Pence to withhold help from state governors who are not “appreciative” enough of the White House efforts. See CNBC, “Trump says he told Pence not to call governors who aren’t ‘appreciative’ of White House coronavirus efforts. When Trump says “appreciative,” he means that the governors haven’t fawned over Trump’s handling of the government’s response. Sadly, Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the Coronavirus Task Force, badly damaged her credibility on Friday by fawning over Trump’s “attention to the scientific literature and the details and the data” and his “ability to analyze and integrate data.” See Vox, “Deborah Birx praised Trump as attentive to scientific literature and details. Nope.” Why would Birx damage her credibility to feed Trump’s ego? The pandemic will get worse; when it does, we will need health professionals we can trust. What was she thinking?
And, then, there was Trump’s ill-fated trial balloon of “quarantining” three “blue states” that were allegedly “seeding” the virus into Florida. Of course, Trump spoke before considering whether such a move was legal, constitutional, or medically sound. He quickly backed down when he learned that it was not legal, constitutional, or medically sound to quarantine “states” rather than infected individuals. See Heather Cox Richardson’s explanation of this story at Letters from an American (March 28, 2020). Dr. Anthony Fauci also apparently played a significant role in dissuading Trump from imposing quarantine. See CNN Politics, “Fauci says Trump agreed not to invoke a strict quarantine after intensive White House discussions.”
I could go on, but you get the point. Trump is compounding the challenge of maintaining emotional equilibrium during the coronavirus lockdown by turning the federal government’s response into a Trump campaign event. It is maddening, I grant you that. Here’s the thing: Trump is not doing himself any favors. Despite his underwhelming “bump” in ratings that benefits every president facing disaster, Trump continues to trail his likely Democratic opponent in 2020. See The Hill, “Biden tops Trump by 9 points in Fox News poll.) (Other polls show a tighter race; and national polls don’t track electoral votes.)
I believe that Trump’s ham-fisted attempts at self-glorification with coronavirus payments will infuriate Americans who desperately need the relief. And to those who lose loved ones to the virus, Trump’s preening and premature congratulations for his victory will be viewed as desecration. Indeed, Trump spent Sunday trying to spin the notion that losing “only 100,000” Americans to the coronavirus would be a sign of his success. See CNN, “Trump concedes US coronavirus death toll could be 100,000 or more.” No, Mr. Trump, “success” here will not be measured in lives lost, but in lives saved.
Randomized or blinded, data was “adjusted or removed,” data was reported on dates on which no measurements were taken, data was excluded from two of the five days on which measurements were scheduled to be taken, and different methodologies were used to determine viral load on different days. Oh, and the Editor-in-Chief of the journal that published the article works for the author of the study. On the basis of the French study and Trump’s urging, the FDA just issued emergency authorization for off-label use of Chloroquine to treat Covid-19. See CNN, “US FDA issues limited emergency use authorization for two drugs usually used to treat malaria.” . . .
Attribution: excerpt from the Robert Hubbell Newsletter, March 30, 2020
