The COVID-19 pandemic has stripped Donald Trump of his cover. Maureen Dowd writes in The New York Times:
Until now, Trump has mostly succeeded in covering up things that could damage him — from taxes to payoffs to paramours during the campaign to blocking evidence and witnesses in his impeachment to his conversation with Vladimir Putin where the interpreter’s notes disappeared.
But a global pandemic is different.
He can’t cover up his lack of empathy, his instinct to mislead, his refusal to do his homework and his blame-shifting. And the idea that Trump could soothe a nation went out the window a long time ago.
He can’t cover up the fact that he is not interested in public policy fixes or ending his juvenile sniping across the aisle. After he woodenly said in his national address Wednesday that “we must put politics aside, stop the partisanship and unify together as one nation and one family,” he jumped back on Twitter to trash Barack Obama and Joe Biden, this time criticizing their response to the swine flu virus.
But, of course, none of this has changed Trump's behaviour:
Even when the president stopped being so blithe about the virus, even after his error-ridden national address and his press conference Friday declaring a national emergency — “two very big words” — his attempt at maturity was crystallized in one sound bite. “No, I don’t take responsibility at all,” Trump said, when asked about the egregious lag in testing.
When Yamiche Alcindor of PBS asked him about the valuable time lost because of that inexplicable decision [to disband the White House Pandemic Office] Trump bristled at the sound of a voice that dared pierce his cocoon of sycophancy.
“I just think it’s a nasty question,” he snapped back. “When you say me, I didn’t do it. We have a group of people. I could ask perhaps my administration” because “I don’t know anything about it.”
Trump is naked. And his ugliness is completely exposed.
Image: POLITICO Europe
