Widespread Panic

Donald Trump’s excuse for lying to the public about the realities of the coronavirus is that he didn’t want to cause a panic. That’s what he told Bob Woodward on the tapes. That’s what Kayleigh McEnany told us yesterday. And that’s what Trump repeated and claimed was leadership. But those of us who live in reality have already been panicking since election night in 2016.

After Bob Woodward’s book “Fear” came out without any cooperation from Donald Trump, he decided to be interviewed for the next one. For “Rage,” Donald Trump gave 18 interviews. He agreed to be recorded. As it turns out, he’d often call Woodward late at night, probably right after he got off the phone with Sean Hannity.

It’s not shocking Donald Trump would lie to us. I even saw that as a defense from one fucknut on social media yesterday. What’s shocking is that Donald Trump totally understood the dangers of the virus, that it was worse than the flu, it was airborne, it was dangerous to children, and that he admitted all of that to Bob Woodward on tape. Yes, Donald Trump agreed to be recorded.

Kayleigh McEnany defended Donald Trump yesterday and argued he never downplayed the virus. The problem here for Ms. McEnany, who swore on her first day on the job as Donald Trump’s spokesgoon that she’d never lie to us, is that on the recording, Donald Trump says he’s “downplaying” it and he likes “downplaying” it.

OK. Let’s accept that for a second. He didn’t want to cause a panic. That makes it sound as if he was genuinely concerned for the public’s safety…even though he acted irresponsibly. But, if he had the public’s safety in mind, then why did he continue to hold Trump rallies? Trump held five rallies after his confession to Woodward that the virus was more dangerous than the flu. He put thousands of lives at risk. His friend, Herman Cain died after a rally. Donald Trump continues to politicize and mock people for wearing face masks. He pushed states to reopen. He screamed for people to pack churches. He campaigned to put kids back in schools. He continued to describe it as the flu. Donald Trump disregarded your and your family’s safety.

Donald Trump didn’t just keep information to himself. He lied about it. He claimed it was the “Democrats new hoax.” He said it’d disappear by April. He said, “Everyone who needs a test, gets a test.”

We knew how dangerous the virus was. Donald Trump didn’t know anything we didn’t know already. But, his lying about it fed his base bullshit. His base doesn’t listen to facts. They only listen to Trump. If Donald Trump had acted more swiftly in March to shut down factories, schools, and stopped conducting rallies…and maybe had told his people to wear face masks instead of tweeting out, “Liberate Michigan,” it would have saved thousands of lives.

From calling service members “losers and suckers,” to disclosures that intelligence on Russian meddling was withheld to save him from embarrassment, to withholding information on a virus and costing more lives, each day contains more revelations that Donald Trump is the worst president in American history.

Woodward’s new book also reveals people closest to Donald Trump believe he’s a disaster. Former Defense Secretary James Mattis called Trump “dangerous” and “unfit.” Dan Coats, former director of national intelligence, wanted to take “collective action” and speak out publicly against Trump. Coats also said Trump “doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie” and believed the Russians had something on Trump.

Dr. Anthony Fauci told Woodward Trump’s attention span is like a “minus number.”

Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner told people the book “Alice in Wonderland” can help them understand the Trump presidency, and described him as the Cheshire Cat. This was Kushner speaking positively about Trump.

Also in the book, Trump said, “My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies” who care more about military alliances than trade deals. He also rejected having any white privilege and accused Woodward of “drinking the Kool-Aid” for believing in systemic racism.

Yesterday, I saw a post from a Trump supporter attempting to defend the revelations that Trump was lying about the virus. He, trying to be clever, “marked himself safe from Donald Trump not creating a panic.” I like he used that because it shows what Trump conservatives find humorous and clever. But it was a huge fail at being clever as it also shows how obtuse and stupid Trumplicans are because there’s over 190,000 who can’t “mark themselves safe” from the Donald Trump presidency.

What Donald Trump did was irresponsible, negligent, careless, and criminal. He betrayed the American people. Protecting the American people is job number one for a president. Donald Trump failed. Donald Trump only protects Donald Trump.

Donald Trump doesn’t care about creating a panic except when he cares enough to create a panic. He’s been fear mongering since 2015. He runs on panic. Panic is all he has.

If you really want to avoid creating a panic, then don’t put a stupid racist narcissistic reality TV show host into the White House.

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