International political Professor Daniel W. Drezner wrote in the Washington Post Thursday that his concerns about President Donald Trump are inconsequential compared to his desire for the government to merely function properly.
He noted that it was just a few days ago that he wrote about President Donald Trump's failed response to the coronavirus crisis. He'd hoped that Trump would have managed to get it together in the 72 hours that followed, but the president hasn't yet risen to the occasion.
"Let’s be clear, things are getting worse. Justin Wolfers tweeted a chart that scares the heck out of me," Drezner wrote, showing the trajectory of infection for COVID-19.
"Take a closer look at that chart," he continued. "Ideally, the United States wants to follow the trajectory of Hong Kong, Singapore, or Japan. Even South Korea shows a very important flattening of the curve. The United States is the only country that shows a concave curve, which is, how you say, not good."
He said that he hoped the curve is a function of the country catching up to the lack of testing. Once the U.S. gets better data, people begin to self-isolate and hunker down, the curve may begin to flatten.
"Or maybe Trump will make things worse," Drezner feared.
He noted that Democratic candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former Vice President Joe Biden already canceled rallies, but Trump tried to keep his Tampa rally on, saying only that he "might" and "probably" will cancel it but making no promises. Up until Thursday Trump was saying he would never cancel his of his rallies over something that was nothing more than the flu.
"On Wednesday night, Trump bowed to reality and canceled his Republican Jewish Coalition appearance and the 'Catholics for Trump event," Drezner explained. "But why did he even try to do it in the first place?"
Writing for the Post, David Nakamura, Anne Gearan and Seung Min Kim, explained that continuing on with his events projects the strength Trump wants to show during a time of crisis. The image of Trump, however, is a strong leader standing in a burning house, saying everything is fine.
“For Trump, the decision to participate squares with his efforts to project confidence and maintain a business-as-usual routine in hopes of reassuring the public, even as other administration officials have warned that the virus will continue to spread and recommended that the public adopt social distancing practices,” wrote the post.
Drezner summarized it as Trump putting the health of his own people in jeopardy is the opposite of what is being recommended by his coronavirus task force.
It was revealed this week that in the early stages of the outbreak, Trump demanded all information about the coronavirus be kept classified, which has ultimately impacted the response to the pandemic by restricting access to important information from those without the necessary security clearance.
“We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” one official said. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.”
Then it was revealed that the coronavirus task force was being held up so that top Trump aide Jared Kushner could do more research about the virus.
Now, Republicans are holding up another coronavirus bill because they are freaking out over abortions, which has nothing to do with the bill.
All of this happened ahead of Trump saying to the nation on television that Americans needed to be united and quit the partisan politics. Less than 12 hours later he was back attacking Democrats.
Drezner explained that the comparison between Trump and President Barack Obama's administration couldn't be more stark.
Wednesday, Biden announced a “public health advisory committee” to help inform his thinking on the coronavirus. Biden is also helped by the fact that one of his closest advisers, Ron Klain, was Obama’s Ebola czar. It says something that with far fewer resources at his disposal, Biden nonetheless seems more 'with it' on this issue than Trump."
He closed by saying that every day things appear to be getting worse.
"Trump’s need to move down the learning curve of governance grows. Every day, he shows that he lacks the capacity to learn that God gave most toddlers," Drezner wrote.
Read the full piece at the Washington Post.
