Is COVID-19 the End of Trump?

President Donald Trump has been shrinking in real time, according to New York Times White House correspondents Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman: “While he presents himself as the nation’s commanding figure, Mr. Trump has essentially become a bystander.”

Conservative writer Peter Wehner argues in The Atlantic that the pandemic and its consequences are already the end of Trump’s presidency (“The Trump Presidency is Over”).

Dan Baltz, the shrewd analyst from The Washington Post, notes that Trump’s first address to the nation about COVID-19 on March 11, when he finally took responsibility for managing the pandemic, could not have gone worse. The markets collapsed when they heard that the leader had no idea how to confront a crisis that was allowed to emerge.

Even Trump’s friend and frequent spokesman, Tucker Carlson, the celebrity host from Fox News, pointed out that the crisis could not be dismissed.

Trump, emboldened after winning acquittal on impeachment charges and already in full campaign mode, spent January and February attacking Democrats and journalists as “enemies of the people” who were exaggerating the danger of the coronavirus, saying they did not want to acknowledge that “the country was better than ever.”

In its failure to change, the White House has been a disaster in the face of this crisis. First, Trump named his secretary of health and human services to coordinate the effort. Subsequently, Vice President Mike Pence, and in the past few days, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have tried putting out fires through last-minute alliances with the private sector.

But Kushner’s father-in-law ruined one interesting initiative with his big mouth. A Google company was developing a website so that every American could find nearby locations that offered coronavirus testing. The company immediately refuted Trump’s claims about the Google project, saying it was just a pilot program for the city of San Francisco. Moreover, the United States Is very short on tests because the administration has always fought with anyone who indicated that it was necessary to prepare for the worst.

Furthermore, the White House lacks an essential instrument for confronting the pandemic. Upon his arrival in the Oval Office, Trump eliminated the global health security team established within the National Security Council. This was a high-level group of health specialists who were a bridge between the health experts and those who plan and implement national security.

Irresponsible

COVID-19 haunts Trump because of how irresponsible he is. On March 7, he held a dinner for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. It turned out that this president’s spokesman had tested positive for the virus. After some stalling, the president reluctantly got tested and the results were negative.

I am a pessimist. I’m not sure if COVID-19 and the suffering that it will cause in our neighboring country will be the end of the Trump presidency. The electoral system is so bizarre and obsolete that Trump could lose the popular vote by many millions and end up victorious next Nov. 3. This is because everything indicates he is going to win the so-called swing states; in other words, those five or six states that hover between identifying as Democrat or Republican.

COVID-19 has already destroyed the myth that Trump is a statesman who has returned the country to greatness and created the highest level of prosperity in history.

Last week, the markets collapsed and the week finished by losing all the gains amassed during Trump’s term. Neither the conservatives nor the liberals will forgive a substantial loss of their wealth that, for many, is in the form of retirement funds. The coming rise in unemployment will directly affect Trump’s base: white, poorly educated and rural.

But the worst is yet to come. People suffering. Hospitals overflowing. Homeless people dying in the streets.

COVID-19 has also unmasked Trump. As Wehner predicted in 2016, “Mr. Trump’s virulent combination of ignorance, emotional instability, demagogy, solipsism and vindictiveness would do more than result in a failed presidency; it could very well lead to national catastrophe.”

The COVID-19 pandemic is already the American tragedy of the 21st century.