Governor Cuomo, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill Gates are among the many heroes working to help Americans stop the spread of COVID-19 in the safest way possible. Their effort is focused on saving lives and positioning the country to safely re-start the economy. President “KNOW NOTHING” talks about these goals at a 3rd-grade level, with simplistic bullet points and sugar-coated, ill-informed optimism. Cuomo explains in detail the health statistics of COVID-19 victims and what New York is doing medically, logistically, preventatively, and philanthropically to help the situation. There is a good chance Trump could not pronounce these words, let alone develop programs that address the complexities involved. An article in the May edition of Rolling Stone titled, “The President and the Plague” details the blatantly incompetent handling of the spreading of coronavirus in the U.S. by Trump’s leadership.
The article cites on March 7th, 2020, with 100,000 cases of infection already documented and 3,600 deaths, Trump threw a massive birthday party for Don Jr’s former mistress now girlfriend at Mar-a-Lago. There were hundreds of people there practicing no physical protection from the virus. Trump had been warned for months about the coronavirus threat from China. He downplayed it and denied any need for preparedness to prevent massive infection. In fact, Trump proclaimed before March that the virus would be down to zero soon. Despite the growing rate of death and disease, Trump threw this inappropriate bash, where he and others could have spread the virus through unprotected social contact within a massive crowd of people. Careless, clueless, reckless, and heartless all describe this President, who some still naively see as their protector.
Now over 60,000 people have died from COVID-19, with a million infected while Trump and Kushner take a victory lap because fewer people died than was predicted. It feels as if the President is preparing to make the same mistakes he made before the pandemic, which could lead to round two of re-infection and more loss of life. Listening to Trump’s focus on the paranoid conspiracy theory, “the Chinese don’t want him re-elected, so they orchestrated this pandemic” is frightening. It is clear to mental health professionals that he is not emotionally stable enough to handle the complexities of the job of President and to keep Americans safe. Whether he has ADD, autism, narcissism, anti-social personality disorder, impulsive/compulsive disorders, etc., or not, something unhealthy is going on with Trump. That is why when listening to Cuomo, millions of Americans are crying out, “Elect President Cuomo.” Trump loyalists like him, or maybe they feel sorry for the public flogging he takes each day. But it is his extreme, abnormal reactions to facts and reality that fuel people’s anger to want to hurt him. He has disillusioned many Americans with his disrespect for the rule of law and the morals of this country. Therefore, he does not deserve respect historically associated with the presidency. That is a sad and concerning narrative for the stability of our democracy.
In addition to the heroic efforts of Governor Cuomo in New York, Michael Bloomberg is pouring millions of dollars into developing a trace contact program through increased testing protocols being expanded on in New York. Trace contact monitoring is one of the most crucial long term solutions to controlling the spread of virus infection and moving towards a safe re-opening of the economy. Trump’s plan is to place your finger on a date on the calendar and declare, “American is open again.” Immature, self-serving, ignorance are not traits in a leader that will protect lives. Bill Gates, another real, not fake billionaire, is pouring vast sums of money into expanding testing throughout the country. Trump promises high testing numbers, never meets the goals, yet arrogantly proclaims the U.S. is leading the world in virus testing, which it is NOT. He just says, sh…t because it makes him feel good, despite it being false. That also is not how normal, healthy people manage their jobs or their egos.
Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security advisor to President Obama, is quoted in the Rolling Stone article as saying, “Trump’s flaws as a leader have all come home to roost. His disdain for expertise led him to disregard the many public health experts he had in his own government. His disdain for international cooperation has led to a failure to work with other countries. His adversarial posture towards China made it harder to get cooperation out of the Gate. President Trump’s response to the virus encapsulates his own unfitness to handle the responsibilities of the office.”
The Governor’s of this country, (minus the Republican ones who are following the downplayed Trump version) are modeling strong leadership and expertise in managing the complexities of a pandemic crisis. Cuomo, Bloomberg, and Gate’s leadership and generosity are compensating for a President who is has led a weak, off-the-mark, self-interested effort to deal with COVID-19. Trump has tried to be the boss over the fight against this disease. However, we must thank the governors and philanthropists for ignoring his idiocy.
