Donald Trump sounds more desperate, clueless, dishonest, and strange as the 2020 election approaches. What is becoming more apparent is his pathological lack of empathy, which is causing him to make many disturbing statements, the most recent being about children and the COVID-19 virus. He makes false statements that children are ” almost immune” from the virus ( some children have died from it), and “they need to be sent back to school.” It is a well-known fact that Trump has difficulty absorbing complex information, which is apparent when he talks about the virus. He has been told countless times by the scientific experts that children can get infected, they can get very sick, they can infect others, and they can be asymptomatic.
On this topic, and many others, he seems incapable of retaining and integrating facts into his policies and rhetoric. When he attempts to explain a law, concept, scientific fact, or plan, he does not include details that address short and long term consequences, implementation strategies, the reasons for his actions, and the efficacy of his ideas and contrasting options.This deficit in understanding issues that are crucial to America’s national security, economy, and laws may be rooted in either cognitive, intellectual, or characterological limitations. Whatever the etiology of his false statements, when it relates to managing the pandemic, it has become deadly for thousands of people.The coldness at which Trump addresses the sickness, suffering, and abuse of others is chilling. When he talks about sending children back to school, he downplays the risk and offers no comforting thoughts or policies to reassure parents that to do so is safe. His authoritarian declaration to the governors that they must get children back into school is all business, all political without a healthy level of concern or compassion.
This back to school order is just one of the many ways that President Corleone has abused his power. He has declared war on vote-by-mail, calling it wrought with fraud, despite the statistic that the percentage of fraud discovered in several comprehensive investigations has been under 1%. He is taking Nevada to court because he disagrees with their expansive vote-by-mail process. However, he accepts Florida doing it because it is a state where he has strong support. He is opposing vote-by-mail in blue states, and supporting it in red states. These tactics can be interpreted as “tampering with the outcome of a U.S. election.” In another abuse of his power, Trump sent unmarked militia to Portland, Oregon, to attack peaceful protestors. His goal was to appear strong and to create the narrative that “dangerous left-wing” blue states will destroy our cities. He is also attempting to lessen the efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service to sabotage the results of vote-by-mail in the 2020 election.
These are just of few recent examples of Trump’s abuse of power and the mob-like transformation he has brought upon our democracy. Let us not forget that he has been enabled to abuse the office by the Senate, led by the corrupt Mitch McConnell, who is continuously voted the most unpopular and failed Senato in America. Additionally, Trump has obstructed justice, broken campaign finance laws, lied under oath in a written statement to Robert Mueller, concealed his taxes, offered a bribe to a foreign government to investigate his political opponent, and misused funds in defiance of Congress’s “power of the purse.” He is now brazen in his hypocrisy as he knows his only chance at re-election is to cheat.
His main task is and has always been to further his own personal and political interests, not that of the country. Trump is dangerously emboldened in his autocratic use of power, yet he uses none of that power to help stop the death and illness occurring from COVID-19. When he is marched or dragged out of the White House, the banner at the exit should read, “You lost. IT IS WHAT IT IS.”
