Combating the Trump Virus

COVID-19 is not Trump's fault, but his initial denials, consistent lies and the resulting slow response are very much his fault.

In 2018, he disbanded the National Security Council unit focused on pandemic preparedness. This hampered the speed and resources with which we could combat the disease. This also was Trump's fault, a blunder he aggravated by blaming it on his administration and claiming not to have known anything about. Someone please tell me, in what universe does a U.S. president NOT accept Truman's maxim, “The Buck Stops Here?” But then again, in Trump's universe, he consistently throws people under the bus.

In 2014, President Obama led a swift and effective response to the worst outbreak of Ebola virus ever seen (in West Africa.) Under his direction, the U.S. Sent 3,000 DOD, CDC, USAID and other officials to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea to assist with response efforts as part of a 10,000-person U.S.-backed civilian response. The disease was quickly brought under control. This experience informed his executive decision in 2016 to create the NSC pandemic response team to combat new health crises that would inevitably occur.

The team was dismantled, ostensibly, to cut costs (and how's that working out for us now?) But Trump has consistently attempted to dismantle much of Obama's legacy throughout his presidency. In doing so, it often seems as if he's being petulant and vindictive, cutting programs primarily because they were Obama's programs. If that's his motivation (and nothing about Trump's character would convincingly suggest otherwise,) it would be just one more example of why Donald Trump's presence in the White House is an obscenity and why he must be removed in November.