April 9: On This Day In 2020
For months, Trump purposefully played down Covid. But the data don’t lie. OTDI 2020, the U.S. reached 10,000 Covid deaths.
"I’m rubber, you’re glue:" Once it was clear that his approach was failing, Trump, ever the PR mastermind, began to blame anybody he could think of for his woes, including international health agencies and minorities. He started by attacking the World Health Organization, and eventually announced a U.S. withdrawal from the WHO.
Trump’s tendency to blame others brought out his supporters’ worst impulses. He called Covid the China virus, which fueled anti-Asian sentiment. The pandemic also ramped up instances of anti-Semitism.
“Trump blew it—not the WHO, Fauci or the Jews” is how Washington Post columnist @Milbank put it. One of the leading voices who tried to blame Jews for Covid belonged to Rick Wiles, a loud-and-proud antisemite whose website was given press credentials by the Trump Administration multiple times.
Why the racism and antisemitism? It was a continuing hallmark of the Trump years, this time applied to Covid. As @Milbank continued: “We also see the pathologies that have surfaced (or recurred in new mutations) during Trump’s presidency: the scapegoating of religious minorities, attacks on science and scientists, and promotion of globalist conspiracy theories (in this case, that the World Health Organization conspired with communist China to conceal the virus).”
Trump chooses his scapegoat: Anthony Fauci had a lengthy career at the very top of his field, having made vital discoveries regarding cancer, viral diseases, AIDS, Ebola, and other deadly scourges. If there were a Hall of Fame for saving lives around the globe, he’d be inducted immediately.
But Trump chose to blame and mock the longtime Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. So, naturally, MAGA disciples started issuing death threats against Fauci; it got to the point where the public servant needed to travel with a security force.
Yet again, Trump blamed “the other” instead of looking within.
Dive deeper
Dana Milbank, in the WaPo, captures everything wrong about Trump’s pandemic response and cozying up to racists
Wiles, despite his righteous attitude, needed hospitalization after contracting Covid
The Associated Press wrote about Trump’s many pandemic targets
Summary: After 10,000 Covid deaths, Trump plays the blame game