Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu (CNN)
'We take an A+'
"Just remember, what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening," Donald Trump told supporters in 2018. On Monday, as the terrible milestone of 200,000 Covid-19 deaths loomed, the US President put his motto into action.
“We've
done a phenomenal job. Not just a good job, a phenomenal job," Trump
said on Fox News, referring to his leadership in the pandemic. “On the job itself, we take an A+,” the President said.
The
entire Trump mythology rests on a bubble of self-delusion. The US has
around 4% of the world's population -- but more than 20% of its
coronavirus deaths. And while few governments have fought this pernicious disease perfectly, any fair assessment would put Trump’s performance closer to a D than an A.
Here are just a few of Trump's missteps:
- He knew how bad the virus was in February, but hid the truth.
- He leans on US health authorities to put politics before science.
- He failed to put in place a national testing and tracing system, arguing that testing doesn’t matter much.
- He pushed states to reopen before the virus was under control — helping to trigger a summer of sickness in the Sun Belt.
- He undermines his own government’s advice on mask-wearing.
- He is actively organizing mass gatherings in the US — campaign rallies.
- And he is politicizing the vaccine. In search of an “October surprise” to boost his campaign before the election, Trump has claimed every American can get a shot by April -- even though no dose has yet been proven safe or effective.
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