Trump Endangers Everyone Around Him in Order to Pacify His Ego
Donald Trump botched the Covid Crisis for the same reason he didn't report testing positive immediately, did a lap in his limo on Sunday, paraded around the White House without a mask after his release from the hospital yesterday, and recklessly told Americans that they have nothing to fear from the virus; his ego. And the President's conceit, his vanity, endangers everyone around him, especially those that still believe, serve or support him, a dwindling number thankfully.
Trump made a bad bet early in the year telling Americans that the virus was simply going to fade away and mocking the precautions recommended by health professionals. By the time he realized that he was wrong, he was so entrenched in that position that he couldn't change course to address the growing crisis. He just couldn't admit to himself and America that he made a mistake. To Donald Trump, learning from your mistakes demonstrates weakness rather than maturity. And so here we are.
And over the last week the nation learned just how far the President would go to reinforce his pandemic fantasy, recklessly putting White House staff, the Secret Service, and the press at risk. As the virus continues to rage through the White House even some Secret Service agents have been willing to discuss the deteriorating situation with the press.
AP: "Several [Secret Service agents] who spoke with The Associated Press expressed concern over the cavalier attitude the White House has taken when it comes to masks and distancing. Colleagues, they said, are angry, but feel there’s little they can do." ..
"Others noted the difference between facing outside threats they have trained for — a gun, a bomb or a biohazard — and being put at additional risk because of behavior they characterized as reckless at times. The agents spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing their jobs."
Moreover, the President's bizarre return to the White House last night, timed to make the evening news, sent the worst possible message to America. The entire "show" was choreographed to make the President appear tough, resolute, but came off as a campy campaign video for a slightly daft third-world despot.
CNN: "Back at the White House in imagery replete with authoritarian overtones, Trump climbed the staircase at the South Portico, which was decorated with American flags, removed his mask, adjusted his suit, lifted his chin and saluted the departing helicopter in a reckless photo op that was one of the most bizarre moments in modern presidential history."
"Then, still bare-faced, Trump, in scenes that would not have been out of place in totalitarian North Korea, walked into the presidential residence, contaminating the air inside. He then reemerged with a film crew to make the campaign video, in which he gave deeply misleading and potentially damaging advice to the American people about how to handle the worsening pandemic."
"Now I'm better and maybe I'm immune? I don't know. But don't let it dominate your lives. Get out there, be careful," the President said."
Anyone who expected contrition, maturity, or some level of empathy for the dead and their families just haven't been paying attention. The President will just continue tweeting his way to the edge of the abyss with all of us in tow, unable to look away, wondering when he will finally drive us over the cliff.
CNN: "He is clearly doubling down on the worst mistake of his presidency," CNN political analyst David Gergen and adviser to four presidents told Wolf Blitzer."
"I think he is going to get a lot of people killed as a result," Gergen said, adding that he sometimes wakes up in the morning and thinks American is in the grip of a "mad man."
David Gergen is far from the only one who wakes up thinking that.
By: Don Lam & Curated Content
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