Trump now deadly for Americans
by Tom Maertens, Vox Verax Co-editor
Tom Maertens served as a White House National Security Council director during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Donald Trump has perpetrated one of the greatest disasters in U.S. history, covering up a looming health crisis that has resulted in unprecedented illness and death.
Americans are dying because of his ignorance and colossal narcissism, willfully misinforming Americans about the coronavirus until months into the pandemic. Conservative historian Max Boot wrote recently: “With his catastrophic mishandling of the coronavirus, Trump has established himself as the worst president in U.S. history.”
The United States received its first official notification of the virus from the WHO on Jan. 3. The CDC issued its first warning on Jan. 8. When Trump was asked about the virus on Jan. 22, he said, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.”
He argued as late as Feb. 28 that it was a hoax by the Democrats; then on March 9, he did a one-eighty: “This blindsided the world.”
During that time, Trump repeatedly called the coronavirus warnings fake; he claimed several times that it was contained and would go away by itself; he spread lies and rumors along with his ignorant, anti-science “hunches;” he falsely compared it to the flu and then denied doing that; he ignored or contradicted his health officials, and gave bad medical advice while watching Fox and tweeting nonsense.
He fired the White House team assembled to deal with pandemics and cut the CDC budget three years in a row, causing the CDC to cut 80% of its efforts to prevent global disease outbreaks.
NPR reported that Trump blocked coronavirus testing in January because it might hurt his re-election chances.
It took 70 days from that initial notification for Trump to treat the coronavirus as a serious threat. That delay allowed the virus to spread exponentially.
By that time, as the Washington Post reported, “the United States (would) see more of its people die than in the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined.”
Despite the human carnage, Trump reiterated March 20 his commitment to repealing Obamacare, which would cost 20 million Americans health care during a pandemic.
In the interim, Trump did nothing to prepare for a pandemic, despite the 69-page playbook the Obama administration prepared after the 2016 Ebola scare. Worse, he cut by 75% a $2 billion request from his HHS secretary for masks and ventilators as late as Feb. 5, according to the Washington Post.
The result is a critical shortage of personal protection equipment along with ventilators and respirators, and thousands of unnecessary deaths. As the Boston Globe said, Trump “has blood on his hands.”
Trump claims he was preoccupied with impeachment and couldn’t focus on the pandemic, but he held nine campaign rallies and played six rounds of golf after the impeachment vote.
He sent 18.7 tons of medical equipment to China, exacerbating the U.S. equipment shortage.
Additionally, as the Washington Post reported, “U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February about the global danger posed by the coronavirus.”
Trump will be judged harshly for undermining public trust in the government and the free press, discrediting the press as Fake News to protect himself.
Unfortunately, it works. The slack-jawed Trump cult cheers his every ignorant, mendacious statement, and the slobbering pseudo-religious sycophants lay hands on him and proclaim him a man of God; no mention of dozens of sexual assaults, three marriages, mistresses, hush money, defrauding children’s and veterans’ charities and tax fraud, and apparently, drug abuse.
There are multiple sources who claim he abused Adderall on the set of The Apprentice, which caused him trouble reading, and now allegedly accounts for his slurring and stumbling over the teleprompter text and constant sniffling during some press conferences.
Trump likely has a much more serious problem. An open letter, signed by more than 41,000 health professionals declaring Trump to be mentally ill and calling for his removal, was sent to the Senate in 2017.
None of the psychiatrists and psychologists examined Trump personally, but based on his public behavior, they characterized his mental issues as a mixture of narcissism, paranoia, sociopathy and a measure of sadism. Adderall presumably makes his symptoms worse.
What is virtually certain is that the Trump crime family will find a way to rip off the $500 billion corporate slush fund, the stimulus. Trump already promotes hydroxychloroquine, because, well, he owns stock in the manufacturer.
His response to everything: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”
Tom Maertens served as a White House National Security Council director during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Donald Trump has perpetrated one of the greatest disasters in U.S. history, covering up a looming health crisis that has resulted in unprecedented illness and death.
Americans are dying because of his ignorance and colossal narcissism, willfully misinforming Americans about the coronavirus until months into the pandemic. Conservative historian Max Boot wrote recently: “With his catastrophic mishandling of the coronavirus, Trump has established himself as the worst president in U.S. history.”
The United States received its first official notification of the virus from the WHO on Jan. 3. The CDC issued its first warning on Jan. 8. When Trump was asked about the virus on Jan. 22, he said, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.”
He argued as late as Feb. 28 that it was a hoax by the Democrats; then on March 9, he did a one-eighty: “This blindsided the world.”
During that time, Trump repeatedly called the coronavirus warnings fake; he claimed several times that it was contained and would go away by itself; he spread lies and rumors along with his ignorant, anti-science “hunches;” he falsely compared it to the flu and then denied doing that; he ignored or contradicted his health officials, and gave bad medical advice while watching Fox and tweeting nonsense.
He fired the White House team assembled to deal with pandemics and cut the CDC budget three years in a row, causing the CDC to cut 80% of its efforts to prevent global disease outbreaks.
NPR reported that Trump blocked coronavirus testing in January because it might hurt his re-election chances.
It took 70 days from that initial notification for Trump to treat the coronavirus as a serious threat. That delay allowed the virus to spread exponentially.
By that time, as the Washington Post reported, “the United States (would) see more of its people die than in the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined.”
Despite the human carnage, Trump reiterated March 20 his commitment to repealing Obamacare, which would cost 20 million Americans health care during a pandemic.
In the interim, Trump did nothing to prepare for a pandemic, despite the 69-page playbook the Obama administration prepared after the 2016 Ebola scare. Worse, he cut by 75% a $2 billion request from his HHS secretary for masks and ventilators as late as Feb. 5, according to the Washington Post.
The result is a critical shortage of personal protection equipment along with ventilators and respirators, and thousands of unnecessary deaths. As the Boston Globe said, Trump “has blood on his hands.”
Trump claims he was preoccupied with impeachment and couldn’t focus on the pandemic, but he held nine campaign rallies and played six rounds of golf after the impeachment vote.
He sent 18.7 tons of medical equipment to China, exacerbating the U.S. equipment shortage.
Additionally, as the Washington Post reported, “U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February about the global danger posed by the coronavirus.”
Trump will be judged harshly for undermining public trust in the government and the free press, discrediting the press as Fake News to protect himself.
Unfortunately, it works. The slack-jawed Trump cult cheers his every ignorant, mendacious statement, and the slobbering pseudo-religious sycophants lay hands on him and proclaim him a man of God; no mention of dozens of sexual assaults, three marriages, mistresses, hush money, defrauding children’s and veterans’ charities and tax fraud, and apparently, drug abuse.
There are multiple sources who claim he abused Adderall on the set of The Apprentice, which caused him trouble reading, and now allegedly accounts for his slurring and stumbling over the teleprompter text and constant sniffling during some press conferences.
Trump likely has a much more serious problem. An open letter, signed by more than 41,000 health professionals declaring Trump to be mentally ill and calling for his removal, was sent to the Senate in 2017.
None of the psychiatrists and psychologists examined Trump personally, but based on his public behavior, they characterized his mental issues as a mixture of narcissism, paranoia, sociopathy and a measure of sadism. Adderall presumably makes his symptoms worse.
What is virtually certain is that the Trump crime family will find a way to rip off the $500 billion corporate slush fund, the stimulus. Trump already promotes hydroxychloroquine, because, well, he owns stock in the manufacturer.
His response to everything: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”
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