On Thursday, June 25, Trump stated he had only “sarcastically” claimed that lowering COVID testing would decrease the nation’s infection rates. This was in the wake of the furor caused by his denial of several days that the comment at the Tulsa rally was “sarcasm,” “tongue in-cheek,” or a “joke” as contended by White House spokespersons.
The Trump comment to “ slow the testing of the coronavirus” in Tulsa caused such chaos among his aides that it can only be characterized as transforming the White House into a “Madhouse” as they scrambled to concoct a damage control response. Bu Trump, when asked to clarify the comment for several days in a row, boldly stated “ I don’t kid. Let me make it clear.”
With the aides contradicting Trump and vice versa this is an exercise in tragicomedy meeting real life. Is there any communication between Trump and his staff ? Trump is like the proverbial ‘loose cannon.” His staff obviously does not know what he may do next.
To add to the confusion, Dr. Fauci, usually considered a fount of credibility, when asked if Trump had ever asked that testing be slowed replied “None of us have been told to slow down on testing. That is just a fact.” More contradiction of Trump’s statements. Wherein lies the truth, who knows ?
His sleazy attempt to avoid unfavorable statistics have only backfired. To slow down testing would only endanger and cost more lives. The White House has turned into a virtual “Madhouse” confronted with a multiplicity of crises-health, economic and racial- compounded by lunacy in the White House –the Executive Office in utter chaos.
Capitalism engenders and encourages the rise of the anti-science and anti-rational sections of given populations. Trump is a grand example of the drawing out of the most backward elements of the American public. Anti-science and anti-rationalism go hand in hand.
Trump continues to declare that the coronavirus is “ going away.” Some of his followers still tell the media that the virus is “a hoax.” This has been described by economist Paul Krugman in a recent New York Times op-ed as the “ Plague of Willful Ignorance.”
His campaign now seems mired in a pending implosion and more racist demagoguery with lately anti-Asian racism as evidenced at the Tulsa rally. More evidence of Trump’s disconnect from reality is on the CBS Morning News of June 26, when he said that the “economy is coming back at a level more than ever imagined.” What world is he living in ? Was it just more so-called “sarcasm”? Over 47 million American workers have filed unemployment claims as of June 25, 2020.
No doubt Trump will have followers who will adhere to whatever nonsense he spouts. But, I must hearken back to the words and wisdom of the great Martin Luther King , Jr. who said some will continue to exist in a state of “conscientious stupidity” or “sincere ignorance.” To which category does Trump belong?
CONTRIBUTOR
Comments