Like Trump or not, I think anyone who watched video of his return from that Tulsa rally found it to be incongruently stunning.  The man so obsessed and aware of appearances looked like someone who just lost his last dollar at a casino.  Antithetical to that perception of disaster to Trump was the glimmer of hope in others that at least some Trump supporters had sense enough to stay away from such an obvious envornment for covid-19 contamination.  But you could tell the half empty arena threw Trump off his game, admitting at one point during his speech that his delivery might be interpreted as only “average.”

Full disclosure I never watched much of the live stream of the speech.  Watching the condensed version of video clips has always seemed like a more efficient use of time to me.  There was the usual casual disregard of the truth that keeps a variety of fact checkers gainfully employed.  But there is one statement he made that his aides were desperatly trying to defend as an untruth, or just a silly joke.  Of course I am talking about that comment concerning his presidential  instruction to suppress viral testing.  In no way should that be considered funny and frankly should be frightning to everyone.

In the days that followed the Tulsa rally Trump has made it clear that he was not kidding.  The comment was all too truthful, and there is attached the dog whistling effect of Trump suggesting the people inside that arena should discard the thought of any testing when they return home, which is about the only way the slightest chance for contact tracing can occur.  Of course none of this should be a total surprise.  From the very beginning of the appearance of covid-19 in the U.S., Trump’s has consistently displayed a total lack of empathy for people affected by it.  Instead, what we see a man consumed by some sort of numbers game.  We all saw that when he bluntly stated he did not want American citizens disembarking from a cruise ship with stricken individuals on board because that would reflect poorly on his  “numbers.”   And now he has unabashedly admitted to that coldly calculated view.

Trump is certainly aware of the importance of our economy to his reelection.  What is particularly dumbfounding is how someone so absorbed with these viral numbers  so consistently fails to understand the basic, underlying connection between those numbers and the economy.  The economy will never recover until the viral numbers are dramatically improved.  Until we have an effective vaccine, they will only improve if we have robust testing and contact tracing, social distancing, and at this point, mandatory wearing masks in public.  If Trump would for once show leadership and just do the simple thing of wearing a mask and promote their use we could probably cut those viral numbers in half.

So we have a president who has a history of hamstringing and gutting our health agencies and procedures,  ignores all common sense guidlines,  and then can’t figure out why the economy is stagnant or in decline.  On top of that, he is insistent on doing something that is understood as dangerously inappropriate throughout the entire world- holding mass gatherings inside of  buildings without regard to any of the recommended saftey precautions.   And now we are finding out the administration has full discretion of billions of dollars of of covid 19 testing and  tracing funds that have not been distributed.  For some reason, stuck in Trumps head is this ignorant belief that fewer tests reflect fewer cases and therefore that will be proof covid-19 is under control.  It is the logic of an incoherent mind.

We should be situated like every other country that has delt with this pandemic- well placed on the downward curve of transmission.  Even with some states opening up early, if the importance of masking and social distancing had been enforced, we might be making progress.  Instead, we are seeing covid-19 spikes all over the country, because of the vanity, ignorance and poor example of the leader of our country. Holding rallys and therefore Jeapordizing the health of American citizens in so many insideous ways just to satisfy one’s uncontrollable ego is abhorrent.  Then to watch this president use these public platforms to further incite division in an already fragile social order by using racially inflammatory language like “Kung flu” is crushing.  Asian Americans are already being denigrated.  What kind of president says that sort of thing for its entertainment value.

Make no mistake, by neglect, mismanagement, and conscious interference,  Trump is responsible for the deaths of a lot of people and the continuation of our economic distress. We are a contaminated country, leading the planet in viral transmision to the point other countries are now restricting U.S. travel to their borders.  There is a rotten apple in our midst, and it rests at the top of the barrell.