In Trump’s YOLO world, tomorrow never comes

Two weeks ago, after stocks had slid for days, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow advised Americans to “buy the dip.”

Unfortunately, markets kept falling. Since he first gave that hot tip to the American people, stocks have plunged another 15%. Now, you might wonder why in the intervening days Kudlow kept repeating that advice — that is, why he kept saying “buy the dip” even as the stock ticker showed the dip getting dippier. You might also wonder why he and White House colleague Kellyanne Conway both proclaimed the epidemic “contained” last Friday, even as new cases were popping up across the country.

Or perhaps you wonder why their boss, President Trump, has lied so transparently about the severity of the epidemic — including by proclaiming that an early count of 15 confirmed U.S. cases “within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.” (More than 600 people have since been diagnosed.)

Alas, this is what happens when an administration governs like there’s no tomorrow.

The most important lesson Trump learned from both his business days and his political career is that there are no consequences. Ever. For anything. He can lie. He can cheat. He can move goal posts. He can break his promises about deficits or who will pay for the wall. He can renege on international trade deals or private contracts for chandeliers.

Yet he never pays a penalty, at least not politically. His followers forgive and forget.

Understandably, then, he behaves like the protagonist in “Groundhog Day” (at least in the first part of the film): He does whatever he expects to bring the biggest short-term payoff today, since he can count on a reset tomorrow.

The problem isn’t that Trump merely plays down the value of tomorrow; he behaves as if tomorrow doesn’t exist. Or in layman’s terms: This is the YOLO — You Only Live Once —presidency.

That’s the easiest way to explain why Trump and his staff seem reluctant to level with Americans and advise them to take precautions and avoid risky activities — such as flights or campaign rallies if you’re elderly.

Of course, it’s possible that administration officials are just cockeyed optimists, preternaturally disposed to minimize mortal threats. This would seem at odds with all their past fearmongering over imagined dangers.

Or perhaps they’re not trying to mislead; rather, they’re genuinely ill-informed or incapable of making accurate, real-time risk assessments. Then-acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney couldn’t have known that his Conservative Political Action Conference audience was being exposed to coronavirus at the very moment he denounced media coverage of the illness as a conspiracy to bring down the president.

Trumpworld is clearly counting on being able to change their narrative again on a dime, as they always have before. The White House seems to assume that tomorrow — when Americans confront indisputable evidence that more people are falling ill and dying, and that concerns about the epidemic weren’t part of some “Fake News” hoax to bring down the president — Trump can offer up a new narrative or scapegoat.

In fact, Trump has already begun testing out scapegoats. At a recent White House event, he essentially argued that there is no crisis, but if there were one, it would definitely be former President Barack Obama’s fault.

Perhaps MAGA supporters will once again come along for the ride. In the meantime, markets may continue to fall. People will still get sick. Some of them will die.

As Trump’s irresponsible rhetoric continues to threaten both the economy and public health, we befuddled critics will keep asking: OK, but what about tomorrow? And Trump’s response will pretty much continue to be: What is tomorrow?