‘Trump is attempting to turn coronavirus deaths into a vote winner...’
DESPITE Donald Trump once boasting he finished “top of the class” at university, his own professor William Kelley reportedly called him “the dumbest goddam student I ever had”.
But with a string of failed businesses and bankruptcies behind him, it seems it was the academic who was correct as the only skill the President apparently learned while at Wharton Business School was how to avoid the military draft.
Roll forward 50 odd years and Trump has also shown, since coming to power, that he possesses the spelling capability of a 10-yearold.
So it isn’t easy to imagine a dictionary is currently sitting on his desk in the Oval Office.
One reference guide that clearly is, however, is the Trump crisis playbook, the pages of which must be more thumbed than the Pope’s Bible.
Reading like a biography, it has given the world insight after insight into the man he is.
To date, it has shown how to lie, deceive and bully both political friends – to keep them in check – and potential foes – to prevent them from talking, as well as the art of deflection.
Other chapters include spinning conspiracy theories, dismissing serious matters as
“hoaxes” and “witch hunts” or more latterly “presidential harassment”.
The playbook also covers taking credit for others’ work, none more so than for the economy as it purrs along.
But one thing it cannot answer is how to deal with the coronavirus.
Unlike a member of his staff or his Republican party, a virus cannot be bullied. It doesn’t care about the presidential performance or poll numbers.
Neither does it pay any consideration to whether he describes his handling of its presence as “perfect”.
But most concerning for Trump is not the rising death toll in the States, but the impact it is having on his number one re-election policy – the economy.
Trump has requested only £1.95bn to tackle Covid-19 – far less than the £11.7bn his experts, whose warnings he has rubbished, say is needed.
As the spread of the “caronavirus” as he spells it looms large, the President placed his fall guy, sorry I mean his deputy, in charge.
Vice President Mike Pence, who has no medical training, has been installed as the disease’s czar with Donnie touting his experience with medical issues.
The move left the country aghast given the former lawyer’s history with anything health-related.
Previously Pence ignored medical advice saying he wanted to “pray away” HIV while also writing a piece on how ‘smoking doesn’t kill’.
But what is of most concern is Trump’s constant inability to admit anything on his watch is less than amazing.
Such a trait is pathologically ingrained in his presidency hence why once again he has turned to his playbook to help handle the latest crisis.
After sparring with America’s top coronavirus expert, Trump is attempting to turn the deaths and infection of others into a vote winner.
He has claimed rival Democrats want “millions” to die of coronavirus to end his “streak of winning” while at the same time making it an immigration issue.
His stupidity is apparent with his presumption viruses respect borders as he threatens to close them off believing the disease will be kept out. It will not.
On an international level, he is equally out of his depth.
Revoking foreign health and development aid, pulling medical staff from outbreak zones abroad and undermining health care experts leaves the world a far more vulnerable place.
The challenge Trump now faces is one the pages of his playbook do not have the answer to.
He can only meet it by actually doing the job of President of the United States which is precisely what he has never shown the slightest interest in or ability for.
It is the part of the job he loathes. For the first time in his presidency, Trump must put others’ lives ahead of his own, acting in the interest of his country, not himself.