Day 1,206: Report: Trump ‘shell-shocked’ not by coronavirus deaths but by reelection chances

For most Americans, that the coronavirus has claimed 80,000 lives in the country in just a few months is jarring and sobering.

For Donald Trump, however, he is chastened only by his chances of being reelected in November, according to a Washington Post report:

Some of Trump’s advisers described the president as glum and shell-shocked by his declining popularity. In private conversations, he has struggled to process how his fortunes suddenly changed from believing he was on a glide path to reelection to realizing that he is losing to the likely Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, in virtually every poll, including his own campaign’s internal surveys, advisers said. He also has been fretting about the possibility that a bad outbreak of the virus this fall could damage his standing in the November election, said the advisers, who along with other aides and allies requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The “how his fortunes suddenly changed” is not rocket science: on February 26, Trump promised that “within a couple of days [the number of coronavirus patients] is going to be down to close to zero.” Now, over 1.3 million Americans have tested positive.

South Korea and the U.S. each had their first case on the same day. Yet due to a horrific response by Trump, the U.S. economy remains largely closed. Months later, Trump is still woefully ignorant about the need for mass testing and the benefits stemming therefrom. Meanwhile South Korea mounted aggressive testing protocols immediately and had less than 11,000 cases and 300 deaths in the entire country.

By way of comparison, Oklahoma and Nevada, states with about 4 million and 3 million residents respectively, each had more deaths than the entire country of South Korea, with about 52 million residents.

But the entirety of the situation for Trump is especially crass since the next empathetic word he utters about victims and families will be his first. He is concerned about a second wave not due to additional loss of life, but, again, how it affects his reelection chances.

And while the White House touts a grand plan for the fourth month in a row, the Washington Post report notes that they still lack any real particulars.

However, White House officials declined to provide any specifics as to what the long-term strategy is, what the different plans will look like, and who is leading the various efforts.

There’s no plan for Americans’ health and safety, a president’s most important job. Trump’s only concern, as always, is exclusively on Trump.

1,206 days in, 256 to go

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