Though the COVID 19 death toll continues to climb, there are still a few holdouts who remain convinced that the pandemic is some kind of fakery intended to bring down the president.

Which is amazing, since if anyone had a reason for creating a fake pandemic it was Mr. Trump. Elected by razor-thin margins in a few key states, trailing in the polls, with negative opinions of his performance consistently outpacing approval, Mr. Trump needed a way to convince doubtful Americans that he was capable of leading this country.

A nationwide public health emergency would work just fine. After all, nothing brings the people together like a shared crisis.

For Mr. Trump, then, the actual pandemic was an unexpected and undeserved gift. He wouldn’t have to create a crisis or falsify one – his specialties – the crisis he needed was right in front of him. Any third-rate politician would have immediately recognized the potential for even a disinterested and semi-literate president to focus on the virus as a deadly serious public health threat – which it actually is – and to step forward as the leader that would guide Americans through a dark and perilous time.

And the best part for Mr. Trump was that he wouldn’t have to actually do anything. Thanks to decades of work by previous administrations of both parties, as well as by thousands of public health officials, state and local planners, the medical community, and private sector organizations, the United States was well-prepared for this pandemic. Plus, the virus’s origins in Asia gave American officials priceless months to prepare. The administration needed only to give the nation’s highly-capable public health machinery a gentle shove to activate the plans and procedures that were already in place and the professionalism and skill of the public health and medical communities and the resourcefulness and resilience of everyone else would do the rest.

Managing the coronavirus pandemic was never going to be easy. The virus was unknown, and its ease of transmission, multiple health effects, and especially the fact that asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic infected persons could spread the disease for many days without even knowing they have it would have meant that many thousands of Americans would die, even with a well-coordinated and well-resourced response. But that, too would have worked to Mr. Trump’s benefit. The pandemic would have been widely recognized as a real threat, successful containment would have been seen as a significant achievement, and Mr. Trump’s re-election would have been assured.

But, somehow, that’s not what happened.

Lacking any political sense whatsoever, and heartlessly indifferent to the human cost of the pandemic, Mr. Trump responded with denial, lies, inaction, and ignorance. He squandered years of planning and months of preparation time. Worse, he actively impeded the efforts of public health and medical community experts, turning an extremely serious public health crisis into a full-fledged disaster. We’ll never know how many Americans died needlessly because of Mr. Trump’s callous and selfish disregard for the well-being of Americans. But it is clearly many tens of thousands, and the number is growing every day. There can no greater proof of Mr. Trump’s utter unfitness for the presidency.

Now, with election day nearing, Mr. Trump is desperate to deflect attention away from a mishandled pandemic that has killed 190,000 Americans in six months and will likely kill a hundred thousand more.

Incomprehensibly, Mr. Trump’s abysmal performance in response to the pandemic seems not to have hurt him at all among his fervent supporters, many of whom are at high risk for serious complications or even death from the virus. One more undeserved gift, apparently.

September 3, 2020