I have a serious question - seriously.

[TomSlick]

Trump knew in February that Covid-19 was a serious threat. If he had acted decisively to confront the looming crises, he would have been a hero and assured his reelection.

So, why did he not act? It can't be mere incompetence. What did he think was in it for him to fail to act?

[jpak]

1. Putin

It hurts America

And it is good

Obey pp-boy

Yup

[Nevilledog]

2. It would have meant actually caring what happens to someone else.

And work. It would have cut down on his golf time.

[TomSlick]

7. Got it. I don't expect him to give a tinker's damn what happens to other people.

He had a chance to be the hero and ensure his re-election if he had just done something - nearly anything. What was in it for him to lie about the threat? He surely knew the lie would come back to bite him.

[enough]

3. Too much trouble. He doesn't like to work. NT

[russiamommy]

4. I wish I had an answer.

I long ago gave up trying to figure out his thought processes. Maybe he thinks just having a pandemic on his watch looks bad for him, regardless of what he did or don’t do about it? Or it was easier to just not do anything. I vote for the latter, but honestly I don’t think anyone knows what happens in his head. All I know is we need him GONE.

[LisaL]

5. How would he act decisively?

Active decisively presumably means shut downs, which he obviously doesn't want to do.

[TomSlick]

8. Just a public warning would have helped

Hell, just not lying about the threat would have been better. It just doesn't make sense.

[LisaL]

10. What does he do that makes sense?

We elected a reality TV star a president, now we are reaping the consequences.

[TomSlick]

29. True. I remain hopeful that we will correct that error.

[vlyons]

6. He was afraid news of Covid's severity would make the stock market plunge

and that would hurt his re-election.

[soothsayer]

12. Yep he was trying to run on the economy even though we were already heading into a recession

The first “Covid” thing he did was to prop up the markets. Murderous bastid.

[Claustrum]

13. This!!!! The stock market had it's 10k point drop at the end of February to early March

If he showed any signs of worry about COVID or treat it as the threat that it truly is, the stock market would have dropped more. And it wouldn't recover to where it is now.

So, he have to keep telling people that COVID isn't real or that it will magically disappear tomorrow to calm the market. Imagine where he would be if we are at under 20k points for the Dows. I can assure you that his approval rating would be in the 30s and he has literally no chance at re-election.

[TomSlick]

17. I think you may be close to the truth.

The short-term impact on the stock market would have been marginally negative. However, he knew the long term economic ramifications would be exponentially more serious. He could have been the hero.

Was he shorting stocks? Was he buying stock in pharma? WTF?

[NightWatcher]

27. Must always maintain the charade else the wheels will fall off

[DesertRat]

38. +1000

[radius777]

39. Yes, he ignored the virus to prop up the stock market

while forcing workers into the pandemic to die for the 1%.

The fed also pumped money into the market/big corps for this same reason.

That is all Trump has ever cared about as he views it as key to his reelection.

[Tech]

9. It would have made him look bad.

[tblue37]

11. He feared honest cv news would sink the stock market & thus his re-election chances. nt

[TomSlick]

19. He knew nine months before the election.

Surely, he is not so stupid as to place short-term market reactions - months before the election - over the certain long-term economic consequences that would come home to roost right before the election. (I know, who am I calling Shirley?)

[tblue37]

24. He has always freaked out over short-term dips in the stock market. nt

[imanamerican63]

14. Ask Melania?

She said it “I don’t care”!

[ananda]

15. I don't think Trump actually really understood the threat.

He still doesn't. He just doesn't get it.

He very well might have admitted he did because he
was asked the question and thought he should give
the right answer even if he didn't believe or understand
it.

Either that or he was drinking some seriously krazee
koolaid made for him by advisers and supporters aiming
to get the Democrats.

It's prolly both.

[Patterson]

16. His 8-year-old brain thought it would magically go away.

[iamateacher]

18. I have always thought his issue was

Oppositional defiant disorder. (A child's diagnosis). Acknowledging the problem interfered with his reelection plans. The economy. So you pretend it doesn't exist. Better yet, you can blame it on all those Democratic governors....

[TomSlick]

22. So, simple magical thinking?

The best explanation I have heard.

[iamateacher]

40. Pretty much

The country elected a 7 year old.

[FakeNoose]

20. Chump and Jared were looking for a way to cash in

Seriously ... they expected to make a $1 billion off this pandemic. That was Jared's job to figure out how they could get rich. It was going to be the ventilators, and then they called it off when they realized it was only poor people in NYC that were getting sick and dying.

So they didn't do shit, they just let everything get worse in March, April and May. I'm not making this up, it has all been reported in the news.

[brush]

21. He's never been successful at anything because he makes...

Last edited Wed Sep 9, 2020, 08:03 PM - Edit history (1)

poor decisions. Six bankruptcies and we elect the fool to the WH. He rode Obama's rising economy and claimed it for himself. He expected it to take him to a second term then a crisis hit, and the unprepared dummie that he is showed up and he kept quiet about the virus when he should've warned the country to wear masks, get tested, do social distancing, etc. He didn't and he still hasn't.

What dumb sob. And he told Woodward he knew since Feb. 7 how deadly the virus is. What a dumb sob.

[TomSlick]

28. That may be the answer. Maybe he is just that dumb.

However, that would seem to mean he is too dumb to breath spontaneously.

[betsuni]

23. He gets all high and agitated, goes in front of the cameras and can't help politicizing everything.

On the tape he said he wanted to downplay it. Maybe the plan was just to say not to worry, it will go away. But then he gets hopped up on whatever he snorts and calls it a hoax, and once it was politicized there was no going back. His followers were doomed.

[Laelth]

25. A pandemic would hurt the economy.

He tried to wish it away with magical thinking. When that didn’t work, he was stuck. He can’t admit that he was wrong, so he turns to finger-pointing, more denial, and distraction ... all because he couldn’t admit that he was wrong, and now, here we are.

-Laelth

[randr]

26. He would have had to follow protocols

established by Obama. His pride got in his way is my call.

[TomSlick]

32. You may have the answer.

Trump's default is to think what Obama would do, and then do the opposite.

[Whiskeytide]

30. The stock market impact, plus he ...

... immediately started shifting all responsibility to the State governments. I think - knowing it was bad - he believed he could distance himself from it and just keep the market up, and he’d take less damage.

I don’t think it was any grand scheme.

[mercuryblues]

31. You are trying to apply a level of depth to trump's logic

that he is truly incapable of.

[TomSlick]

33. But it's such a shallow level of depth.

When faced with a looming crises, a reasonably intelligent orangutan would do something.

[Blue_true]

34. He didn't see any clear benefit to him in acting properly.

Pure and simple. Trump is about what is in an action for him, his life has apparently been that way. He doesn’t seem capable of thinking broadly about issues and implications.

I remember when H1N1 struck the country 90 days after President Obama took office. President Obama didn’t downplay that virus, he marshaled science and experts to attack it. Even as scientists were desperately working on a vaccine in the background, we learned to sneeze into our elbow and President Obama modeled that. We learned to use paper towels to touch doorknobs of public doors. As soon as scientists learned more about how to slow the virus, we were asked to add protective measures. I am sure of two things on this day, if Trump had been president during H1N1, far more people would have died, far far more. And if President Obama was President today, an enormous number of dead Americans would still be living and the country would not be in economic peril.

[TomSlick]

36. But, but, but......

There was a clear benefit to him in acting quickly.

Had he acted, he would have ensured his re-election. At this point, his failure to act - and to falsely downplay he crises - is the biggest drag on his re-election chances.

[Blue_true]

41. I don't believe that he saw controlling the virus as a positive, especially

given that it struck big blue states really hard at the outset. Trump saw that as a benefit, believing those blue states would be humbled and all claims he had made or would make about them validated.

What he didn’t count on is the fundamental goodness of a lots of Americans. Doctors and Nurses from places that were not experiencing problems rushed to places like New York City, Boston, Detroit and Chicago to help healthcare professionals in those places, who had already put their lives on the line and were not backing down from treating sick people.

[Nexus2]

35. He loves power but hates responsibility.

Taking action means taking responsibility, he's in over his head and scared to death of messing up so frozen with indecision (and it wasn't something he really cared about to much of a degree) he went to his default: lie, deflect and BS.

[TomSlick]

37. I buy that - frozen by indecision - all too aware of his own incompetence.

[dchill]

42. I believe that inflicting pain and death...

... is a thrill to him that trumps any other possible effect or outcome. Also, I believe he is completely incapable of embracing the truth. If he can't play everyone for a sucker, then he has no interest.