A Warning Ignored

Yesterday, on the day that the coronavirus death toll in the United States surpassed the death toll on 9/11, the New York Times broke the story about how economists inside the White House warned in 2019 in a 40-page written study that a pandemic could kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and wreck the economy (details here).

That warning was completely ignored by Donald Trump and his senior staff.

Indeed, as recently as six weeks ago, one of Trump's senior economists told reporters "I don't think corona is as big a threat as people make it out to be." He, too, ignored the report that had been prepared by his own staff.

Trump and his senior people both brushed off warnings like this — others had come from senior intelligence and defense officials — and dismantled the government entities that prepared for a pandemic. It's as if the country had a sophisticated alarm system and Trump ripped it out and threw it in the trash.

Trump famously doesn't read anything so, of course, he didn't read the 40-page report warning of disaster. At the same time, he appears to have a mindset that refuses to acknowledge that bad things could happen. What else could you expect from a man who filed for bankruptcy six times? He apparently only ever anticipated the best and never thought about what might happen if things went south.

Every day brings new evidence and examples of why Trump must be defeated this November. He has broken the country and it must be fixed. Four more years of him might destroy it.