For President Trump: You Did Not Cause COVID-19, but Your Inaction Made it Chaotic

Claims to be wartime President: But, only with himself

By way of introduction to this note for President Trump during this the world’s most pressing crisis is this John Oliver video. As usual it has 

his humor even without a live audience he always has with plenty of facts and figures to accompany the show. 

Be Forewarned: This video also has his usual raw language since it comes from via HBO, so don't watch it if are offended by foul language — advance notice:

March 29, 2020 show

For President Trump: Some notes taken are from this fine article:

Sir, denial is more than a river in Egypt. 

I cite your own words below, NOT mine, NOT a reporter you dislike, or NOT “fake news.” 

Your own words taken from your first formal press briefing with the coronavirus Task Force and then a tweet.

You said this precisely while not agreeing with the CDC assessment that an outbreak was “inevitable” in the United States, and you noted we had just 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no deaths attributed to the virus at that time: “When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done. We have it so well under control. I mean, we really have done a very good job.”

Plus this from you (February 24, 2020) via Tweet:

And, this from you on March 17, 2020 at the White House:

All along, or so it seems, ever since this outbreak, you’ve been moving the goal posts on the pandemic. 

Then on Sunday (March 29) as cases and deaths both mounted, you said this: “Keeping the U.S. death toll between 100,000 and 200,000 would be a very good job. We can hold that down, as we’re saying, to 100,000, that’s a horrible number, maybe even less, but to 100,000 — so we have between 100 - and 200,000 — we all, together, have done a very good job.”

You then cited a projection by Dr. Birx who said that as many as 2.2 million people would have died if the administration had not instituted social distancing and other mitigation measures, saying: “Two-point-two million people would have died if we didn’t do what we’re doing. And now we’re looking at numbers that are going to be much, much, much lower that.”

Yet you were not taking any sound rational expert medical advice early on. 

You kept setting new unrealistic goals based on your guess, hunch, or some feeling. 

That led to more confusion and loss of confidence. That led to despair and loss of hope, and now, well, who knows the final outcome – surely you do not.

One thing is clear to me, and I suspect to millions of other is that you seem to always follow this pattern:

1. Early on you disagreed with experts around you claiming you are smarter and know more than they do and that cost us nearly a month in wasted time to react (e.g., testing, hospital equipment such as ventilators and other necessary proactive steps).

2. Facing more failure for your own inaction or wrong action, you blame everyone around you.

3.  As failure mounts, you make changes that those around you offered before and who were right all along.

4.  Then you claim the credit for yourself,

5.  Finally, you expect or demand that those around give praise to you for “your brilliant insight and superb leadership.”

Why is that? Well, it seems to be the only method you have known your entire adult life and that most of that has been miserable failure, just like now.

That list is long and we all know it, too: a line business failures, huge mounting debt, and foreign entanglements to get more money and favors from abroad for your own self enrichment.

I have pretty much nailed it, haven’t I? 

You can deny this page and everything else around you, and then start another bragging contest, but I cannot. I had to speak out — which as you know is my constitutional right of free speech.  Not any insults or threats, just raw truth the way I see things. 

I am saddened by this virus and the destruction we all now see in its wake, and I am sure you are, too, But, sir, you waited far too long to act and that is a fact and the cost for that delay is unforgivable.

Thanks for reading this Mr. President, but I suspect you will not.