A Human Crisis Worsening Under An Inhumane President by Robert Covington Jr.
Before we fully understand the depth, scope and degree of the disastrous and calamitous response of the Federal Government to the Coronavirus pandemic, it’s critical to remind ourselves of who Donald Trump is as a man because it informs his decisions as a politician.
Donald Trump is a heartless, mentally impaired, character disordered, cognitively declining man that has no capacity to empathize, sympathize or exhibit real compassion. He meets ALL of the criteria of narcissistic personality disorder. Trump is a man that enjoys seeing other people suffer because his inner soul has experienced his own trauma of never being loved by anyone in his life. He projects that sorrow, sadness and pain onto others through vengeance, retribution and cruelty to other human beings.
The depths of his own self-hatred cannot be overstated. He compensates through the creation of an idealized version of himself and reality because the truth of his own life and feelings of no self-worth is unbearable. He walks through the tightrope of life always on edge, mired in misery and dreads being reminded of how incompetent and embarrassing he is at everything he does. Trump is incapable of feeling shame, guilt or remorse. He is incapable of taking responsibility for his actions on anything, large or small. This will never change.
This is the context to which we must first understand Donald Trump. He is fundamentally inhumane in the areas that matter most.
With this perspective in mind, it’s easy to see how and why Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic crisis has, in real time, put hundreds of thousands of Americans’ lives at risk. Unsurprisingly, as reported in the Washington Post, Trump saw little value in human life preservation planning when he dismantled the pandemic global health office at the White House. This office would have been critical in the coordination of America’s national and global response to the current crisis.
As the coronavirus was unfolding around the world, Trump ignored intelligence warnings that the coronavirus would inevitably come to America. Trump reacted with indifference because he is incapable of making decisions through the lens of valuing human life.
His natural impulse is to avoid reality that makes him uncomfortable and exposes his immense flaws. It can’t get any more real than the coronavirus. To compensate for the profound feelings of inadequacy, he instinctively resorts to minimizing, blaming and manipulation of the situation. He irresponsibly and dangerously called the coronavirus pandemic a Democratic hoax, lied to Americans by saying we would have it totally under control and that in a few days, we’ll have the numbers of American infected with the coronavirus close to zero. As of this writing, 34,000 cases and 431 deaths in the United States.
There have been countless reports regarding Trump’s mismanagement and horrifying leadership that has mayors, governors, nurses and doctors around the country upset and pleading for life saving assistance. Trump does not look at this situation with urgency because mass suffering, death and illness does not have significant meaning to him. What drives his decisions is how does the plight of others impact him. How does it influence or curtail his greed, money and self-interest.
As of March 22nd, 2020, Trump still has not fully implemented the Defense Production Act, which would give the executive branch full authority to force private industry to produce necessary supplies during a wartime event of declaration. Trump gave away the game in his press conference when he said big business would not be happy with this mandate. Trump has not put a national shelter order in place to unify Americans to a greater sense of purpose in reducing the spread of this deadly virus.
America is in serious trouble as we grapple with having an inept, unfit and pathologically deficient individual as President during the biggest crisis since the Great Depression. Donald Trump excels at one thing: destruction. He’s destroyed businesses through multiple bankruptcies and people’s dreams with a fraud University. He’s crippled American democracy and the rule of law. He has now moved to weakening America’s public health system and doing his part in creating economic hardship and uncertainty for millions of Americans across the country.
The coronavirus tragedy is still happening nationally and globally with no immediate end in sight. Many Americans are feeling anxious, nervous and scared in varying degrees because we are reminded every day as to how unprepared we are as a nation because of Donald Trump. As local and state leaders valiantly plan and work to support its citizens, the country is stuck with Donald Trump. The final sick and death count remain to be seen. But we do know the horror stories will continue to be reported as unnecessary exposure and lack of testing guarantee a cesspool of national infection.
New pages continue to be added to this dark chapter in history. Donald Trump continues to be a menace to society, a parasite to democracy and a threat to human survival. Trump’s core indecency and inhumanity has made a bad situation worse. It didn’t have to be this way. God help us all.
Follow me on twitter: @robcovingtonjr
