In recent days, the president has dismissed criticism of his comments on the virus as a "hoax" and a political conspiracy concocted by Democrats. He has attacked the "Fake News" media, accusing them of putting out "disinformation," when all that they've done is report verbatim and in context what the president has said. Even Trump's own officials are reportedly getting frustrated with him.
The irony, of course, is Trump is (mostly falsely) accusing Democrats and the media of the very behavior he enthusiastically embraced during the Ebola crisis. Indeed, the germaphobic Trump's obsession with Ebola — and President Barack Obama's response to it — feels like the textbook definition of politicizing a crisis. And it's all documented.
In the summer and fall of 2014, Trump posted close to 100 tweets criticizing and, for lack of a better word, weaponizing, the Obama administration's response to the Ebola crisis. Trump's tweets included the observation "I know for sure that our leaders are incompetent." He called Obama "stupid" and suggested that he "personally embrace all people in the US who contract Ebola!" He also callously tweeted that an American medical worker who had contracted Ebola while abroad shouldn't be allowed back home, arguing that the person should instead "suffer the consequences!"
It's a familiar, if not predictable, pattern.
Trump was quick to criticize the appointment of Obama's Ebola czar, Ron Klain, tweeting that he had "zero experience in the medical area and zero experience in infectious disease control. A TOTAL JOKE!" And yet, Trump saw fit to tap Vice President Mike Pence to lead the federal government's coronavirus response. Pence, of course, has no experience in medicine or infectious disease control. In fact, his one brush with public health crises was a complete disaster. As governor of Indiana, Pence ignored signs of an HIV outbreak in Austin, Indiana. According to the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Pence's inaction led to the city's getting a higher incidence of HIV "than any country in sub-Saharan Africa."
Trump also criticized Obama for playing golf during Ebola, and yet pictures surfaced over the weekend of Trump playing golf with baseball players at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. During the 2014 crisis, those who were exposed to the virus and went on to participate in everyday activities like taking the subway or bowling were "SELFISH," according to the then-reality TV star.
President Obama has a major meeting on the N.Y.C. Ebola outbreak, with people flying in from all over the country, but decided to play golf!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 24, 2014
However, Trump suggested that Americans with mild coronavirus cases should still go to work while they recover. (The CDC recommends that people who are mildly ill "isolate at home during their illness. You should restrict activities outside your home, except for getting medical care. Do not go to work, school, or public areas. Avoid using public transportation, ride-sharing, or taxis.")
Trump has said in the past that he has a "natural instinct for science" — whether talking about climate change or a potentially deadly epidemic, this "instinct" seems to supersede the observations of public health experts. This instinct is also what enables him to say with such unyielding certainty that coronavirus death rate figures are "false," a "hunch" he shared with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
bottom line- 4 people died from Ebola in this country while Obama was president----600,000 when trump fucked everything up. get it?
