Even this evil plan could have been executed better. If this was the play, then the right move should have been to message the seriousness of the situation, and call for severe measures and response. Nothing ridiculous, but to do what Europe and Eastern Asia has mostly succeeded in doing. Then it would have been true that blue states would have gotten the worst of it [of course, true, but not unexpected given the dearth of international airports in Arkansas]. Instead, the messaging from Numero Uno was that it was no big deal and would be gone soon. So of the two plotlines:
The economy is my issue; don't slow things down for this wimpy virus.
Only I can fix it! Democrats are to blame for the higher death tolls in some states.
They tried to have their cake and eat it too. But the virus don't care. If Trump could have at least supported the messages of his own scientific and medical teams instead of undermining them, we would be spared much of the grotesque vision of Americans crowing about their disregard for public health measures and then dying of COVID-19.
But no, Trump had to go and politicize public health policy. And his followers, who disregard these measures as a badge of group identity, are paying for it. Because the virus don't care.
