Donald Trump is COVID-19 Personified

Bob Woodward's new book, Rage, is an documentation of parts of the Trump presidency from a respected journalist.  It is based on facts and research using interviews with President Trump, the public record and trusted sources.  Much of what I'm reading confirms what I had already heard, but Woodward brings them together in a time line.

Woodward clearly shows Trump is a liar.  That is, a person who does not tell the truth.  President Trump is clearly a liar, but I'm convinced most of his lies are not really intentional because he does not actually understand the concepts of truth or facts.  Occasionally he seems to logically determine what response is best for him.  But in many cases, he seems to just say whatever his gut tells him is most expeditious at the moment. That is why he can say something and them shortly thereafter he can say the complete opposite.

I must admit I've long believed President Trump is an idiot, but Woodward recounted incidents that make me pause to consider maybe Trump has more substance than I gave him credit for.  That was until I read chapter 33.

In chapter 33 Woodward describes the advice he received years ago about writing biographies.  An English professor suggested finding true "reflectors" of the subject.  People who are or were close to the subject.  People whose close experiences with the subject allow them to make accurate assessments of the person.

Woodward choose President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as such a person.

In February, 2020 Kushner suggested four texts that should be consulted to help understand Donald Trump.  Texts in this case meant writings, not text messages.

The first is a 2018 opinion piece by Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal.  In this piece she describes the President as a "crazy act", "a living insult", and "epic instability, mismanagement and confusion".

I think Noonan was basically saying Trump is not rational and has no desire to use rational thought to perform his presidential duties.

The second text Kushner recommended consulting was Alice in Wonderland.  Specifically the Cheshire Cat whose strategy, according to Woodward, "was one of endurance and persistence, not direction”.

I understand this to mean Trump does not think ahead. He doesn't believe that goals and steps to achieve those goals are needed. He just needs to survive the moment, psychologically satisfy his narcissism and boost his low self-esteem.

Then Kushner suggested the book The Gatekeepers: How White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, by Chris Whipple.  I think Kushner recommended this book to high light that while other presidents chose people with talents, knowledge and experience to help them determine how to handle difficult issues, Trump feels he needs little help since he is more qualified than anyone to best decide what to do.

I believe, President Trump wants people who just do whatever he says and sometimes realize what he wants done without him having to put himself in jeopardy by saying something incriminating. He also wants people who will tell him what a great job he is doing and people to blame when things go badly.

The final text was Scott Adam's book, Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter.  Scott Adams is the creator or Dilbert. Adam's argues that Trump's lies "are not regrettable errors or ethical lapses”. In Adams' words, Trump “can invent any reality”.

We see this all the time. Trump lies and some people will accept whatever he says. Trump supporters have been conditioned to believe that anyone who tries to correct Trump is the liar. They are just creating fake news.

As I said earlier, I'm not convinced Trump's lies are that strategic. He knows his followers will believe whatever he says. He suffers no penalties for repeating and expanding a lie. In Trump's world, the old saw, “go big or go home” is a guiding principle for his lies.

Woodard summarizes Kushner's insight into Trump by saying, “When combined, Kushner's four text's painted President Trump as crazy, aimless, stubborn and manipulative.”. It sounds like neither Kushner or Woodward think Trump is a stable genius.

I would phrase Woodward's analysis a little differently. President Trump is not rational, has no goals other than surviving, only needs people who will serve him and has no compunction abusing people to meet his needs.

That sounds a lot like COVID-19.

To make this comparison even stronger, President Trump would like to be King Trump and COVID-19 is a corona virus.

The Real COVID-19 Plan

It is clear that we will be dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic for months. The task now seems to be how to balance the need to protect people from the serious health risks of the disease against the serious economic and social effects of social distancing. I think the solution has already been determined, but no one is going to openly admit what it is.

Since no vaccine is likely to be available for many months, we need a long term plan for dealing with the pandemic. A reasonable plan has been known for several weeks. Focus on protecting people's health to minimize deaths and serious injuries and thereby prevent the health care system and workers from being overwhelmed. The cost of this is on-going economic pain. At the same time, relax social distancing restrictions and restart some businesses, but that will mean more people will be infected and more people will die.

We would each probably define the proper balance between health and the economy differently.

People who prioritize health have the harder job. They need to keep social distancing in effect until the number of new cases is low enough that rapid testing (which we do not yet have), contact tracing and isolation can control the infection rate. This would prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed until an effective vaccine is eventually created.

On the other side, people who prioritize the economy over health have the easier task. No one likes social distancing and its economic ramifications. That makes it is easy for politicians to call for relaxed restrictions even while the infection rate is not controlled. Even without relaxed restrictions, people and businesses can just ignore social distancing laws and rules. In either case, some  businesses will reopen and maybe have a chance to survive, but more people will become infected. While more people will be sick and die, more people will hopefully now have immunity.

If infections and deaths spike, restrictions can be increased again, but that won't change much. Pandemic overload will eventually desensitize people. Once that spike is controlled people will clamor for eased restrictions again and be even less appalled by the health care side-effects.

While no one will say it, every person who is infected and survives is helping build herd immunity. Many people, especially politicians, are gambling that herd immunity will control the pandemic quicker than a new vaccine. That's the real plan.