Trump's Report Card

Donald Trump has claimed to be a genius but refuses to allow anyone to see his grades under threat of a lawsuit.  I felt it therefore appropriate to provide a Report Card for the most serious subject he has undertaken in his presidency, the Coronavirus.

Report Card for Donald J. Trump

Subject:  Coronavirus 101

Preparation: F

Comments: This president-in-training failed to heed the warnings of his predecessor that a devastating and hard-to-control virus could eviscerate our economy, impact our very way of life, and kill hundreds of thousands of our citizens.  He dismantled the emergency response team that was set up to deal with such a crisis.  He disassociated the US from the World Health Organization.

Initial Response: D-

Comments:  When faced with the facts that the novel Coronavirus coming out of China was airborne, highly infectious, and potentially deadly, he announced that it was the simple flu and that it would quickly disappear.  To his credit, he imposed a partial ban on travel from China but still allowed hundreds of thousands of citizens to travel to and from China.  He placed his political well-being ahead of the health and safety of his nation.

Crisis Management: C+

Comments:  The appointment of Dr. Anthony Fauci to head the NIH was a positive step.  The subsequent appointment of vice-president Mike Pence to oversee all operations, however, has been compared to throwing a freshly caught trout on a hot dock.  He was quite active and flopped around a bit but was obviously out of his depth and didn't accomplish much.

Team Building: F

Comments:  The appointment of Michael Caputo to monitor and oversee the CDC was a disaster.  He had no medical experience and was selected for his conspiracy theories, his support of Vladimir Putin and Carl Paladino, and for his ties with fellow genius Roger Stone.  Lacking the medical expertise needed to handle those responsible for our main disease management, he found an out-of-work former part-time professor at a Canadian university, Paul Alexander.  Mr. Caputo quickly began to monitor and place a political spin on outgoing medical documents.  The pressure of that activity caused him to suffer a mental breakdown evidenced in a rant about seeing shadows on the ceiling and predicting armed insurrection and recommending that citizens buy more ammo.  He will not be missed.  Paul Alexander is also packing his bags and leaving the CDC.

Communications: F

Comments:  Mr. Trump’s inability to articulate the seriousness of a disease that is destined to kill hundreds of thousands of American citizens is exacerbated by his need to avoid any news that would negatively impact his reelection bid.  He doesn’t seem to understand even rudimentary science or medicine even after it has been explained to him.  He even has difficulty reading the words from a teleprompter.

Logistics:  D-

Comments:  Mr. Trump gets credit for streamlining the process for quickly developing a vaccine to treat the disease and for his placing the military in a position to build much needed hospital facilities that were about to be overrun.  This is, however, offset by his total inaction at getting PPE and testing supplies out to the states when he told them they were on their own.

Subject Knowledge:  F

Comments:  Even with expert advice from knowledgable science and medical professionals Mr. Trump seems to ignore any information from those closest to the field of concern.  He defers to a certain fringe element, especially when they reaffirm his political requirements to stay in office.  Most recently he has contradicted the advice of Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, in deference to Dr. Scott Atlas, a Fox News contributor with a background in radiology but not epidemiology or infectious diseases.  It would appear that Dr. Atlas is promoting a theory that herd immunity will cure this disease.  Dr. Atlas believes that allowing a critical mass of Americans to contract the disease will be its demise.  Based on that premise, 75% of 328 million Americans would need to get sick.  That would be 246 million people needed to contract the disease to achieve herd immunity.  There are only two problems with the theory promoted by Dr. Atlas.  First, it is unknown if a previous infection will provide immunity.  Second, this plan would mean that, with a conservative death rate of 3%, over 7 million Americans would need to die.  While Donald Trump may think this a cheap price to pay for his political longevity, there would be at least 7 million folks who would disagree.

Conclusion

We do not recommend that Mr. Trump make a second attempt to successfully complete this course of study.  We believe that it is beyond his grasp.  His suggestion that using disinfectant inside the human body or somehow getting light to shine inside humans shows a basic misunderstanding of anything remotely related to basic science or medicine.  We do recommend that he join Michael Caputo in seeking assistance with his mental health issues.

Donald John Trump has failed the American people and has been indirectly responsible for the countless death and suffering of hundreds of thousands of its citizens.  Donald Trump is the Takata Air Bag of presidents.  He has blown up in the faces of far too many people and needs to be recalled.

Trump MAGA Airbag