By Eddie D. Gillis

When reports got out that President Donald Trump called the men/women in the military, some who made the ultimate sacrifice, “losers and suckers”, many probably thought that the president can’t say or do worse. Oh, how wrong we were. In a book released by famed journalist Bob Woodward, the president admitted to the seriousness of COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic, but did nothing when he had the opportunity. That and the fact that the president continued to portray the pandemic as being a “hoax”, essentially denying aid to large cities where the virus was spreading rapidly, showed that President Trump appeared not to have the best interest of the nation as a concern of his. The president KNEW early on of the potential devastation and loss of life that was possible because leading medical experts in the field of infectious disease warned the administration. Fox News, when in the face of the leading infectious doctor Anthony Fauci tried to take the lead and “educate” the president, it was of no use. The president only wanted to make himself look good if the virus was over quickly and left with a minimum of deaths in an effort to show his “strong leadership” in handling crisis. When that didn’t happen, the president was telling the nation “not to worry because the virus will disappear one day”. Remember when the president tried to convince the public that by Easter Sunday, everyone would be back in church because of the “tremendous progress” his administration was making in combating a virus that had quickly gotten out of hand? But still, President Trump continued to downplay (his words) of the dangers even as the deaths were mounting quickly and no one had any concrete solutions on how to slow the spread of the virus.

Even as hospitals and medical personnel were beginning to feel the overwhelming toll of thousands of Americans becoming sick and dying, President Trump would not acknowledge that his administration was waging (governors knew) a losing battle. Vice President Mike Pence was chosen to head a “coronavirus task force” that would follow the recommendations of doctors like Fauci, but that meant that President Trump would be in the background, not center stage just in case a breakthrough developed. The president wasn’t ready to accept a backup role, as he would go off script at many news conferences undermining what the doctors who he hired said, because there wasn’t any political capital to be gained. By now, it had long been established that former vice president Joe Biden would be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president and the president had been way behind in all of the polls, including those on Fox News. No one had known at this time what President Trump had said to Woodward prior, perhaps Woodward was waiting “for the right moment” to release his book because several other damming books about the president were already out, even one written by his niece, Mary Trump.

Now that the world knows that, how a sitting U.S. president would lie (some say mislead) almost daily about a deadly pandemic that has killed almost 195,000 Americans (as of press time), President Trump has not apologized. The president feels as though he does not need to “repent” for his actions because he “believes” that he did the right thing by not causing a panic. Never mind the hurt, turmoil and fear that families were suffering when so many died alone in hospital rooms or when the body count was so high in some cities, that refrigerated trucks were used in places where morgues were full. Nonetheless President Trump, despite what has happened, is campaigning as if nothing has happened. He doesn’t answer many questions for his actions (lack of?), as he let his supporters talk for him. Just as his supporters didn’t abandon him over the “losers and suckers” comments, they are still standing with the president even though President Trump lied to them also about the severity of the virus. It didn’t matter that of those who died were not just liberals who want to see Trump defeated, but also many conservatives who will not be around to see if the president is reelected. We are told that things with the virus will get worse despite a vaccine being developed because Americans did not do enough to quell the spread as other nations did. America is less than 5% of the world population, but it accounts for 20% of coronavirus deaths in the world and still counting. And you thought that it couldn’t get worse. Remember, the world is watching. So is God.