Letter: COVID-19 Response Shows Trump Is Unfit

Trump’s handling of COVID-19 has brightly illuminated how unfit he is to be president. It is difficult to know where to begin since he says something new every day that further reinforces this assessment.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Trump said on numerous occasions that COVID-19 was an “unforeseen problem that came out of nowhere,” and “it’s something that nobody expected.” That was completely false and he knew it.

In May 2018, Admiral Ziemer, on the National Security Council, and his pandemic response team was fired by the Trump administration.

In December 2019, the Trump administration announced it would end the PREDICT program. This program partnered with foreign laboratories and was tasked with detecting new infectious diseases across the world and trying to stop emerging pandemic threats.

For years, the US intelligence community, public health officials, and officials in Trump’s administration have warned that the US is at risk from a pandemic. Alex Azar, Trump’s current Secretary of Health and Human Services spoke at a Biodefense Summit in April 2019. He said “pandemic flu is what keeps all of us up at night.” So everyone, including Trump, knew that a pandemic could be expected.

On January 22, Trump was asked if there were worries about the novel coronavirus becoming a pandemic and he said, “It’s going to be just fine. We have it totally under control.”  

On February 26, he said, “We have it so well under control. We really have done a very good job.”

On February 28, Trump held a campaign rally in South Carolina and downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19, saying once again that it is like the flu. It wasn’t until March 31 that Trump acknowledged it is not like the flu.

With regard to China, it first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) a coronavirus cluster on December 31, 2019. China shared the genetic sequence of the coronavirus with WHO on January 12, 2020. On January 30, The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global health emergency.

On Feb 7, Trump praised China saying it was doing a “very professional job” in stopping the spread of the virus. He also said he was not concerned China was covering up the full extent of the coronavirus. Finally, on that same day, the State Department sent 17.8 tons of medical supplies to China, including various types of masks, gowns, and other PPE.

There is so much else to say, but perhaps in a future letter. Trump demonstrates on a daily basis that he is unable to control his narcissism even during a pandemic. He initially minimized the seriousness of the virus and took credit for his great response to it, even bragging about his press conference TV ratings. When it finally became obvious to him that he was wrong, he switched to his usual blaming of everyone but himself. He has even said on more than one occasion that he takes no responsibility for any of the problems and failures in his response to COVID-19. We deserve much better from our president.  

Susan Miller

Onalaska