It’s a sad world we live in where people like letter writer John Howell can ignore the truth and believe that Trump’s leadership has saved us from the COVID-19 virus, when in reality all he has done is create a more dangerous world.
“In 2018, the Trump administration fired key officials connected to the U.S. pandemic response, and they were not replaced” (Snopes.com). “The president introduced his fiscal year 2021 budget proposal on Feb. 10, just 11 days after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concerns. The spending plan included a 16% reduction in CDC funding from the 2020 spending levels” (ABC News).
Cutting funding in the middle of an outbreak, where is the leadership?
Fearing his reelection campaign was failing, on Feb. 28, Trump calls the virus “Democratic political hoax.” A leader would have been promoting scientific study of the virus, acquiring test kits and safety equipment long before the virus spread to the U.S., but instead of taking action, he downplayed the information he had for more than a month. The World Health Organization on March 12 declared the virus a pandemic.
Now that cities and states have already started their own prevention methods, and the stock market crashed to levels below when Trump took office, he jumps on the bandwagon and calls for a “national pandemic response.” Too little, too late. Trump’s solution is to throw money at the working class and hope they all forget. Sorry Trump, $1,000 won’t restart businesses that fail or help families that can’t pay the mortgage because they can’t work. You put your reelection ahead of people’s health and welfare, and that is not leadership.