Leadership lacking with COVID-19 pandemic

Steve Corbin,
Professor Emeritus of Marketing
University of Northern Iowa
Discerning citizens ask this question when voting in any presidential election: which candidate is best enabled to handle a crisis? Thirteen facts clearly reveal what candidate was not prepared in 2016 or now.
For example, on or near Jan. 3, Donald Trump, the Center for Disease Control and Congress’s Intelligence Committee knew of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Finally, 73 days later, on March 16 Trump admitted the virus was “very bad” and declared a national emergency.
The Obama presidential transition team tried to prepare the newly elected president and his cabinet one week prior to the 2017 inauguration with a crisis role-playing exercise. Trump’s team was to follow the National Security Council’s playbook during a pandemic simulation; they failed the training. Sadly, a Trump appointed NSC official admitted they dismissed the value of the 69 page playbook (Politico, March 25). Tell that to thousands of families who’ve lost a loved one to COVID-19.
Furthermore, in May of 2018, Trump authorized John Bolton, National Security Adviser, to “eliminate the National Security Council’s global health security unit and demote its pandemic experts” (Time, March 30). It gets worse. During January to August of 2018, Trump administrators participated in a Department of Health and Human Services pandemic exercise. A summary of the training noted how “underfunded, underprepared and uncoordinated the federal government would be for a life-or-breath battle with a virus for which no treatment existed” (The New York Times, March 19).
Haley Edwards observed Trump hasn’t even nominated several high-level global health positions, which are paramount to a coordinated response to COVID-19 (Time, March 30). Since 2001 the CDC’s preparedness budget has been cut by 33 percent and Trump wants to cut CDC by 15 percent more for 2021.
On the 84th day of the pandemic crisis, Trump finally invoked the Defense Production Act compelling companies to make ventilators; 84 days too late. It’s April and we still don’t have a National Strategic Plan, a unified 50-state approach to attack COVID-19’s spread, guidelines for classifying COVID-19’s risk, establishing COVID-19 immunity registries and putting USA’s Defense Logistics Agency to work.
Trump’s disastrous tariff trade war exasperates our health crisis. Robert Zoellick, former deputy secretary of state, writes in The Wall Street Journal (March 19), “Trump’s tariffs leave the U.S. short on vital medical supplies.” The Health Industry Distributors Association warned Trump in Aug. of 2018 and repeated in June, 2019 medical tariffs “put a risk to our nation’s public health preparedness.”
Chad Brown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics calculated Trump imposed $5 billion of Chinese produced medical instrument tariffs on U.S. health-care companies (PIIE, Jan.). In the manner Trump chastised China they have now diverted heretofore U.S. health-care imports to other countries; what goes around comes around.
These 13 examples demonstrate America’s health pandemic and resulting economic crisis clearly lands on Trump’s shoulders. When Trump was asked on March 13 if he accepted responsibility for the debacle, he uttered “No, I don’t take responsibility at all.” These seven words may be our 45th president’s legacy.
Sixty-one percent of citizens concur Trump’s culture of denial—a cauldron for failure—may be more dangerous than COVID-19, especially at a time when a responsible course of action is required. It’s obvious why 2.5 million of Trump’s 2016 supporters have already vowed not to support him on Nov. 3 (CCES-YouGov Survey).
I’m confident if Trump were reminded of these 13 examples and asked if he felt any responsibility, he’d again reply “No, I don’t take responsibility at all.” Trump has proven the buck doesn’t stop with him; it’s always someone else’s fault. Multiple bold-faced blunders by the Trump administration are killing America, literally and figuratively.
Steve Corbin is a non-paid freelance opinion editor and guest columnist contributor to 134 newspapers in six states who receives no remuneration, funding or endorsement from any for-profit business, not-for-profit organization, Political Action Committee or political party. Email: Steven.B.Corbin@gmail.com