TRUMP'S WORST DAY AS PRESIDENT?

 

While the horrifying thought of Donald Trump returning to the White House continues to be a possibility, it doesn't hurt to look back at the chaotic 4 years of the Trump presidency.  There were many terrible days during the Trump administration: from  his possibly criminal behavior  on January 6th to his  offensive defense of white supremacist protestors in Charlottesville (remember "wonderful people on both sides"?), to the utter stupidity of him suggesting that injecting bleach could stop Covid.  

While all of those days were awful, I think today marks the 4 year anniversary of the absolute worst day of the Trump presidency.  On this day he held the first public rally of his 2020 campaign.  The rally itself was unimportant: it featured his usual ridiculous talking points about Covid, or what he offensively referred to as "kung flu".  But it was the context of the rally that made it so terrible: it was held at the BOK center in Tulsa Oklahoma, an indoor stadium.  And while masks were available, they were also optional.  It was the kind of gathering of thousands of people in one place that would have normally been banned during the dark days of the pandemic in 2020, long before the availability of a vaccine.

But Trump's enormous ego and desire to stand again in front of a cheering crowd was so great that he clearly didn't care that he was threatening the lives of his own supporters (not to mention other people that they would come in contact with).  While whether or not there was a surge of cases in Tulsa after the rally is a matter of some debate (different studies say different things), there simply was no good reason for Trump to have held this rally other than his incredible need for constant praise.

The perfect example of this can be found in the sad story of Trump supporter (and former presidential candidate) Herman Caine.  Caine attended the rally in Tulsa, and then planned to attend another Trump rally on July 4th.  On July 1st. Caine tweeted out" Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump. PEOPLE ARE FED UP!".  But Caine did not attend that second rally, because he was hospitalized for Covid on July 2nd and died before the month ended.  While it is possible that Caine contracted the virus somewhere other than the rally in Tulsa, it's certainly likely that attending an event with thousands of screaming people, few of whom were wearing masks, is what eventually killed him.  

For the record, Trump did make some public condolences about Caine's death on July 30th, the day he died.  But the next day he  just shrugged off the distinct possibility that Caine's attendance at the rally was when he first got Covid.  As always, Trump sees all other people as lesser beings; surely his rally was more important to him than the life of Caine and any other people who caught Covid at that rally.  And sure enough, a few months later he would boast that there were "no problems" from his rallies, essentially forgetting the death of Caine entirely.  In many ways Caine's sad story echoes that of former Governor Chris Christie, who nearly died from Covid that he is convinced he got from Trump while he was helping him prepare for a presidential debate.  And in typical fashion, Christie claims that Trump called him when he was sick, and his only concern was whether Christie would tell other people if  Trump was the one that gave Covid to him!

While there are many examples of Trump's psychopathic behavior over the years, I think that holding that rally four years ago was the absolute low point; a completely unnecessary gathering that could have been a super spreader event.  How anyone can vote for this man who clearly has so little concern for anyone other than him is beyond me.