It's bad enough that Trump delayed taking any action to curb the Coronavirus epidemic for nearly two months. He was warned about the coming epidemic near the end of January, but did nothing. He was afraid that acting would hurt his chances of being re-elected.
A few days ago, he finally began to admit the seriousness of the situation. Unfortunately, he continues to drag his feet on doing what is needed. Instead, he wants to blame others for his own failings.
The tweet above is a prime example. The governor of Illinois, and several other states, asked the federal government to act to provide states with needed money and medical equipment. Trump's response was to blame them. He wants us to believe that this epidemic is a state problem -- and each state must handle it individually.
He has said, "I am not responsible at all (for the delay in taking effective action)". But he is responsible.
The Coronavirus epidemic has now reached every one of the 50 states -- and there is no doubt that it will get worse in all of those states. It is a true national emergency.
National emergencies cannot effectively be handled by 50 different governors (and numerous mayors and county leaders). National emergencies must be handled by the federal government, because a unified and coordinated response is required. And when a federal government response is required, it is the duty and responsibility of the president to provide leadership for that response.
We have known for a while now that Trump was a poor leader, with his administration awash in chaos and incompetence. But we hoped that in a real national emergency, he would rise above his many shortcomings as past presidents have done. That was a vain hope.
We now face that national emergency, and Trump is displaying a total lack of leadership. Instead of taking responsibility, he still wants to play a blame game. He is an utter failure as a leader -- and that is going to make it much harder for this nation to weather both the epidemic and the economic crisis it faces.
Trump wants to be re-elected. His failure of leadership shows he doesn't deserve that.
