I realize this post is coming as Joe Biden has been elected President so it will have a smaller effect than if Trump were re-elected. Nevertheless, I wanted to post this as my opinion of what Trump has been responsible for. Also, I began writing this a few months ago just before the November election as I got tired of President Trump blaming, downplaying, and overall not leading during this global pandemic.
Despite his assertions in his recorded sessions with acclaimed journalist Bob Woodward saying he didn’t take preventative measures sooner because he didn’t want to panic the public, I believe Trump was actually exercising the practices of Norman Vincent Peele’s “The Power of Positive Thinking.”
Trump’s history and exposure to the philosophy can be found here (Business Insider) and here (CBN News). Seeing as Trump still touts that message to this day, it is extremely likely he used that thinking not only in receiving early reports and confirmed cases of COVID, but also in regurgitating that mindset to the American public.
Consequently, precious time when receiving early reports in January and February to take the virus seriously was lost, the soon-to-be global pandemic already had more traction than was realized, and denial resulted in exponentially more deaths.
While it is next to impossible to directly quantify the lives lost and confirmed cases as a result of Trump’s blatantly foolish and ignorant claims about the Coronavirus, one thing’s for sure, the COVID-19 pandemic response will be seen as one of the greatest failures of both leadership and character in recent memory.
Mind@Work 