This is the fourth in a series of articles detailing the terrible job Donald Trump has done as President. This article is focused on the ways in which he fails to protect our health or the environment.
Trump and his policies have undermined our health in many ways, Covid first among them. He has been an utter and complete failure in fighting Covid, from start to finish, as we have been among the worst affected countries in the world. Given that we have one of the most advanced medical systems, and an agency had been setup to prepare for a pandemic during Obama’s last term, Trump’s performance has been comparable to taking the original NBA Dream Team to the Olympics and losing to a small island country.
Here are some of the many ways in which Trump lied to us and failed us:
- In his book, Rage, Bob Woodward confirms Trump knew how serious Covid is from the beginning, and was lying the American public about it from the beginning.
- In attempts to make it an anti-China issue, and using the racist term “China virus,” Trump deflected from the facts — viruses have no nationality and don’t respect national boundaries.
- Trump not only failed to encourage mask wearing and social distancing, but encouraged the opposite and flaunted measures widely recommended by pandemic experts. He did this through through his daily comments and tweets, his own actions that led to infection of most of the White House “team,” his in-person rallies that encouraged no masks or social distancing (including one that led to the death of Herman Cain), and more.
- By May, it was already clear that social distancing a week earlier could have saved 36,000 American lives. Yet he continued undermining mask wearing. Those deaths, and tens of thousand since, are the responsibility of Donald Trump more than any other single person.
- Not only did Trump fail to prepare for a pandemic, but he undermined our nation’s preparedness by closing the very office that had been setup by Obama to prepare for the very possibility of a pandemic.
- Trump not only kept facts from Americans, but actively attempted to undermine the facts by sharing lies and encouraging extremist views — his recommendation of unproven and potentially dangerous medicine, encouraging the use of injected bleach, “it will miraculously disappear,” and more. Seriously, Donald, shut the f*ck up and let the adults in the room talk and lead.
- Trump illegally interfered in the work of the Center for Disease Control to try to distort facts and suppress inconvenient facts.
- Trump repeatedly undermined the guidance of Dr. Anthony Fauci as confirmed in emails.
Trump, known for taking no responsibility for anything unless it went well, has tried to blame everyone else for Covid:
- He tried to blame the WHO
- He tried to blame Dr. Fauci, the most trusted American voice on Covid
- He tried to blame China
- He tried to blame those of us who have shown our support for Black Lives Matter
- He tried to blame the media
- He tried to blame Democrats, then blue states, and claimed it was a hoax
- He tried to blame Obama, because that’s just what Trump does when he runs out of anything else meaningful to say, which is pretty much always.
- And don’t forget, he blamed Gold Star families for he himself getting Covid. Wear a mask, you petulant child!
Ultimately, none of his lies stuck. It was not a hoax and his failure was front and center when, just a few weeks ago, more White House staff tested positive for Covid than Taiwan, the most densely populated island in the world.
America has had had among the worst responses in the entire world to Covid, this despite having unparalleled advantages for dealing with it effectively. Trump isn’t the only one responsible, but he is most responsible, and he has provided cover for the others who share in this responsibility with him — the anti-maskers and others who cloak their selfishness in terms like “freedom.”
Not only has Trump failed Americans on Covid, he has failed us on health care:
- Trump sought to undermine and eliminate the Affordable Care Act. Eliminating it would leave more than 20 million Americans uninsured.
- Trump still has no replacement plan, consistent with the many other issues for which he has no plan. As with Covid, he had no plan other than tearing down what the Obama administration achieved out of a personal vendetta.
Trump has failed with Covid and health care, but his undermining of environmental protections will undermine our health in the future. He has undermined the EPA, whose job is to enforce the environmental laws and, among other things, keep polluting corporations in check. He has undermined clean air and water, including:
- Eliminating fuel economy standards for vehicles
- Doubling down on subsidies for the fossil fuel industry
- Easing emissions requirements for coal plants
- Eliminating some prohibitions on businesses dumping toxic waste in our water
Issues like record levels of toxic PFA’s in our drinking water are the canary in the coal mine for what Trump’s environmental decisions mean for our health.
Trump has not only failed to promote 21st-century energy sources, but has tried to take us back to a 20th-century energy mix by:
- Promoting the coal industry, which no longer even makes economic sense — it’s purely political
- Opening up more coastal locations for oil drilling and fracking, perhaps including your coast (Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina)
As the United States falls behind other countries under Trump’s leadership, we are also not taking advantage of the economic opportunity that clean energy represents.
He has undermined other environmental commitments when we need to be making positive strides with them. He withdrew from the Paris accords, the most comprehensive international agreement in history for curbing pollution and fighting global warming. And he’s promoting the extinction of more species by opening marine sanctuaries to fishing despite already dwindling fish supplies, and lifting the ban on big-game trophy imports.
Trump’s claims to be the “#1 environmental President” (his words) are laughable. His claim on health care plans are as well. His claim that the U.S. is doing the best against Covid underscores that Donald Trump is living in his own fantasy world. In the end, he may be the sickest one of us all.
