Ashok Dhillon
Oct 4, 20205 min
According to reports, Donald J. Trump and his wife Melania have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. And although Trump’s symptoms are reported to be mild at this time, Trump himself has been hospitalized for further tests and treatments, and for an ‘abundance of caution’.
The news of Trump having gotten infected came with an appropriate dramatic knee-jerk response of shock, some sympathy, particularly from those that support him, polite well wishes of ‘speedy recovery’ from fellow world leaders, expressions of delight and ‘told you so’ from those that despise him, and expressions of empathy and the sense of inevitability from the more polite political opponents.
It would be safe to say, that while the news of Trump getting infected produced enough shock as dramatic news goes, but there was in everyone the sense of ‘finally’, as Trump had gone out of his way to flaunt all standard precautions endorsed by medical experts and scientists, to prove his stance throughout the pandemic that it was more of a nuisance, than anything dangerous and out of the ordinary; more like a flu than anything else. He has held that stance even though the virus has infected more than 7 million Americans to-date - and killed more than 200,000.
In taking that position, Trump went out of his way to publicly ignore, and most times overturn, the advice and actions suggested by his administration’s own experts. And in doing so, he regularly exposed and endangered himself, his family, his staff, his officials, and his supporters. Now - his wife, some of his staff, and some of his closest advisers are infected with the virus, and that infected circle around Trump is expanding to other lawmakers, and supporters.
In holding his political rallies, Trump again went out of his way to flaunt all sane medical advice, and by example encouraged his attending supporters to also do so, by not wearing masks and by not social distancing. Inevitably, some of his rallies turned into ‘super-spreader’ events and some of his supporters subsequently got infected and have died.
Trump’s inexplicable behaviour, for a US President, has from the very start of the pandemic led the US to become the most infected country in the world, with the most people infected, with the greatest number of deaths of any country in the world. The divisions in America that Trump inflamed during his almost four years of the Presidency were further widened by his response to the pandemic, which to those that disliked him was the height of irresponsibility, and to his supporters, another thing to admire about him; his seeming invulnerability and defiance of science, government authority and regulations, all to be flaunted.
Committed to that pattern of behaviour, Trump has continued to deny and obstruct science and promote his own views that are not only at times bizarre and dangerous, like publicly suggesting the injection of disinfectant which would kill the virus in infected people, to ignoring all common-sensical precautions, like wearing of masks, social distancing and the restrictions on public gatherings in business, social settings, and political rallies and fund raising events. But as reported, Trump was apparently neither immune nor invulnerable to the COVID-19 virus, and in the beginning of October the virus caught up to him, and hospitalized him.
Because of Trump’s well established record of falsifying all things for political and financial gain, it is being suspected by many, that this claim of being infected with the corona virus, this close to the November 3, Presidential election, which was going badly for him, may be fake news. It is suspected that he may be politicizing and weaponizing the claim to infection in a calculated move to remove himself, and his wife, from public scrutiny, for a time, until the tide of very negative coverage for them both subsides, and a corresponding tide of sympathy arises to help reverse his falling political and personal fortunes. Naturally one is sympathetic to those suspicions, based entirely on Trump’s falsehood festooned past.
Trump has been trailing his Democrat opponent Joe Biden consistently throughout this election cycle, but recently his fortunes, both political and personal, took a decided turn for the worse, as an unflattering expose of his tax filings, and business failings, by the New York Times, was followed by his atrocious, embarrassing, and wilfully disruptive school-bully performance at the first Presidential debate, with wide-spread condemnation from practically all.
In the aftermath of both, and with the relentlessly rising infections and death toll of the uncontrolled pandemic (over 7 Million Americans infected and over 200,000 dead), Trump was taking political and personal body blows that registered resoundingly in the daily public polls. To make matters worse, a secret tape of his wife, Melania, venting her frustrations to a former assistant also came to light, which was damning in exposing the less than flattering image of her as an entitled, cynical, narcissistic sociopath, as uncaring and contemptuous of Christmas decorations at the White House, as for migrant children separated from their parents, and caged in the US due to her husband’s immigration policies. It further taped her as rather callously being quite critical and cynical of immigrants and migrants seeking security and a better life in the US, oblivious to her own past reality of being an immigrant to the US, originally from Yugoslavia (now Slovenia), and initially called Melanija Knavs, now Melania Trump, who then sponsored her parents to America through ‘chain immigration’ policy, for precisely similar reasons as most regular people who come to America.
These latest political woes of Trump, and the damning eye-opening personal confessions and expletives laced rants of Melania were damaging enough for both to be seeking cover till damage control and the fall-outs can be contained, if not erased.
For all those that don’t trust Trump and his motives, ever, the timing of the announcement of both of them getting infected, at this particular time, aroused active suspicion and scepticism, quite understandably. But bizarrely, the supporters of Trump who have always delighted, supported and excused his lack of sympathy, empathy, and his open vilifying and abuse of all, now demanded that the opponents of Trump show him respect, sympathy and empathy.
This is where the divide in America not only showed, but was once again greatly magnified, as the politically divided American citizenry reacted with sympathy on the Right, and general glee and satisfaction on the Left, for the frustratingly callous President who finally got his comeuppance for making light-of, denying, and irresponsibly downplaying the seriousness and the aggressiveness of the COVID-19 virus; and for calling all those who lost battles, personal or professional, as ‘suckers and losers’, whether in the military, or in private life.
Considering Trump’s callousness, meanness and downright cruelty to people like John McCain, Hillary Clinton and endless list of others that were struggling with illness, handicaps, bigotry, prejudice, or were just unfortunate enough to be non-white, or incur his displeasure by trying to do their job rather than pander to him, the fact that his supporters now wanted everyone to be civil, decent and downright considerate of the infected President, and his less than genteel wife, was the surreal part of the ‘Trump world’ that darkens all moments and incidents of his and everyone else’s life.
So the majority of Americans are if not gleeful that Trump got infected, certainly are being politer than he or his followers would ever have been if the roles had been reversed and Joe Biden had gotten infected, as that is the Liberal Left, gentler and politer. But there are some on the Left that are fully relishing the ‘Karma-moment’ as Trump seems to get what he seemingly dared with his active defiance of the virus during these months of the pandemic.
Regardless, whether Trump is really infected, or is merely being his normal manipulating-self, even in the act of being possibly infected, he will further divide America, rather than unify it.