"But
did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him? And then he
makes a speech, and he always has it – not always, but a lot of
times, he has it hanging down. Because, you know what, it gives him a
feeling of security. If I were a psychiatrist — right? I'd say,
this guy's got some big issues. Hanging down. Hanging down."
– Donald
Trump at campaign rally in Pennsylvania on September 3, 2020
In Trump's mind, he
believes this comment really stings Joe Biden and makes him look
weak. In truth, the comment is more than just mudslinging politics:
It is unforgivable rhetoric from a president downplaying the
importance of wearing a mask the day after the U.S. topped 185,000
deaths from Covid-19 and the virus was projected to kill more than
400,000 by the end of this year.
Public health experts have
emphasized the importance of face coverings amid the country's
reopening, given that people without symptoms could unknowingly
transmit the virus. Masks are primarily to prevent people who have
the virus from infecting others. Yet, this encouraging and modeling
this practice is evidently of little importance to the president.
Trump likes to think of
himself as a tough guy … a forceful leader. He likes other tough
guys, even notorious autocrats like Putin and Kim Jong-un. Masks, in
the President's world, are not the sort of thing a tough guy wears.
They don't fit his bad-ass political persona.
However …
Masks didn't have to be
political. Wearing them is a matter of public health not a badge of
partisanship. However, thanks to the Trump campaign, masks seem to be
turning into one more emblem of political polarization. Wear one and
you are taking the virus and the social distancing prescription
seriously. Refuse, and you signify something else that may be denial
or even defiance. And, God knows Trump pushes reopening the economy
over health matters with unwavering consistency.
In his continued attempts
to equate mask-wearing with wimpiness (and Democrats), Trump
encourages his most ardent supporters to engage in behaviors that
make everyone more likely to contract the coronavirus. Just look at
his recent, overwhelmingly unmasked campaign rallies and his push on
universities to continue reopening amid a string of campus
coronavirus outbreaks.
Trump views his entire
presidency through the lens of television – mostly reality TV and
cable news. The supreme narcissist, he is very focused on how he is
portrayed and perceived. And he wants the image that the public gets
of him to be that of a strong and fearless leader … which, in his
mind, does not include wearing a mask.
Trump, who is known to be
especially concerned about his appearance on television, has also
told confidants that he fears he would look ridiculous in a mask and
the image would appear in negative ads.
The Associated Press
reports that Mr Trump has told advisors he believes wearing one would
“send the wrong message,” according to one administration and two
campaign officials not authorized to publicly discuss private
conversations.
Trump reportedly feels it
would look like he is preoccupied with health instead of focused on
reopening the nation’s economy – which his aides believe is the
key to his reelection chances.
Preoccupied with health?
How
about even just “occupied”?
Trump has largely
kept his public focus elsewhere: "law and order" or "our
heritage."
Acknowledging the
difficult reality of the pandemic is hard to sell, so Trump says
things like the virus is "going to sort of just disappear"
– a message he has repeated since the early days of the pandemic.
Remember when Trump
tweeted on February 25, a declaration that the virus was “very much
under control” in the United States? Vera Bergengruen and W.J.
Hennigan of Time report …
“But it (COVID-19)
wasn’t (under control), and the administration’s rosy messaging
was fundamentally at odds with a growing cacophony of alarm bells
inside and outside the U.S. government. Since January,
epidemiologists, former U.S. public health officials and experts have
been warning, publicly and privately, that the administration’s
insistence that containment was – and should remain – the primary
way to confront an emerging infectious disease was a grave mistake.”
(Vera
Bergengruen and W.J. Hennigan. “‘Doomed from the Start.’
Experts Say the Trump Administration’s Coronavirus Response Was
Never Going to Work.” Time. March 05, 2020.)
With his misguided words
and actions, Trump takes the side of bullies who abuse their power.
He had a militarized police force tear-gas and rough up unarmed
peaceful protesters in a public space so that he could walk through a
park and stand next to a church holding up a Bible. He tried to shift
blame by invoking the right-wing fantasy of an Antifa boogeyman and
declared that Black Lives Matter is a symbol of hate. And, he sent
federal troops to Portland and other cities, where they used tactics
against protesters that smacked of foreign authoritarian regimes.
Why the bullying? Trump
has long been obsessed with “strength” while avoiding personal
risk – think of his 1968 Vietnam War draft deferment for bone spurs
and his mocking of Senator John McCain, who survived brutal torture
as a prisoner of war. Trump's tough-guy persona is bogus – he never
admits making a mistake nor does he apologize for anything. Making
fun of a person wearing a mask to stop the spread of a pandemic?
That's right up his alley – it's part of a defense to compensate
for his own inadequacies.
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