Trump -- Tough Guy Unmasked

"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.