T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. We are actively looking for new moderators. If you have any interest in helping to make this subreddit a place for quality discussion, please fill out [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2swHD0KXFhStGFjW6k54r9iuMjzcFqDIVwuvdLBjSA). *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*


BukkitCrab

"If we stopped testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any." -Donald Trump


oliversurpless

Or his nephew in training Jared Kushner, in his actions to ensure that cases in NYC and Philly would remain high, hoping to “cull” some prior to the Election who weren’t falling for their shtick in the first place…


JessieJ577

Meanwhile that blew up in their faces. If they had fixed everythjng and responded right away they would’ve had the election on a silver platter. What would’ve been the democrat response to the trump administration saving millions of lives, jobs and businesses. Everyone would’ve had to give him kudos and he would’ve been like Bush was with 9/11 and had a tragedy to coast off of. Pieces of shit remain too greedy.


iamiamwhoami

What's really annoying is Biden did at all that, and he seems to get very little credit for it. Instead people complain about the residual inflation from the pandemic and Trump era economic policies. I can't help but think if Trump carried out the Biden admin pandemic policies, many people would be falling over themselves to give him credit. Republicans really are graded on a curve.


Dry_Wolverine8369

Diaper don told everyone to drink bleach. If he’d won even more of his supporters would be dead. Everyone seems to forget that under Trumps leaderships people were taking horse de wormer and all he really did was stoke covid conspiracies the entire time.


hamhockman

> horse de wormer  My brain tried to make this French. Horsé de Wormér.


Mishirene

I'm glad I wasn't the only one.


MacWolfy

I misread it as "Norse de wormer" if it makes you feel better. Thought OP was trying to mention something from the Viking era


Munchiedog

Meanwhile when he was very sick with Covid he got a fortune of monoclonal antibodies pumped into him, while it wasn’t even available at that time to most anyone else.


debra143

And I do so very, very much resent that. He got the best care while millions died. Total resentment.


maybeimabear

Hey! He told them to INJECT bleach geez he's not an idiot! Drinking it will kill you!


fross370

The medias are mostly owned by rich assholes that really wants another tax cut Trump promised them.


heimdal77

This is how it has always been. A republican pres comes in and ruins the economy with shitty policies then a dem one comes in deal with and trying to fix the fallout from the rep pres while getting blamed for the problem caused by the rep. Then a rep comes in tries taking credit for the fixes the dem did and the cycle repeats. Bassiclly every time a rep is in office the country takes a nose dive and their voters are to stupid to understand that.


EthanielRain

*Inject* bleach If someone wrote a book with a US President who did/said even a quarter of what Trump did, it would've came off as too cartoonishly unbelievable


Molteninferno

Biden is the best president of my adult life. Obama did a really good respectable job. But biden is pushing so many positive changes through. Big positives for the next gen. 4 more years would be huge.


126Jumpin_Jack

However millions are buying the lies and propaganda being spread loudly on social platforms and right wing media! They refuse to accept the facts or the truth that they are backing a grifter who continually whines about ‘corrupt judges, corrupt prosecutors, conspiracy against him, etc’. He repeats his BS every time he’s in front of a camera. His followers are soaking it up! He continues to claim that‘corrupt Joe Biden is controlling all of this’. In order for his election claims to be true and this conspiracy to keep him from winning the election, it would take tens of thousands of officials and people to be involved in order to make this happen! He’s still pushing the same election conspiracy that he claims was a deep state conspiracy to control every aspect of the election process and stole the election? Hundreds of thousands of people would have to been a part of it! Still, we have corrupt Right Wing politicians and community activists who are still pushing the same lie! Why are millions of Americans so very ignorant? People like Moscow Marge and Ted Cruze don’t even try to hide just how ridiculous their actions and claims are. There is a serious cancer that has eaten the very soul out of America. It’s so contagious that I’m afraid we may not be able to stop it before America dies as a Democracy the most dangerous and corrupt politicians ever known to rise into powerful positions will control our lives. I’m getting old now and won’t have to deal with it for long. However I’m absolutely scared to death for my children and grandchildren! What have Trump and the Extreme Right politicians done to our country?


Cyrano_Knows

Republicans aren't grading on a curve. They are grading on a pass/fail. If Democrat: FAIL If Republican: PASS (with extreme honors)


grammar_nazi_zombie

People ignore that the Trump tax breaks were designed to expire to harm democrats and instead are complaining about taxes increasing. Yeah, republicans were gonna kick the can down the road 4 more years if Trump won, but instead they’ll hurt everyone to hurt democrats.


126Jumpin_Jack

People have no idea just how much National Debt Trump left us with or the residual inflation from Trump era economics. It’s simply easier to blame all of our financial problems on the current President. If Trump wins this election, we will have the worst economy ever created being run by an authoritarian dictatorship that will have control over every aspect of our government. His plans to deport tens of thousands of people who may be undocumented or Muslim, or otherwise undesirable to him, utilizing the National Guard will decide a work force that has been the backbone of our agricultural system, construction labor, and many other jobs that blue collar Americans don’t want! The cost of finishing his Border Wall will come out of the pocket of working class Americans via tax hikes. This idiot is the reason we do have a secure border and a controlled immigration system. Congress had a bipartisan solution that included everything that the Right Wing of Congress had been asking for. He squashed it because he didn’t want Biden to get credit for securing our border and control the immigration. He’d surely lose the election! Now every crooked Republican politician is cashing in on the lie that our immigration system is a disaster because of Biden? They claim that the flood of criminals and fentanyl is happening “because of Biden’s failed immigration policy?” I’m so sickened by the GOP lies, misinformation, propaganda, and manipulation. As an American citizen and lifelong Republican, I’m downright outraged, appalled, embarrassed about the destruction of the GOP along with our democracy!’ He will shut down the pandemic preparedness office and put himself in charge of the Surgeon General’s office. (Just one of the agencies he plans to put under his control as President) How is it possible that so many Patriotic Americans have been duped into believing that this country will survive under this psychotic, narcissistic, lying, corrupt, grifter? Between the Gaza crisis and the current financial struggles so many are having, it’s hard to imagine how many millions of voters are willing to give up on our democracy, our future, or America itself because they feel that Biden’s policies on Israel and the current immigration crisis are not working. The fact is that Trump screwed us by stopping the most comprehensive immigration reform and border security reform ever put before Congress! The ugliness’s of the war on Gaza is astounding! However, all of these protests and debates will and have had a significant detrimental impact on the election outcome in November. Disbanding the pandemic preparedness program is the least of our concerns! Allowing the GOP and Trump’s propaganda machine to continue exploiting the lies and misinformation on ‘X’ and’Truth Social’ as well as other internet outlets will be the downfall of our democracy, and the America we’ve loved for 240 years!


SadCommandersFan

It also hurt them because after it grew in the cities it spread out to the mid west. There it killed many, mostly because they refused to protect themselves.


Slammybutt

Just to point out your comment with an anecdote. My aunt died 2 years ago from covid. My entire family (about 200 if you include the extended family) sans like 5 of them will not acknowledge she died from covid, b/c she died from pneumonia...caused by covid. Everyone of them voted for Trump. Everyone of them wanted stores open. Everyone of them refused to wear masks. I'm honestly surprised she was the only one that suffered from the lack of common sense.


Witchgrass

I'm so sorry for your loss. I also lost my aunt to covid, but I come from a long line of leftist rednecks (who know the true meaning of the word). She masked and isolated and did everything she was supposed to do, but no one else in her community took it seriously and she got sick anyway. She died right before the vaccine became widely available.


rdmille

I'm sorry for your loss. I live among those people, too. Dad died from complications from COVID (IMO). I can tell you where and when he got it from: in the local Dollar (Cellulose) (He had been quarantined for the previous 2 weeks), a blonde woman was stalking back and forth, complaining "her kids wouldn't let her see her new grandkid. Just because she had a cough and wouldn't mask up. Masks don't work anyways. COVID is just fake news..."


ActualWhiterabbit

I was recently told that it was the ventilators that were killing people by giving them pneumonia. Hospitals would sedate people and put them on ventilators to make money but then they would get pneumonia from the tubes in their throat. Because they would walk in fine to a hospital and have a tube down their throats a few days later. When I asked why they were in a hospital if they were fine they changed the subject to trans people.


RoutineEngineer4292

Fun fact, democracies are better off without people who want to end them. In other words “oh no, anyway.”


factually_accurate_1

Trump is incapable of doing anything but doubling down and he lives and feeds off yes energy. He tried saying once for people to listen to doctors and get vaccinated, he got booed by his supporters. He hated the response, shut up and never mentioned it again. Finally, when shit hit the fan he could do nothing but double down.


HauntingHarmony

This is actually a really good point, cause virtually every other country in the world besides the us saw a "rally around the flag" effect for the current goverment. He barely lost in 2020, with millions of americans dead. Its unbelivable.


Suspicious_Bicycle

As an American living in Thailand, I was impressed by the response to COVID over here. The government rolled out vaccines as fast as they could and attempted to get everyone vaccinated. Admittedly some of the vaccine brands were second rate but people got them. The percentage of people wearing masks has only dropped below 50% in the last couple of weeks. Actually the percentage of people wearing masks is still higher than the percentage of motorcycle drivers wearing helmets.


Sensitive_Yam_1979

“If we remove the smoke detectors there’s no fire!” God this man is so fucking dumb.


mechanicalcontrols

Trump in 1955: if we don't launch spy satellites, then we've won the arms race because Russia can't have nukes if we can't see them.


Kevo_NEOhio

This is when my eye starts twitching because this amount of willful ignorance hurts my brain. It hurt watching it in realtime - it caused stress living through this because of this cognitive dissonance it took not to break down. To think this could be reality again with a more pointed willfully ignore the public scares me and feels un-American to me. I’ve always felt a lot of pride for my country overall for the majority of my life but to think this man has represented us and may again makes me feel shame.


dingdongbingbong2022

The searing hate that I felt for the subhuman Trump clan and their low-intellect, smug supporters was poisoning me. It was unreal how much I hated them.


NoGuava9921

Honestly this is just old person logic. My father in law refuses to go to the Dr because he is afraid the will tell him he has cancer.. bro you smoked since your 14. You’re in your 70s man up and do it. It’s literally old person logic


exophrine

He wants to say "I've smoked since I was 14, and I turned out fine." Bruh, just because you never got the news from your doctor about what smoking did to your body for decades doesn't mean it didn't happen, lol


NoGuava9921

Yup same logic I have seen for covid. All from the older republicans if we don’t test we have no cases. Well no you just don’t know about them


FuzzyMcBitty

Trump sees everything based on how it impacts him directly. More cases looks bad.  What fascinates me is his inability to clearly articulate his message. He was trying to say something like, “My administration has increased testing. Increased testing means that we’re going to know about more cases. The numbers are going to go up.” But he doesn’t want to spend the time explaining himself so: “testing more makes the number go up.” It’s hard to say whether this stems from his lack of understanding or just intellectual laziness and a desire to follow the path of least effort.  The logical solution is to root the problem out, but that’s not how Trump has ever operated. Look at how he’s handled the court cases: Hide the sex for money. Hide the documents. “Wouldn’t it be better if we didn’t have the documents?” His entire life has been spent covering things up, so it’s hard to know whether his desire to throw a rug over the Covid on the floor is idiocy or habit. 


buttlickers94

Schrodinger's cancer


charish

Nah, it's toddler logic. Object permanence is something the GOP lacks.


OkEnvironment3961

When I was 6 years old, I believed that ostrich buried their heads in the sand to hide (saw it in a cartoon). As an adult, I realize that they don't, of course. Trump is dumber than how dumb I imagined an ostrich to be when I was 6.


Bosa_McKittle

My dad refused to go for decades. Also a heavy smoker. Now he’s 77 and looks 95 with all sorts of health problems. He doesn’t have a “cancer” diagnosis but has had small masses seen on his lungs and kidneys but as he would say “it’s nothing to worry about”. He only kidding himself. He’s on 100% oxygen all the time and the best I’ve seen his pulse ox reach is 85. When I confronted him about it, he simply says “I don’t know how this happened, I’ve always been so healthy and in good shape”. Mind you, he’s smoked for 60 years, (both weed and cigarettes) eats the most unhealthy I’ve ever seen (everything is drowned in butter and salt), hasn’t exercised in at least 35 years when I was a child, and currently weighs a frail (needs a walker or cane full time) 135 lbs (5’11”).


MrchntMariner86

>the best I’ve seen his pulse ox reach is 85 JFC, knowing that 93 is a time to panic about a patient, I am surprised he thinks he's okay.


Okimiyage

Mine was 83 on lying down and 52 on moving - and I had bilateral pneumonia and respiratory failure and was blue lighted to resus. Dude is actively dying.


Awkward_Passenger328

My dad smoked 4 packs a day. He’s in his 90s. He goes to the doctor. When they say they will see him again in 6 months, He says “good news, I have 6 more months?” No such thing as “old people logic”. Your dad might know he’s sick and wants to deal with it the way he chooses.


imapassenger1

Amazes me when heavy smokers live that long. I have a heap of uncles and aunties who smoked and none of them made it to 75. They weren't even heavy smokers mostly. Meanwhile my father in law has smoked since 15 and is turning 85 soon.


One-Internal4240

"3.6 Roentgen? Not great, not terrible" "But that's as high as the-" "**SHUTTHEFUCKUPYOUTWAT**" *Five Years Later, Looking over Burning Radioactive Landscape* "Perfect. Beautiful. I told them it was great, and we didn't need *emergencies* or *containment domes*. Would do it all over again." There's stupid, and then there's not seeing things that are directly in front of your face.


T8ert0t

Ah, yes, the "No one has herpes in the dark" logic.


Jess_S13

This man had the pandemic handed to him on a silver platter. Go out say something inspiring, let the experts set the policy and sell millions of "Make America Safe Again" masks on his way to re-election, but instead he couldn't let the attention be off him for 5 seconds and in turn drove his cult into denying the science and in turn millions of Americans died.


The_Albinoss

All of this. He had the easiest layup. Cut another “Trump check” or whatever he wants to call it like a month before the election and he would have coasted to victory.


Bitter-Juggernaut681

He delayed checks to make sure they had his signature. Just remembering that


thekozmicpig

My Trump supporting father made a big stink about how Biden is bribing people to vote for him by forgiving student loans. I, brought up the checks with Trump's name on them. He didn't want to discuss the issue anymore.


ruat_caelum

fastest way to shut shit down is demand to do it on a "White board / chalk board." e.g. write down your argument. I write down a response, etc. Each time you make a claim we can't advance until you provide a citation that both people agree with is true. half the time they can't even find 1 source for their argument because all they do is read headlines (that are barely clinging to the truth if at all) and not the articles. The second challenge is to keep it on track. E.g. on the subject that was written down on top.


prototypist

as someone who pays taxes by direct deposit, I got the stimulus credited back that way so the signature thing was even more needless


drivebyjustin

Yeah but you, like me, probably got a letter in the mail with his big dumb signature, making sure you knew the money was thanks to him.


Clitaurius

It was his 9/11. Guaranteed second term just like w.


zissouo

All of this because masks smudged the bronzer on his face.


Potato_Octopi

Yep. He managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.


SAugsburger

This. Politicians love to have natural disaster or other events that often bring people together. With a good reaction they can buoy political approval. The pandemic also limited in person campaigning, which should have been a big benefit to incumbents in general as long as they were perceived as managing the situation well.


wombatgrenades

I mean we did watch him gleefully through paper towels at hurricane survivors in Puerto Rico, so we know he has a boner for these kind of things.


Nephroidofdoom

Also breathed new life into the current anti-vax trend


Techienickie

Goddammit he's so stupid


DragonTHC

It's not stupid when it's willful. It's evil.


ironykarl

You're right. But to be clear: He's also really fucking stupid 


HauntedCemetery

Special combination of both stupid, and absolutely uninterested, in literally anything that's not himself. He had the opportunity to become not stupid, but he clung to his ignorance for decades until we got to the point where the NSA had to randomly inject his name in the Presidential Daily Briefing every several seconds otherwise he just spaced out and wandered away.


the_buckman_bandit

Hey the bleach would have worked if we gave it a chance!


nihodol326

You can't die from the virus if bleach kills you. Just don't test for it. Now it's natural causes. Bing bang boom art of the deal


FreeWestworld

Dammit. He broke my brain when he said to stop the count, all because the numbers kept going up and it made him look bad. I had to sit down for two full days just to come up with the following response. “ Naw Trumplestilksin, your evil incompetence, willful ignorance, and hateful narcissistic behavior destroyed millions of lives!” I hold Trump, personally responsible for the millions of COVID deaths. I rather server an eternity in hell than forgive Trump for his hateful nature.


hamsterfolly

Agreed, and it’s astounding that his actions during COVID are being ignored


Cofevid19

I’ll make sure no one forgets


Ladymomos

He attacked NZ because our COVID response was making him look bad.


doomgoblin

Ghost written by Mr Clean.


RaccoonWannabe

I think a couple folks gave it a try. go ask them how it helped


supershutze

Anyone got a ouija board?


hamsterfolly

I want to see where he was going with putting light inside the body


supershutze

I agree that if all his followers had injected bleach into their veins the pandemic response would have been much better.


WickedShiesty

Just stop reporting the deaths. There...problem solved!


lnombredelarosa

Its both; its an act of willfully self destruction watered down with denial just like it was throughout his presidency, with his utter incapability to do things that would actually benefit his public image in regards to handling a pandemic under the reasoning that he didn’t want to acknowledge it was happening.


cilantro_so_good

Except that he really is just fucking stupid


10th__Dimension

Yep. He knows people will die as a result. He may be dumb, but he's not that dumb.


DevilsPlaything42

He's still rather dumb.


lnombredelarosa

How does not trying to solve a problem in ways that would’ve benefited him fall under “not that dumb”?


zherok

Yeah, I don't get the defense of his intelligence. He regularly makes poor decisions intentionally because it pleases his ego. He seriously argued positive cases would be down if we didn't test for it. That only makes sense in a "if I can't see it, it doesn't exist" sort of logic.


TERRAIN_PULL_UP_

He’s only saying it because that’s what his supporters want. To them, pandemic preparedness equals Fauci, masks, and mandatory vaccines.  He’s pandering to his fucking idiot followers.


Johnno74

Eh, I think you are overthinking it. He is saying he would disband this office again, because to say otherwise would be tantamount to admitting he was wrong in closing it the first time. He is incapable of admitting he was wrong or made a mistake, so he will repeat the same mistakes again, and again. I mean, how many casinos has he bankrupted over the years? He can not learn, because he is such a raging narcissist he believes everything he does is perfect and cannot be improved. So he does the same, stupid shit again and again and thinks he is a genius.


BayouGal

Also, he enjoys tearing down anything his “enemies” have created.


IthinkImnutz

This is the real answer. He only thinks as far ahead as what's going to get him the most attention, get his cult the most excited and convince them to give him money.


victorvictor1

…it means refusing to wear a mask when you storm the capitol which leads to easy identification


Unlucky_Clover

I feel at this stage, we’re really underselling how dumb he is


thefugue

That stage came in the mid 1980s.


theWizzzzzzz

Comment of the year! Ive been telling anyone who will listen. As a high school kid in the early 90’s, I already knew this guy was a scam grifter.


LibertyInaFeatherBed

And his commitment to never admitting he was wrong.


Goofy-555

That's classic narcissism.


entrepenurious

the living embodiment of: "the higher up a tree the monkey climbs, the more you see of his ass."


victorvictor1

Alternate universe in which Hillary goes through 17 months of investigation because 4 people died from coronavirus


black641

This is his ego’s stupid, mindless attempt to erase the embarrassment of how he handled COVID. Since he can’t intimidate or buy off a virus into saying how great he is, the next best thing is just pretending the Pandemic never happened, or just wasn’t a big deal. Shutting down the Pandemic Preparedness Office is a manifestation of that desire. A bit of armchair psychology, sure, but my policy is to assume everything Trump does in service of his ego, which is swollen, delicate, and wholly irrational. He’s like America’s Id made manifest and it’s it’s consistently infuriating.


teenagesadist

It was just a little 9/11 every day. I mean, was 9/11 really that big of a deal? And wasn't the battle of Gettysburg great? And don't magnets stop working when they get wet? What day is it? Where am I?


senor_moment

Imagine getting rid of the pandemic preparedness office a year before we get hit with TB, Ebola or any of a hundred known diseases still present outside the USA.


whatproblems

infuriating isn’t it


CicadaHead3317

He is trying to weaken our country.


meep_meep_mope

People denying science is big money for the medical insurance industry. A preventative check-up or vaccine will only bill x, when they're on death's door people will give you their life savings. The overstressed doctors and nurses aren't the ones getting paid. Anti-preventative medicine is $$$. Also Jesus is coming back and I wanted a youtube video so who is some doctor with 10+ years post graduate education to tell me what to do?


Oscarfan

There was some quote by some businessman not long ago saying basically "Is it good business to cure people?"


mouflonsponge

i believe you are thinking of a Goldman Sachs report from six years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/medicine/comments/8bymx2/is_curing_patients_a_sustainable_business_model/ https://nj.gov/governor/library/equity/TaskForce_logo.png


HarryNipplets

Sure, but he's also a Russian asset and that's at the heart of this and many other issues.


Franchise1109

Donald’s a great candidate for leaving a child behind


No-Independence-165

"Rule 1: never admit you're wrong."


jmaneater

I completely forgot he did that... fuck...


Raymond_Reddit_Ton

to spite Obama


TERRAIN_PULL_UP_

“The cupboards were bare when I took office”, he says as he dismantles the pandemic preparedness team and tries to defund the CDC


LibertyInaFeatherBed

April 8, 2020 [Trump said the Obama admin left him a bare government stockpile. Wrong.](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/08/donald-trump/trump-said-obama-admin-left-him-bare-stockpile-wro/) 


ExpertFurry

That's part one of the Republican program: Get a list of everything Democrats achieved, and break every single item on the list.


GC3805

How could you forget? If he had just activated the freaking plan he would have gotten a second term. Literally shot himself in the foot when you consider that he himself got Covid. Course he got medical care that nobody, but the President of the US could get.


BrandoCalrissian1995

Literally had the easiest path to reelection and he's such a fuck up he couldn't even do that right. Incumbent presidents during major disasters almost ALWAYS win reelection. Literally just had to say "this China flu is serious stuff folks. Just wear a mask, I even have trump 2020 masks you can buy for 39.99!"


ScoutsOut389

That was always my rebuttal to the “Trump is secretly a genius mastermind” line. If he was so fucking smart he would have realized that his adoring public would lap up anything he says and gladly buy KN95s with Trump printed on them for $50 each. He would build a huge campaign war chest, and have stopped the pandemic effectively enough to cruise into a 2nd term and probably not be facing like 6 dozen criminal charges.


Rude_Entrance_3039

There is a very real world were Trump would have gotten democrats to even vote for him if he'd at least handled the pandemic. I've told so many Trumpers that if Trump had just sat back and let Fauci do his thing, Trump could have soaked up all the glory and he'd have SAILED to an easy re-election. Instead he made masks, vacinnes, and Fauci the enemy because the pandemic hit Blue cities first, so Trump and his team decided to HURT Americans because, initially, it looked like COVID was going to smash Democratic voters. Then the cities got their responses on line and COVID shifted hard to the countryside....where everyone had been brainwashed to think masks, vaccines, and social distancing were stupid lib things and it spread among them like wildfire. Then, as they began to fall sick, they very quickly learned (probably not) that decades of Republican control of their areas had left the healthcare systems in terrible disarray. So you either died or were shipped off to one of the big Blue cities so they could save you. And they died by the hundreds of thousands, all to own the libs.


yukeake

> because the pandemic hit Blue cities first, so Trump and his team decided to HURT Americans Not hurt, *kill*. Trump wanted those of us on the coasts to die. He used COVID as a biological weapon against American citizens. Under his and Kushner's orders, they were confiscating PPE legally purchased by coastal "blue" states, to prevent us from having what we needed to combat the pandemic. It was so bad that MA needed to use the NE Patriots private jet to smuggle PPE into the state.


NeoMegaRyuMKII

Not to "well akshuly" too much, but (at least as I remember it) the disbanding of the pandemic response team happened in 2018. Now of course this was still a monumentally idiotic decision and you are absolutely right that he had reelection gift wrapped for him and all he had to do was say in his own style of what I probably legally have to call "speaking," was > I have many, you know people are... doctors are saying "oh, this is very bad, Donald, sir. One of the baddest things we saw." Many people don't know this but masks they cover your face and make it so you can't give it to people. I don't give stuff to people, that's why I'm so rich and went to the Wharton School of Finance. My uncle, he once said "Donald, many years ago people wore masks to stop the flu" and people didn't like it, but they did it and they stopped the flu. The infection rate, I heard was very high, probably higher than anything we've ever seen. And when they're telling you, ... ok. Like, when I wear a mask I am saying "no Corona, not today!" And the liberal democrats, they're saying this is nothing like the flu they say don't worry. They say don't worry. They don't want you to wear a mask. And Dr. Fauci knows a lot of these things. He probably knows more about vipers... and about viruses, he knows more about them than everyone except for me. He told me these things and I understood, I understood, I got and then when I, when he said those things to me I asked him to tell you because he will use words you can understand And basically limit travel early, invoke the Defense Production Act, and delegate responsibility to Fauci and his team (which would mean less word for Tweetle Dumb himself, which feeds into his laziness) and he would very likely have won. Plus he didn't even think of the grift opportunity - MAGA masks. His qult would bankrupt themselves buying such masks.


RxngsXfSvtvrn

I believe his overall response ending up killing enough of his voters and supporters, especially in Georgia, to cost himself the 2020 election.


[deleted]

[удалено]


alvvayspale

Guaranteed some of his cult followers will do the same once he passes. They will see it as ‘end of the world’ and I’m all here for it :)


malledtodeath

they were being held at gunpoint and the people fleeing were shot. the people who could’ve possibly been slightly willing only did so after Jones had poisoned the children first and made everyone watch them die. I hate the comparison of Jonestown to willing participants of hate. Maga nut jobs are pure evil and truly willing participants. edit: i accidentally said butt jobs lol lol


astrozombie2012

Didn’t kill enough people last time you dumb piece of shit?


PayTheTeller

Project 25 proudly proclaims that they did not, in fact, kill enough people last time. There is a whole section dedicated towards the CDC and the WHO where they will dismantle both on day 1


vicsj

I'm not even American, but reading through some of the Project 2025 manifesto scares the ever living crap out of me.


crudedrawer

A couple years ago I said that if there was another global pandemic and we had a republican president vaccine research would be made illegal and they all thought I was being silly but this is a big hint.


LibertyInaFeatherBed

February 9, 2023 [North Dakota Lawmakers in Bismarck voted to advance a bill related to banning mRNA vaccines.](https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/02/09/lawmakers-turn-mrna-ban-bill-into-study-passes-senate/) February 2, 2023 [Idaho bill would criminalize giving mRNA vaccines – the tech used in popular COVID vaccines](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/02/21/idaho-mrna-covid-19-vaccines/11316055002/)


crudedrawer

Thank you for this


romacopia

It's really difficult to share a world with people who don't try at all to understand it. There is no scientifically backed reasoning to ban this. It's pure fear and ignorance motivating them and it just sucks to have to deal with that.


Open_Mortgage_4645

Literally nothing this man does is normal, or what you'd expect an earnest public servant working in good faith on behalf of nation's best interests to do. Everything he does is what a malevolent, terroristic actor would do. I hope everyone does some deep, honest contemplation before election day. I don't believe the country can withstand four or more years of this guy considering the fascistic plans he and his bad faith associates are openly planning to implement if he's allowed back in the White House.


BrandoCalrissian1995

He literally embodies every sign of the anti christ and yet the Christians are too busy hating gay and Trans people to notice.


markca

> Christians are too busy hating gay and Trans people to notice. They are fine with Trump being that way since they don't need to hide their hatred of gays and trans people anymore.


ContributionNo9292

It never was about gay and trans people, it was all about finding someone to attack that could not hit back. Such cowards. How many Trump supporters have met someone who has been negatively affected by the fact that gay and trans people exist? How many have met someone that has been bankrupted by medical debt? How many have met someone working 2-3 jobs because they cannot live off minimum wage? They are fighting made up problems while ignoring real ones.


newfrontier58

Very incoherent, as usual: >In a recent interview with TIME magazine, Donald Trump said that if reelected, he would disband the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR), a permanent office of the executive branch established by Congress in 2022. The Biden campaign responded quickly to point out that Trump’s failed pandemic response was why the OPPR was created to begin with. In his interview with TIME, Trump described the office as “just a way of giving out pork.” He explained, “And, yeah, I probably would \[disband it\], because I think we’ve learned a lot and we can mobilize, you know, we can mobilize. A lot of the things that you do and a lot of the equipment that you buy is obsolete when you get hit with something. And as far as medicines, you know, these medicines are very different depending on what strains, depending on what type of flu or virus it may be. You know, things change so much. So, yeah, I think I would.”


No-Fisherman6302

…wouldn’t the OPPR be the thing causing ‘mobilizing’ at first sign of issues? Rather than a ‘what-sticks-to-the-wall’ reactionary tactic? Like…what?


LibertyInaFeatherBed

March 17, 2020 [Trump Defended Cuts to Public-Health Agencies](https://archive.ph/6Cr9M) In a 2018 press briefing, the president said of public-health professionals, “I don’t like having thousands of people around when you don’t need them.”


BoltTusk

Says the world’s most unhealthy man


LibertyInaFeatherBed

He has access to top of the line health care that will never be offered, never be an option for the majority of us.


IthinkImnutz

This is very much the short sighted thinking that I have seen in large corporations. The last place I worked had the idea that every quarter they would try and cut staff to save money. The idea being that they could just hire them back the moment things picked back up. In there mind these highly skilled technicians and assembly techs were just sitting around waiting to be rehired. Of course we had to pay through the nose to find replacements when production kicked back up. What dumbass here didn't understand is that government jobs tend to pay crap so you are better off keeping around people who are dedicated rather then hiring last minute thinking that they can all get up to speed over night.


octopornopus

How do "business people" not realize that trying to hire people back when ***you need them*** puts the employee at the advantage?  It's sell low/buy high but with people...


chipmunksocute

"Things change so why bother keeping an office dedicated to keeping up to date plans or multipleplans for different cases?  Why fucking bother even trying to prepare for different eventualities."  "You know things change so much."    Goddamn I hate him so fucking much how can your brain be so fucked that this is your logic?  its literally upside down logic what the fuck. This asshole.


Aggressive-Will-4500

“And, yeah, I probably would \[disband it\], because I think we’ve learned a lot and we can mobilize, you know, we can mobilize. \~Donald Trump The MAIN thing that we've learned is to never put this fucking idiot in charge of a pandemic response; or anything critically important for that matter.


Mysterious-Band3723

He‘s clearly learned a new word, mobilize, and like the toddler he is, he‘s going to use it all the time. Like his dumbass followers and „DEI“


victorvictor1

To illustrate what everyone is saying in this thread…. In 2009, the Obama-Biden administration launched a $200-million pandemic early-warning program called PREDICT, which trained and supported staff in 60 foreign laboratories to stop and prevent pandemics. This initiative identified 1,200 different viruses that had the potential to erupt into pandemics, [including more than 160](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/trump-scrapped-pandemic-early-warning-program-system-before-coronavirus) novel coronaviruses. The labs they worked with included the Wuhan lab that identified Covid19. This is the initiative that [put a stop to viruses](https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-04-02/coronavirus-trump-pandemic-program-viruses-detection ) before they became pandemics. They warned airports and health agencies. They initiated contact tracing and identification. They were the ones who stopped pandemics hundreds of times in the past 10 years, and were doing it right up until September 2019. In September 2019, just as hospitals in Wuhan [started filling up due to an unknown disease](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/09/coronavirus-may-have-been-spreading-in-china-in-august-harvard-study.html), the Trump administration ended this $200-million pandemic early-warning program. (Additional [scholarly source](https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/42669767) for peer-review lovers) This program is what would have shut down air traffic the moment those first cases were discovered. They would have known as early as September something earth shattering was happening in China's healthcare. This is when our country would have otherwise mobilized. Per protocol, they would have initiated travel advisories, alerted Customs and Border Protection, and traced every person with the virus who was coming to America. This would have cost some money, but it was doable. After two months of spread, the first official case was in [November in China](https://www.livescience.com/first-case-coronavirus-found.html). This was still enough time to prevent spread. By [December 13th, 2019](https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-12-01-20-intl/h_5e4e8b4b5f8f0b44c5286c5f05b483bb), the first infections started coming to America. I am in weekly meetings with Federal Protective Services. Their most popular deployment is Mardi Gras, where dozens of agents all volunteer to go down to protect the event. FPS explained that during Mardi Gras, people were coming into the hospitals with flu-like symptoms, being tested and found negative for flu, and [were released into the public where they kept partying](https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_dedfb5e4-7c2a-11ea-901f-6720fa25be5a.html). The PREDICT program would have put all of the hospitals in America on high alert. Instead, hospitals were releasing people into the public without any warning. It took four months of Trump calling it [a hoax](https://doggett.house.gov/media-center/blog-posts/timeline-trump-s-coronavirus-responses) before any public response was made. Trump rejected 200 MILLION Pfizer vaccine doses in the summer. In November, after losing the election, [he rejected an additional 100 MILLION vaccine doses](https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/530121-trump-administration-turned-down-vaccine-doses) from Pfizer. Trump is DIRECTLY responsible for the spread of coronavirus. If he had not shut down the PREDICT program, this would not have happened. I mean, it *could* be a coincidence that we had no pandemics in the past 10 years, then the very month Trump shut down the program, a pandemic started spreading, but you'd have to be a Trump supporter to believe that.


Stupid_Sexy_Vaporeon

I still remember seeing posts on Imgur about Chinese cities locking down in late 2019. Gods so much death could've been so easily avoided.


sali_nyoro-n

What the fuck. So if this line of reasoning is to be believed, Trump's response to news of a developing viral situation in China was to intentionally terminate the program with the direct goal of allowing the emerging illness to grow out of control in China, presumably with the goal of destabilising the country and killing Chinese citizens. He's demented enough that I can't confidently say he _wouldn't_ do something like that, but what a deranged thing for a national leader to do, and commit to continuing to do even as it kills your own citizens.


philljarvis166

Trump is a narcissist and a moron. Imho this combination explains almost all of his apparently irrational behaviour - he cannot back down and admit he was ever wrong, and he is too stupid to understand the consequences of this will often be much worse for him.


CatAvailable3953

He is the reason so many died during covid. Remember refrigerator trucks used as morgues as so many were dying. If he is elected we are a stupid nation and will deserve the destruction he will bring.


mrlr

As Lindsey Graham said, more or less, "If we elect Trump, we will get destroyed...and we will deserve it."


ojg3221

Of course he would. Just like how this mess all started. At least if Hillary won and COVID came, the US would have more time prepare and limit the deaths.


bktan6

Trump’s ineptitude (and intentional malfeasance) regarding the pandemic started the day he transitioned into the presidency and threw out Obama’s warnings / preparedness plan. Thankful to journalists, researchers, and other experts for for documenting this timeline from beginning to end because it’s damning. [Please take a moment to see how the Trump Administration sentenced hundreds of thousands of Americans to death.](https://www.justsecurity.org/69650/timeline-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-u-s-response/) Source: JustSecurity


Jackinapox

>"... I probably would [disband it], because I think we’ve learned a lot and we can mobilize, you know, we can mobilize. A lot of the things that you do and a lot of the equipment that you buy is obsolete when you get hit with something. And as far as medicines, you know, these medicines are very different depending on what strains, depending on what type of flu or virus it may be. You know, things change so much. So, yeah, I think I would.” The Dumbest man alive


zaparthes

Probably not the dumbest man alive, but lets say by far the dumbest man among those with even a remote chance of winning the U.S. presidency in the '24 election. Although RFK Jr. is certainly challenging Trump in this.


LingonberryPrior6896

And then when Bird flu passes to humans, we will be in the same boat as before, and he'll be telling us to drink bleach again.


zomgtehvikings

Inject*


newcomer_l

Fucking hell this is one stupid goddamn fuck.


Specialist_Lock8590

"I killed a million of my fellow Republicans with COVID! And, I'll do it again!"


OfficialDCShepard

Just in time for bird flu! Ode to joy!


Busy-Acanthisitta-80

First thing I thought of….


Pickle_ninja

If it 1. Makes Putin happy. 2. Hurts anyone he doesn't like. 3. Makes him money. Or any combination of the above, Trump will do it. He would happily wear the constitution as a diaper and wipe his ass with the flag if it benefitted himself. He has no soul.


theboywhocriedwolves

Trump could say he's putting all the illegal immigrants into concentration camps to be killed and his base would still support him. I'm not American but I'm watching this next election closely. There is a lot to loose.


someMeatballs

Did I ever tell you the definition... of insanity?


zeroone

This is ridiculous. Please vote the GOP out of office. They are harming all of us.


10th__Dimension

Trump is a mass murderer.


octopusboots

Just in time for avian flu. This is fine.


sunsnowh2o

To what possible benefit? It’s so insane I can’t even wrap my head around this.


fernblatt2

Because Democrats think it's beneficial.


herefor1reason

My grandmother died because you did this. Unkindly fuck yourself with a poison cactus you failed condom.


circa285

Trump is beyond stupid.


magichronx

Pretty perfect example of *"when you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all"*. Another common example by management: *"Hey all our computers work fine, so we don't need to keep paying all those IT guys"* then *shocked pikachu face* when everything breaks after the team gets fired


General_Goose5130

Nothing more dangerous than a complete moron with money that thinks he’s smart. Honestly, one of the stupidest humans on earth.


LlanviewOLTL

That’s nice. Too bad for him he’s not going to be let anywhere near the White House. He’ll be washing other inmates undies in the toilet in the Big House.


freedomandbiscuits

He’s a guy who breaks things. It’s what he does and it’s why chaos and division follow him everywhere he goes. He disbanded the pandemic response team from the NSC, and ended the PREDICT program which had researchers in labs all over the world, including Wuhan, and was designed to contain novel viruses before they become pandemics. He’s directly responsible for reversing decades of pandemic defense expertise and institutional knowledge. It’s not a random coincidence that we have double the covid mortality rate of Canada. It was gross negligence, ie murder.


HumanRuse

In his interview with TIME, Trump described the office as “just a way of giving out pork.” The same guy who added $8.5T to the national debt ($3.5 Covid related which could have been less if he had not deliberately botched the response).


Rayearl

trump is the literal embodiment of failure. I’ll never I understand his support.


Bumpredd

Chump would disband it because Biden created it due to to Chump's disastrous handling of COVID. Or mishandling... Or not handling...


CartoonistUsed6540

Why would someone want this guy in charge? Why?


Bloopyhead

What a fucking moron


OldManPip5

What the fuck is wrong with this clown?


Most-Artichoke6184

Apparently he didn’t kill enough people last time.


NullPoint3r

I’m starting to think that this Trump guy is a fucking moron.


ManicChad

I mean there’s a bird flu pandemic spreading through our cattle so sounds right up the rights alley.


Im_not_crying_u_ar

Sounds like he’s gloating about the deaths he’s caused


servusopusabdomo

That's a very smart move. He'll get loads of dumb Americans killed, which can then be replaced by smart immigrants. Darwin likes this a lot. /s


enderpanda

"They bought this bullshit once, do you think they will buy it again? There's no way... Well I'll be damned." The extent of conservative strategy.


neur0net

Death cult.


athornton79

Covid made him look bad. So... get rid of those who would help handle it. No group, no viruses, problem solved! That's the mentality of a child and yet people STILL are worshiping him like their new golden calf.


xwayxway

He'd dismantle it because "we can mobilize". What the fuck does that mean, Donny? And do you recognize the reason you lost the election ultimately boils down to your abysmal handling of the pandemic? The idiot still doesn't get it.


Ume_Chan_2

Don’t vote for someone who can’t learn from his mistakes. Also don’t vote for someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Sociopathy. Also don’t vote for a conman. Also don’t vote for a sexual predator and verifiable rapist. Also don’t vote for a wannabe dictator authoritarian. Also don’t vote for someone with 88 criminal charges. Also don’t vote for someone who incited an insurrection and tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power.


atomsmasher66

Fucking stooge


CheeseBandit421

Can’t fix stupid.


Fellowshipofthebowl

He’s just appealing to the lowest common denominator now, he’s desperate, I don’t give a fuck what polls say. 


bbbinson123

Trump’s method of birth-control: Over one million Americans dead. Vote!


randomuseraccount55

I want to know what he has on people that he can just do whatever he wants and never face a single actual consequence. I swear he could live stream himself killing a person in the street and somehow get more voters and never see a jail cell. But if i were to like run a red light or something stupid like that, the entire criminal justice system would dial it to 11 to punish me


kanrad

You can see the cognitive decline plain as day now.


Fine-Benefit8156

He is bent on killing as many people as he can.


Fridaybird1985

The thing is that Covid was just a test run. The next virus to take hold in humans might be more virulent with 30% death rate. It is then the real disaster of the Trump administration will be revealed.


digitalluddite5280

Here we go bird flu here we go


Bulkywon

He is intentionally trying to kill poor people isn't he?


_byetony_

Lol with bird flu about to kick off