Despite nonstop attacks and partisan smears from Democrats and the liberal media, President Donald Trump is leading with a steady hand, cool demeanor and more-than-capable staff. Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have proven to be strong voices as well, complementing the president’s leadership.
President Trump’s strong response to the coronavirus has been met with contempt by the American Left and its insatiable desire to take down Trump at any cost. For example, Democrats and the liberal media refuse to acknowledge the president’s early, decisive action to implement a ban on travelers from China. In fact, at the time, liberals and the social justice twitterverse accused the president of being racist.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, now the likely Democrat nominee for president, said “this is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia,” the day after the president’s prudent decision to implement his China travel ban.
The reality is President Trump is showing the exact kind of leadership necessary to navigate through this pandemic. Infectious disease experts have praised Trump’s response, with Dr. Fauci asserting that the U.S., “would be in a worse position,” if not for the president’s early decision to restrict travel and contain the virus.
On the economic front, the president is working closely with congressional leaders on a stimulus package that will provide much needed relief for millions of Americans and businesses impacted by the pandemic. The president is working to ensure hundreds of billions of dollars are sent directly to Americans to spur immediate spending as the economy grinds to a halt.
The president is also prepared to support American industries that have completely bottomed out due to the pandemic, including hotels, airlines and the travel industry. The U.S. Travel Association is projecting that over 4.5 million travel-related American jobs will be lost due to the coronavirus. The Association says it’s going to take an economic hit at least six times that of 9/11’s impact on the industry.
The president understands the gravity of the situation, heeding the advice of experts and refusing to engage in hypotheticals and hysteria pushed by many in the beltway media establishment.
Another peculiar element of the American Left’s unhinged hatred for Trump is its apoplectic response to the president’s use of the term Chinese Virus. What they don’t discuss is the fact that the president started using the term after the Communist Party of China started floating unfounded theories that the United States was the source of the virus.
Deflecting from its own series of serious missteps to contain the virus in late 2019, Chinese officials are promoting a baseless conspiracy theory that coronavirus is an American disease that was introduced to Wuhan by visiting members of the U.S. Army.
President Trump is not going to just lay back and allow the Communist Party of China to cover up the facts and launch false attacks against our military. The term “Chinese Virus” simply refers to the likely origin of the virus.
The American Left and the liberal media are being extremely disingenuous. While the sentiment behind efforts to steer away from naming viruses after where they originate is commendable, the use of such terms does not come from a place of xenophobia or racist intent.
Instead of prioritizing their misguided, counterproductive identity politics agenda, the American Left and liberal media should highlight the disastrous response by the Communist Party of China and how it’s exacerbated the pandemic.
If Democrats and the liberal media chooses to take the side of the Communist Party of China, that says a lot about who they are and where their priorities lie. Remember the NBA and China?
Superstar players had no issue with exercising their freedom of speech when it came to Trump and the National Anthem, yet when Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey took a position in support of the Hong Kong anti-government protesters, those very same players (and coaches) refused to speak out against the Communist Party of China. This is not an indictment on the players as much as it is an indictment on the American media landscape which encourages anti-Trump rhetoric but seems to discourage any attacks against the Communist Party of China.
The safety, security, and health of the American people remains the President’s top priority. The Trump administration’s transparent, whole-of-government approach to mitigate the spread of coronavirus is unprecedented and aggressive. It’s why 63 million Americans voted for Trump in 2016, and it’s why these same folks, and a new block of voters, will reelect President Trump in the fall.
As the sun set on September 11, 2001, two hundred or so lawmakers — senators and representatives, Republicans and Democrats — stood shoulder to shoulder and sang God Bless America while holding hands, sending a powerful message that America was going to be ok, that we were all in this together — shoulder to shoulder.
Unfortunately, today’s crisis will play out over months, and the threat is naked to the human eye—but we know for certain that a scene akin to that night on the Capitol steps is unlikely to occur anytime soon—and not just because of social distancing.
Ted Goodman is a Washington-D.C. based political consultant having previously served as Communications Director for U.S. Representative Greg Pence (IN-06) and John James for U.S. Senate in 2018. (Twitter: @TedCGoodman)