Trump's eagerness for a China deal to save his re-election was a reason that he dismissed the gathering warnings of a new pandemic in China. He failed to protect the country because he was trying to protect himself. Here's Trump in January 2020: 3/x - ThreadSky

davidfrum.bsky.social • 3 days ago

Trump's eagerness for a China deal to save his re-election was a reason that he dismissed the gathering warnings of a new pandemic in China. He failed to protect the country because he was trying to protect himself. Here's Trump in January 2020: 3/x

Comments

rijks.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's also this naked self-interest that makes him so easy to read, particularly for the Chinese in this case. Their long-term thinking is well-documented. He doesn't represent opaqueness, because even though his thoughts are mercurial - that in itself can be factored in, manipulated to some extent.

funkquistador.bsky.social•3 days ago

I hope China spanks him hard. And I hope the countries we previously treated as allies don’t step up to the plate to help out. I’m not thrilled about going through it, but I’m also tired of trying to warn fools that they’re just punching themselves in the crotch supporting this nonsense.

cmerlin.bsky.social•3 days ago

Exactly right. Despite his racist rhetoric about the "Wuhan," "China virus," and "kung flu pandemic," he totally gave Xi a pass because he needed a deal.
Normies then reacted to this racism ("stop Asian hate") and forcefully dismissed accusations of an engineered virus, whose counter reaction got us

cmerlin.bsky.social•3 days ago

a new conspiracy theory about the origins of the virus, breaking many brains in the process, like Nate silver's.

davidfrum.bsky.social•3 days ago

Trump ignored the COVID danger in late 2019-early 2020 because he sought a face-saving exit from the trade war he started in 2018. He deceived the American people when he should have been protecting them. 4/x

tomzirkle.bsky.social•3 days ago

Will Taiwan be the cost of his greed this time?

signonleon.bsky.social•3 days ago

Been waiting for someone to make this case. Thank you.

davidfrum.bsky.social•3 days ago

Trump negligently bungled the crucial first months of the pandemic. Yet the pandemic itself was obviously not his fault. So American memory tended to forget why and how Trump bungled early 2020: to escape from the trade war Trump started in 2018. 5/x

signonleon.bsky.social•3 days ago

But what if a competent leader had spent 2017-2029 fostering trust and international cooperation with China, rather than acting like a snake (a moronic one)?

Is it not plausible that COVID may not have gone global and could have been smothered in its crib?

davidfrum.bsky.social•3 days ago

During the inflation of 2022-23, Americans edited the memory of the pre-pandemic economy in two ways: they chose to forgot that Trump inherited a strong economy in 2017 - and that he set about wrecking that prosperity with the tariffs of 2018. 6/x

davidfrum.bsky.social•3 days ago

Americans chose to remember Trump times as good times, excising Trump's own stupid and harmful policies from the story. Trump meanwhile, seething with rage and resentment, was readying himself to be even more stupid and harmful if he got a second chance. 7/