As clueless as he is maskless

After trying to take credit for all the lives that were saved when the governors of the various states shut down their economies in the face of the COVID outbreak and he was finally scared by Dr, Fauci and the other members of the White House task force into temporarily facing reality about the pandemic, President Trump once again made it plain at a Ford plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan today that even at this late stage, he is as clueless about the pandemic as he is perennially maskless.

When asked about what the experts consider the likelihood of a second wave of COVID-19 hitting us in the fall or winter, he talked about putting out localized "flames" and "embers." He apparently doesn't understand that a second wave may well be a configuration that will envelop the whole nation. He can't see the forest fire for the trees.

He then went on to say that in any event, "we're not closing our country."

Even now, after all the blowback he got for falsely claiming "total authority" over the re-opening of state economies, he apparently doesn't understand that it's not his call. Fortunately, even if the second wave were to hit while he is still in office, the governors would simply do what they did the first time. They would have to. The alternative would be a catastrophe. He could get in the way. He could refuse Federal cooperation and aid. He could make things even more difficult by his failure to recognize the problem and try to assist with and coordinate the responses of the states to respond to a nationwide problem than he did the first time. He could hinder the efforts to control the outbreak, and doubtless, to varying degrees certain Republican governors would go along.

But the country would close down, with or without his permission.

That's what's so foolish about the whole "re-open at any cost" mentality. If the nation re-opens too soon, all our gains in containing the virus will be lost and we'll merely have to shut things down again. The only difference would be that the economic crisis would be deeper and last longer. There is no way the economy could possibly remain open in the face of a renewed nationwide outbreak, which is what the second wave may very well be.

Mr. Trump is as much in denial about COVID-19 now as he was when he was comparing it to the seasonal flu and predicting- as his son Eric did just the other day- that it would vanish overnight.

This level of arrogant ignorance is beyond help. Once again, Mr. Trump is giving evidence that he not only isn't up to the job, but he doesn't have the slightest idea what the job is.

We as a nation simply cannot risk another four years of this man.

ADDENDUM: What might have happened if we'd had a President a few months ago? What if there was someone in the White House who actually read his daily briefings and paid attention to what people who knew more about certain things than he did?

What if the President of the United States had sounded the alarm, and the nation had responded in a unified and resolute manner rather than piecemeal while arguing about how much worse COViD-19 would be than the seasonal flu?

A study from Columbia University says that if social distancing had started a week earlier, 36,000 Americans who have died of COVID-19 would be alive today.

But President Trump- who claims to have "total authority" over the nation's response but zero responsibility for it- did order the flags on Federal buildings flown at half-staff today to honor the dead.

Nice of him.