The day after the World Health Organization declared the
spread of the virus a pandemic, President Trump addressed the nation from the
Oval Office.
“We’re all in this together,” he promised. “We must put
politics aside. We must stop the partisanship and unify together as one nation
and one family. Acting with compassion and love, we will heal the sick, care
for those in need, and emerge from this challenge stronger and more unified
than ever before.”
A week later, in his COVID 19 press briefing Trump declared,
“I’m a wartime president. That’s what we’re fighting. It’s the invisible enemy.
That’s the toughest enemy, the invisible enemy. And we’re going to defeat the
invisible enemy.”
By July 3, when the number of cases in the U.S. had skyrocketed to 2,752,704, Trump barely
mentioned the invisible enemy in his speech at Mount
Rushmore .
“The violent mayhem we have seen
in the streets of cities that are run by liberal Democrats is the predictable
result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education. Our children
are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and
women who built it were not heroes, but villains.”
His vow to lead a unified nation
in fighting a war with an invisible enemy had vanished, resulting in aiding and
abetting that enemy by refusing to practice and promote the only weapons
that can stop it: the use of face coverings, social distancing, and avoiding
large gatherings. He continues to hold huge campaign rallies, while demanding
that states and schools reopen, regardless of the spread of the infection in
their locations.
Trump believes the way to fight the invisible enemy is to show
no fear, by going on the attack in the way wars have always been fought. Attend
huge campaign rallies to show your support for the president, go to the beach
with friends to show you refuse to be held captive in your home.
This invisible enemy welcomes those who confront it by
showing no fear. It needs hosts to survive. Until its intended victims
understand that, the virus will win.
