The Curious Case of Mr. Trump

- May 30, 2020

Predicting Donald Trump’s next move is like predicting an earthquake. We know something really bad is going to happen but when, no one knows.

Mr. Trump is an active Twitterati, he has used this platform for his diplomacy, for his claims to show how good he is as The President of USA, but his case is quite curious because on one day he’s sharing a car with his allies and the next day he grabs the wheel and make sure things go according to his will, basically a kid in every street who wants to bat first because he owns the bat.

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc in USA, over 1 lakh people have died and over 1.7mn have been infected but Mr. Trump has been lashing out on China and WHO for mishandling the crisis but this wasn’t his stance earlier. It’s important to understand the timeline of his Curious Case

· In January 2020, US and China signed a trade deal to bring the economic conflict on pause. It’s an election year and Mr. Trump was already facing an impeachment trial. The trade war with China had escalated with high tariffs and sanctions and this trade deal was important to cool things down in an important year of his Presidency.

· The CDC had already issued a medical advisory on CoronaVirus outbreak and on 21^st January, the first case in US was reported

· Mr. Trump’s early response on China’s efforts to control the virus was filled with positivity as if US and China are old friends and have a love-hate relationship. Here are some of his tweets and statements from various interviews after the Trade Deal

“China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!” (January 24^th)

"China is not in great shape right now, unfortunately. But they're working very hard. We'll see what happens. But we're working very closely with China and other countries." ( Fox News Interview, January 30^th)

“I think China is very, you know, professionally run in the sense that they have everything under control," Trump said. "I really believe they are going to have it under control fairly soon. You know in April, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather. And that's a beautiful date to look forward to. But China I can tell you is working very hard." (Fox Business Interview, February 10^th)

He underestimated the threat that was looming over the US by calling the virus a “flu” and by making claims that “one day the virus will disappear, it’s like a miracle” over 1 lakh people have died and still that day hasn’t arrived. The early response by The White House was critical to control to the spread of virus but narcissism overpowered rationality.

Later in March when things went out of control, the blame game started and Mr. Trump called CoronaVirus as “Chinese Virus” a classic case of scapegoating.

“I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the ‘borders’ from China – against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved.” (Donald Trump)

Moving ahead, Mr. Trump then blamed WHO for their complacent actions and their alleged involvement with China. He suspended WHO’s funding and now he has decided to severe its relations with WHO permanently.

India-China Standoff and Phone call politics

Donald Trump trusts his ability to resolve issues, he offered mediation in an ongoing border conflict between India and China. He claimed that he phone called PM Modi but the MEA INDIA rebuked those claims and the last phone call between the two leaders happened in April over the supply HCQ which is a strange story in itself. He said PM Modi is not in “good mood”. These false claims and irresponsible statements take away the aspect of credibility of information from an authority.

Trump and Twitter are at loggerheads

Consider a situation where you love something a lot but your actions are so irresponsible and worrying that your words become a threat to the community and it’s important to screen you.

Twitter recently tagged Trump’s tweet with fact check warning over his claim that Mail-In ballots will lead to rigged elections. He faced another blow when twitter flagged his tweet for ‘glorifying violence’ after he called Minneapolis demonstrators as “Thugs”. The horrendous killing of George Floyd by a police officer has brought institutionalised racism in USA back in picture.