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Without realizing it, this morning my wife and I turned our daily COVID-19 discussion into a Bud Abbott-Lou Costello routine. Our dialog went something to the effect of:
She: WHO has just updated all of the data on number of cases worldwide.
Me: Who?
She: Yes, WHO.
Me: But who updated the data?
She: They certainly did.
Me: Wait a minute, when the numbers come in, who gets them?
She: Every single one of them.
I’m less than certain whether “What” is on second, but “I Don’t Know” isn’t playing third–he’s President of the United States.
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You’ve probably noticed that Anthony Fauci hasn’t been up on the platform for the daily briefing with Trump for the last couple of days. Ever wonder why? This morning a columnist for the Boston Globe suggested that Fauci was getting too much attention, attracting too many headlines when Trump always likes to be front and center. He noted the fact that Fauci was interviewed by the NY Times as an example of Trump’s jealousy about sharing the spotlight. That may be true, but what’s far more important is not the fact that he was interviewed, but what Fauci had to say. Bless the guy, he tried to avoid saying anything bad about the Trumpster. He attempted as much as possible to avoid throwing him under the bus, but Fauci is just too much of a scientist, too much of a truth-speaker to heap praise on Trump. While trying ever so hard to sugar coat any direct criticism of Trump, Fauci implied that the President wasn’t very good at hearing things he didn’t want to hear, and that he likes to go his own way regardless of the evidence. My guess is that when his advisors told Trump about the Fauci interview, they also tried to sugar coat it, but to this egomaniac anything but absolute praise, anything that doesn’t acknowledge the greatness of the stable genius is unacceptable. It’s a shame that Fauci will become less influential in shaping policy in private as well as less of a presence in public, but this pattern of discarding anyone who doesn’t bow and scrape at the foot of the emperor is hardly new in this administration. What a pity.
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By the way, when asked about Fauci’s absence from public scrutiny, Trump has responded with his typical brand of deceit by saying things like “No, Tony’s a great guy. We value Tony’s opinion greatly. You’ll be seeing a lot of Tony.” I have absolutely no direct basis for the following assertion, but the Director of the NIAID looks like a guy who is comfortable being called “Dr. Fauci,” and will respond to “Anthony,” but hates being called “Tony.” (Do you think Trump knows? Do you think he gives a damn?)
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Totally lacking in empathy, bereft of any connection to human beings or their feelings, it’s pretty clear that Trump values the economic health of the nation rather than its physical health or its emotional health. If he expresses concerns at all, they are about the airline companies and the hospitality industry for their dwindling profits and stock prices. And if he feels any emotion at the personal level, it is to worry how the CEO’s will fare during these tough times rather than the airline mechanics or the hotel maids. But he wants us to get back to business soon. He wants the economy to get going even if it might mean a few thousand unnecessary contaminations or deaths.
First I believed that this was all about Trump and the overall economy. Then I thought, no, it’s all about getting re-elected–and I’m probably correct on both of those fronts. But then I began thinking how this President can’t get beyond himself, and a light bulb went on. It occurred to me that Mar-a-Lago must be empty, that the Trump National Hotel in DC must be in the red, and that occupancy rates at New York’s Trump Tower are falling. For almost any other individual in the world, I would immediately scold myself for attributing such a selfish and narrow set of motives for wanting to open up the economy. Normally I would remind myself that nobody could possibly be that self-centered. But then I remind myself about whom I’m dealing with, and I say, OMG, if he can open up his hotels for Easter, then that’s great for his bottom line.
C’mon, that couldn’t be true. It couldn’t. It couldn’t. Could it?
could!