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President Trump is in a tough spot. He literally has the responsibility for the very lives of more than 330,000,000 people.
Anyone holding the office of chief executive who has to navigate his country through a massive shutdown of just about all services, all businesses, all recreational and sporting events, all public parks and beaches, all family get-togethers, and in effect, all things which represents normal, healthy life would be in the same position.
But in Donald Trump's case it's actually much worse than it would be for someone else.
Begin with the fact that most mainstream media hates his guts. They root for him to fail, they look for ways to bring him down even if it means killing fellow Americans. The goal for the press is not how to work with the president to eradicate this pandemic; it is how can they use this tragic event to destroy Donald Trump.
If President Trump mentions a possible drug, such as hydroxychloroquine, that might relieve the suffering of people stricken by the Wuhan Virus, the press will find someone on their side of the political spectrum who will deny that the drug is any good. They purposely look for ways to spin anything he says or does into a negative.
Our country is in the throes of what could easily become the worse disaster in our history. That the Democrats, national news media, and popular entertainment refuse to show even a modicum of support for the man who has been given this enormous problem to solve is disgusting to put it mildly.
President Trump is fighting a war being waged from four fronts; (1) a devastating highly contagious viral pandemic; (2) the self-imposed American economic crash which could be worse than the Great Depression and actually destroy our country for decades; (3) a citizenry that has been panicked and scared, millions of people thrown into poverty, emotional anxiety, depression, and suicide; and on top of that (4) he's also fighting the news media and his Democrat foes.
President Roosevelt had his hands full with the Great Depression and World War II but at least he had the press and popular culture on his side, supporting him. They played along with the Roosevelt administration's propaganda; they stood by the president at every turn. They did this, I presume, not just because he happened to be a Democrat, they did this because they knew it was the right thing to do. It was necessary to build up our country's spirits and bolster patriotism in order to achieve victory against our enemies.
President Trump doesn't have that same backing in his war that President Roosevelt enjoyed in his. For the most part he's on his own. And he knows it. He knows that given divergent paths, whichever path he chooses will be reported by the press to be the wrong one. He knows he can't win with them, there's no use in trying. All he can do is call them out right away when they start lying and making things up.
So Trump turns his attention to the other three fronts of this war, the war to save America. It's a delicate balancing act. He cannot allow the Wuhan Virus to get out of hand, to flare up. At the same time he cannot allow the country to continue in lockdown for months on end, keeping people away from loved ones, keeping workers from jobs, and keeping millions in fear of losing everything they have including their homes, their businesses, their marriages, their minds, and yes their lives. Desperation can kill every bit as much as a disease can.
No one who has actually been paying attention could say that Donald Trump doesn't care about the American people. How he can go on day after day, week after week is an amazing testimony to his strong constitution and character. If anyone can get the country through this it's President Trump. Can you imagine a Hillary at the helm? Or Heaven forbid, Joe Biden? I believe Donald Trump is the right man for this job at the right time.
Trump's enemies want the economy to continue to sink right through the fall elections. They're betting that if that happens the voters will be fed up with Trump and vote for the Democrat candidate (whomever that will be). In the meantime, they want to keep businesses closed and people in lockdown as long as possible. They need a disheartened and desperate populace to get as many people dependent on government support (food cards, stimulus money, welfare, housing, etc.) as they possibly can.
All that will set the stage for implementation of their New Green Deal and taking the country straight into socialism. It's a perfect storm. They get rid of Trump and they destroy capitalism. Two birds with one stone.
This is why it is so important for President Trump to get it right. Not to save himself, to save the United States of America.
The talk is that the daily corona virus briefings could be over, and even the task force itself may be winding down. HOORAY! We don't need them anymore. There's nothing more to say about the virus except when something really changes. I'm sure it was thought when they started it that the briefings would console and provide some level of comfort to people, but after a while the briefings had the opposite effect.
These daily briefings were wearing the country down.
I don't need to hear about "models" and death tolls and millions of ventilators. I don't need to hear "We're all in this together" anymore. I don't need to hear how all the people who are out there still working at their jobs are "heroes." I don't need to hear how Vice President Pence is "proud as punch of the courageous American people pulling together to mitigate and flatten the curve." No more of this patronizing rhetoric please.
I'm waiting to hear the "all clear" siren. I'm waiting to hear that businesses are opening up all over the country. I'm waiting to hear that people can go to the beach without fear of being fined or arrested. I'm waiting to hear that kids can go to school and play in the park with their friends again.
I'm waiting to hear that toilet paper is back on the shelves.
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JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. He's been a JWR contributor since 1999.