Luca Becker
President Donald Trump, now afflicted with the coronavirus, claimed in a video Saturday that he had no choice but to campaign before crowds of his supporters outside the Walter Reed Medical Center.
Many medical experts were outraged by the stunt, including a Walter Reed attending physician. Even Trump’s son and most loyal supporter, Donald Trump Jr., has expressed disappointment, according to Vanity Fair.
Despite the current pandemic, the president’s supporters were not maintaining social distancing protocols or wearing face masks — both of which are techniques proven to mitigate transmission of the virus.
This should not come as a surprise.
The Trump administration has ignored its own scientists’ guidelines and created a false sense of security among its constituents. Even as the United States surpasses 200,000 deaths and 7.4 million cases, the administration has proven it is not taking this virus seriously.
Recent reports say the president was administered oxygen this weekend. Moreover, he was prescribed an aggressive drug, dexamethasone, that is only used for severe cases of the virus. The drug is even said to have harmful side effects for milder cases.
As of Monday, 13 advisors and politicians within his innermost circle have contracted the virus, and additional positive tests will likely emerge. The president can no longer dismiss the facts: this virus is very real, spreads very quickly and has the potential to be very lethal.
Trump should have been America’s safest bet against COVID-19. The U.S. has access to widespread testing, some of the best public health experts in the world and highly advanced medicinal technology. Instead, the president’s laissez-faire, cavalier, untruthful and tone-deaf approach has failed himself, his Republican supporters and this nation.
The American people know this. FiveThirtyEight polls show that a majority of the country disapproves of how Trump has handled the pandemic, and his approval rating among Democrats and independents is wavering.
If the president is not committed to truth, science or the protection of his citizens, where do his loyalties lie?
Plato, in his magnum opus “The Republic,” describes how political regimes follow a predictable course: the oligarchy will fall to the democracy and then the democracy will crumble into tyranny. Plato claims the fall from democracy to tyranny occurs when the emotional passions of the populist body overpower the political, logical wisdom of the few.
Plato explains that a single populist leader gains the support of the masses by promising to be their savior. In reality, this individual is loyal only to himself. Plato calls this single populist leader the tyrant. The tyrant is usually wealthy but makes himself appear a civilian.
It is difficult, in the current political climate, not to align the current president with Plato’s description of a tyrant. The tyrant, self-interested and uncommitted to their people, craves power only to support their ego. Equitable to Trump’s unkept promises to build a wall along the Mexican border and replace the Affordable Care Act, the tyrant will make empty promises to assume power.
When push comes to shove, one should not be surprised that Trump broke his quarantine protocol. In many ways, it is in his political nature.
Our president’s political existence let loose a deep hatred in this country that, before 2016, many did not know existed. In the next election, we mustn’t re-elect what Trump truly is — a tyrant.