It’s been a week since Trump declared a National Emergency and two days since he invoked the Defense Production Act. But even today he was purposefully vague on any further steps he will take to get supplies to hospitals. For weeks, healthcare experts have been sounding the alarm and begging for additional key supplies including PPE and ventilators so as to deal with the upcoming tsunami of critically ill COVID-19 patients. Trump claims to be at war with the virus. But Slate calls his “war” "half-hearted" and maybe I just see the worst in the man but a truly simple explanation for the delays that goes straight to his character — or lack thereof — is that he’s being vindictive and using the pandemic to settle scores with his perceived “enemies.”
We know how he hates powerful New York Dems like Governor Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Michael Bloomberg and New York Attorney General Leticia James primarily because of investigations of his crooked shenanigans in New York. He was never accepted in the upper reaches of NYC society and that has to rankle him. He even fled the state to the more friendly GOP-controlled State of Florida. Also, there is certainly no love lost between Trump and California, another state that had face his vindictive threats during the devastating wildfires. I suspect his disdain for Illinois mirrors that for New York and California mainly because it’s also a reliable blue state.
I wish I could give the man the benefit of the doubt but I can’t: what on earth could be a good reason for his delay in ramping up production of critical medical supplies after invoking the Defense Production Act? If he did so, he could strut around crowing about his “tremendous” wartime commander prowess. But he’s not doing that and the “enemy” blue states he probably hates are going to suffer intensely for it.
I hope I’m wrong about this but if I’m not, then what a monster U.S. voters have unleashed on this country and the world!