Donald Trump is self destructing
Donald Trump can deny it all he wants, but we all know he’s at least indirectly behind these “reopen” protests around the country. We also know that the Republican Governors who are reopening their states this week are doing so because Trump pushed them into it. These moves are so self destructive on Trump’s part, they’re virtually suicidal – yet it’s all he has left.
The protests were a desperate short term attempt at juicing his sinking approval rating. The move didn’t work – desperation heaves rarely do – but even if it had worked, it would still have been a self destructive move. Two weeks from now we’ll see coronavirus outbreak clusters around the protesters, and once the media gets ahold of that, it’ll drive Trump’s numbers even lower.
Similarly, reopening these red states is a desperate short term attempt at keeping the nation’s economic numbers from plummeting further, because Trump thinks that if the economy bottoms out, his reelection prospects will be permanently ruined. But within weeks we’ll see the infection rate and death toll start to spike in the specific states that are reopening right now. When it happens, Trump will try to scapegoat the loyal Republican Governors who reopened their states at his behest. Some of them will then push back against him, and the whole thing will get uglier for everyone involved.
Like any particularly desperate person, Donald Trump can’t afford to worry about the long term, because if he doesn’t get the short term under control, he may not have a long term anyway. He’s making moves aimed at allowing him to survive the week, knowing they’ll cost him in the coming months, because he doesn’t have a choice. Trump is in the process of self destructing, even as the body count continues to rise.
