My Kingdom for a Leader

In today’s news we learn that the April unemployment rate rose to 14.7 – the worst since the Great Depression.  Payrolls dropped by 20.5 million - wiping out a decade of job growth in a mere month.  

Donald Trump - of course - continues with his big lie that he inherited an economy of smoldering wreckage which he transformed into a stunning success.  The truth is that job growth - accompanied by falling jobless numbers – was steady during Obama’s second term of office and directly carried-over into Trump’s presidency.   

This was Trump’s inheritance.   

Now from Trump there is this:  We built the greatest economy the world has ever seen and we’re going to do it again.  

That is a lie.  

The truth of the matter is by underestimating the lethality of the coronavirus and ignoring the alarms being sounded earlier this year we witnessed 70 days of denial, dysfunction and delay that allowed the virus to spread.  Trump had time to golf, hold rallies and tweet - all the while he did no advance planning or preparation.  He failed to brace for impact.   

His willful blindness amplified the severity of the economic carnage and the resulting death toll.  The breathtaking number of my countrymen who have died and the severity of the economic crisis is Trump’s fault.  He broke it and he now owns it.  Things would have been less bad if he hadn’t dithered, wasted time and lied to us.

I continue to be amazed by the fact that even when it is in his own self-interest to be truthful Trump continues to lie. 

I've got a pretty good memory for an old guy and I remember when this shit storm was nothing but a hoax cooked-up by the democrats.  I recall that when it gets warmer in April the virus would miraculously go away.  I have a memory of being told that anyone who needs a test gets a test.  That the tests were beautiful.  And I remember Trump shuffling Larry Kudlow and Eric Trump out to assure me that the virus was stopped, shut down and contained and those early stock-market dips were buying opportunities. 

Stop lying to me.  

Now.