At a recent rally in South Carolina, seeking to fire up his base and justify his call for that wall, Trump said, “The Democrat policy of open borders is a direct threat to the health and wellbeing of all Americans. Now, you see it with the coronavirus.”
The only solace we can gain from his nearsighted analysis of a crisis facing the nation, if not the globe, is that this time he didn’t blame it on Obama.
Most distressing is how predictable Trump is when it comes to rationalizing his policies. First you target someone to blame and then you take credit for the solution.
Well, the coronavirus has left him with few options, other than to say “it will soon go away.”
You know what and who we would like to see go away. Trump is the plague before the virus, and if anyone needs to join the other Republicans in a self-quarantined move, it’s him.
His charge that we need “the wall more than ever,” referring to his fabled wall along the nation’s southern border, is without merit, and no more than another attempt to take advantage of the current panic.
As usual, Trump, the misinformed diagnostician, needs another reality check. To date, there is no evidence that migrants from Mexico have transmitted the virus to anyone in the U.S. Although Trump will dispute him, Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told House lawmakers that a structural barrier would not impede the spread of the coronavirus.
“People always find a way around walls,” said Amy Fairchild, dean of the college of public health at Ohio State University.
In addition to his wall, Trump hinted at the possibility of renewing his travel ban, thereby curtailing the arrival of people from the “shithole countries” he cited in the past.
Any such restrictions would be counterproductive and only provoke more fear and stigma, according to the World Health Organization, and deliver few benefits.
One benefit we here and those abroad can receive is what Trump said about the coronavirus, “It will soon be gone,” and how we wish that was a self-designation as we insist that to Make America Great Again—Trump Must Go!