When all things fail, Donald Trump has his ‘trump’ card – fear mongering

Even the most seasoned political operative in the Donald Trump campaign would have cringed when the President lashed out at a respected immunologist and infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, calling him an “idiot” and a “disaster”.

It is not as if Dr Fauci is looking for a compliment from Trump; neither does it make him an idiot just because the man sitting in the Oval Office called him that for the entire country. The world knows that Dr Fauci is perhaps the only one with enough guts to go on television and correct Trump on his frivolous and scandalous statements on the coronavirus, which is one reason that irritates the genius sitting behind the Resolute Desk.

A frustrated and edgy President is looking desperately to turn the tables on the coronavirus that has taken a toll of more than 220,000 people and infected eight million-plus Americans. The worst part of the story is that some states are reporting a second spike and are gearing up to meet the eventuality with whatever resources at their disposal.

Trump’s assertion that if he had listened to the advice of Dr Fauci and his likes, around 700,000 to 800,000 people would have died, is not only laughable but also reflective of the cheap shots that are in store down the line. The fact of the matter is that had the Trump White House only listened to people like Dr Fauci, fewer Americans would have found their way to the cemeteries.

The outbursts and tirades are nothing new coming from the President. In fact, if he did not say and do the things he has in the last few weeks, that would be making news. People who have known President Trump, inside and outside of his administration, know full well that his reactions are louder, more unpredictable and erratic if he perceived a situation going against him. This is precisely what is troubling Trump—that no matter how hard he tries, he is not able to shake off the coronavirus issue in the election scenario. The point of time has come when there is the realisation in the Trump campaign that the candidate has to be ready to face this.

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Calling Dr Fauci an idiot is perhaps yet another fatal mistake that Trump could have made. The immunologist may not be a household name but 70 per cent of the people, according to a poll of the Kaiser Family Foundation, trust him as a “reliable source of information on the coronavirus” as opposed to 40 per cent for the President.

The national and battleground state polls may be tightening in the final days, but still the Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joseph Biden, seems to have the upper hand. States like Georgia and Texas may not get into the Democratic fold on November 3, but the race there also seem to be getting tighter for the Republican camp.

Trump quite recently lashed out at the governors of Michigan and Pennsylvania for not openly up their states fully, failing to understand that the second round of infections is kicking in and badly at that. Much as the President may wish that the subject did not come up at the final debate on Thursday, COVID-19 will figure prominently and it remains to be seen how and to what extent the blame game is going to be spread out.

With all things not going the way he wanted, Trump has slowly but steadily taken out his “trump” card—fear mongering, in the hope of keeping his base largely intact. This instilling of fear has come about in many ways—from thugs and rapists marauding your homes with no police to attend a 911 emergency call because Democrats have disbanded the men-in-uniform, to Biden selling off America to China, also making the country communist. People are not taking this hook, line and sinker since investigative reporting has shown that there are far more China “connections” of President Trump than is being dreamed of the Biden-Harris ticket. Trump is thinking of pressuring the Justice Department to open an investigation on the Biden family; but it will not take long for the Delaware Democrat to come back and forcefully at that.

The fanciful notions of no law and disorder in the event of a Democratic takeover of the White House may be a far-fetched pitch that Trump is trying to serve time and again and indications are that he is not about to abandon that till the day Americans go to the polls.

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However, this notion of America going the communist way does not even remotely resemble the domino theory put forth in the heydays of the Vietnam war and in the eras of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon—that if South Vietnam fell to Communists, all of Asia and the Pacific falls to communism and therefore, the prospects of the commies finding their ways elsewhere!

Except for President Trump and a handful of his advisors—if there are any—few believe that a Biden victory would see urban and suburban America ransacked by people of color or the commies landing in the beaches of California. For now, the only violence that many cutting across political affiliations are worried about is if Trump, miffed at losing the election, would refuse to vacate the White House by January 20, 2021 and worse, still incite his hardcore supporters that include white supremacists to indulge in violence in the streets.

Writing an opinion column for CNN, Joe Lockhart, former Press Secretary in the Clinton administration said, “I share many of these worries. But I’m not expecting the worst. Not because Trump will have an attack of conscience — I don’t think he has a conscience. And not because he will put the country ahead of his own personal interests — that fantasy is no longer even debatable. I simply assume, as you should, that if he loses next month, the President will put his own interests ahead of the country’s as he always does. And that may actually guarantee a peaceful transition of power. Donald J. Trump has a powerful survival instinct.”

(The writer is a former senior journalist in Washington DC covering North America and the United Nations)

(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal)