Sorry Donald-- But You ARE Responsible

"The system is not really geared to what we need right now," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said this week about the lack of proper testing for the coronavirus in the U.S. “That is a failing. Let's admit it."

But Donald Trump won't admit it.  Asked at a Rose Garden press conference whether he bore any responsibility for his administration's bumbling response to the coronavirus, Trump rejected the notion immediately, saying, "No, I don't take responsibility at all."
 
But Trump is absolutely responsible.  Trump has repeatedly failed to promote aggressive testing because he didn't want the number of cases to increase and make him look bad.  Trump's administration rejected a World Health Organization test adopted by nearly 60 other countries at the end of February.   Trump's national security advisor John Bolton disbanded the global health security team on the National Security Council and eliminated the post tasked with leading that group in May 2018.

Asked about disbanding the global pandemic team from the White House National Security Council, Trump deflected responsibility--calling it a "nasty question,” and claimed, "I don't know anything about it."

But that was yet another lie-- Trump did know about it.  Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown wrote to Donald Trump on May 18, 2918, saying, "In our globalized world, where diseases are never more than a plane ride away, we must do all we can to prepare for the next, inevitable outbreak and keep Americans safe from disease.  I urge you to act swiftly in reaffirming your commitment to global health security by taking immediate action to designate senior-level NSC personnel to focus on global health security, supporting adequate and appropriate funding for global health security initiatives, and leading the way in preparing for the next pandemic threat."

As the Atlantic has put it, the coronavirus is quite likely to be the Trump presidency’s inflection point, when everything changed, when the bluster and ignorance and shallowness of America’s 45th president became undeniable, an empirical reality, as indisputable as the laws of science or a mathematical equation.

It has taken a good deal longer than it should have, but Americans have now seen the con man behind the curtain. The president, enraged for having been unmasked, will become more desperate, more embittered, more unhinged.  He knows nothing will be the same. His administration may stagger on, but it will be only a hollow shell.  The Trump presidency is over.