Yes, Donald Trump Is Responsible For This Crisis

Trump insists, “nobody saw this coming.” On January 20th, two countries confirmed their first cases of COVID-19: South Korea and the United States. Within days of the first confirmed case, President Moon Jae-in began mass testing and social distancing orders. President Donald Trump spent those days golfing at Mar-a-Lago, attacking Adam Schiff on Twitter, and calling the concerns about COVID-19 a “Democrat hoax.” Since those vitally important days of the initial spread, South Korea has seen 10,661 confirmed cases of the virus — allowing them to safely return to normal life already. The US, on the other hand, has seen 741,230 as the pandemic rages on. The contrast of leadership gives us a painful reminder:

This disaster was avoidable, not inevitable.

If you haven’t been paying attention to the global impact of COVID-19, there’s something you should understand: the rest of the world has not been impacted by this virus as catastrophically as the United States. Our disaster is an outlier; we have become the epicenter of the pandemic. Our hospitals are so overwhelmed that China (the original epicenter) had to step in to provide us ventilators. The United States is facing historic economic hardship and our healthcare system is in peril. We’re in this position because Donald Trump delayed action, spread misinformation, and objectively failed…