You are being unfair. He might well have prevailed in the election if he had done nothing. Instead, he was actively opposed to sensible action, getting in the way of people trying to manage the situation, saying stupid shit and promoting quacks and charlatans.
He did much worse than nothing.
I am glad that I am not the only one who remembers seeing pillow maker at an official White House pandemic update.
I sometimes wonder how the pandemic would have progressed if it had been one year later. Say in that hypothetical scenario, Trump wins the election on the back of a strong economy, then COVID-20 hits soon into his second term. Without the pressure to keep the economy going by pretending everything is fine, would there have been a better response? Would masks still be political?
Yes. Trump wouldn’t want to wear a mask anyway, so that would still be political.
Also, we already know the response wouldn’t have been better. They originally (for reasons that still defy history and logic) thought the outbreak would be limited to blue states and wrote them off. It’s the same thing they did with California and the wildfires.
You kind of have to wonder. What if we had somehow ended up with Rafael instead. How would he have handled the situation? Would he have already disbanded the response team three years ago? Would he listen to experts and not be so hell-bent on insuring his re-election?
I mean, I think Rafael is an utter piece of shit, but at least his overriding MO is not fleecing everyone in sight.
Who is Rafael? 
Ask Beto. I bet he knows.
No there would be no change in response. With other presidents you could have been right that an upcoming election might be the reason that policy makes way for politics, But Trump started his 2020 election campaign on November 9th 2016, and never stopped. His motivations would be no different in 2021. Image is all that matters.
Right, there would have been no noticeable difference had COVID hit a year later. A year before, however – the various government offices which were supposed to alert the administration to an impending pandemic and how to deal with said pandemic had yet to be dismantled.
True, but in all likelihood they would have been ignored.
Thanks. 
To me COVID became political when Trump called it a Democrat hoax and that was before we realized how big of a deal it was going to be. I don’t think the economy was on Trump’s mind at that time (assuming one thinks Trump ever has something in his mind).
He usually does, typically some combination of the following:
Oh, it absolutely was. He needed it to look good in order to bolster his bid to stay insulated from the legal and financial assaults boiling up all around him outside the WH fences. And, of course, he craved the affirmation that being elected would give him, which has historically ridden on the back of the economy.
Someone on MSNBC said on Wednesday we had gone five full days and nights without having to hear a single word from Trump. Can today make it seven days without seeing his stupid face or hearing his stupid shit from his stupid lying mouth?
Sometimes in the past few days, while keeping an eye on AZ and GA and the lawsuits, I have forgotten to celebrate how great this is. He will be gone from our lives soon and forever. Let him start a TV network or hold rallies, no one but FOX will ever cover them. CNN, MSNBC etc are not going to have “breaking” news with clips.
And why couldn’t he have started giving us the silent treatment a few years ago?
I think it would’ve been way worse. The first thing he was going to do in his second term was fire every non-partisan in a policy-making position.
Off topic, but I think it would be so much fun if Kimberly Guilfoyle dumped Donnie Junior and traded up to Hunter Biden.
That still may be the last thing he does in his first and only term.
Despite my feelings about Biden, I don’t think Hunter is much of an improvement. This is the guy who cheated on his wife with his brother’s widow.