# Trump VS the covid 19 Coronavirus **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 17, 2020, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622 "2020-03-17T02:06:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![2Bits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e95f7d/32.png) [@2Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Bits)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/1 "2020-03-17T02:06:59Z")
Is it possible that the effects of this pandemic will dominate our collective memories in 10 or 20 years while the catastrophic 4 years of the Trump presidency will be mostly forgotten? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/2 "2020-03-17T03:09:33Z")
Herbert Hoover is still associated with the Depression. When he is out of office and we can really dig the dirt, he’ll make Nixon look like a saint. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/3 "2020-03-17T03:14:51Z")
This combination of arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence is rare in one person, let alone a president. Whether Trump likes it or not, people in the Oval Office are taking notes and when his presidency is over the truth will finally be told. The Coronavirus debacle may be one of the highlights of his legacy, but I doubt it will be his most embarrassing or devastating. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/4 "2020-03-17T03:23:36Z")
Once you hit the presidential level, you have a place in history. But the price you pay is that you will be defined by your presidency. Hoover, by almost all accounts, was a very talented and successful man for most of his life. But he failed as President and that’s what people remember him for. People will still know Donald Trump’s name in two hundred years; and they’ll remember him as a failure. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/5 "2020-03-17T03:32:31Z")
No because trumps incompetence and corruption made it worse. It’ll hopefully be the final thing he really fucked up and people will never mention trump as anything more than an attempt to recharge white supremacy after eight years of Obama. Kind of like how we never think of George Wallace as an independent individual, just as an evil response to civil rights, trump was just a response from white Christian conservative America to having a black president. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/6 "2020-03-17T04:57:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Once you hit the presidential level, you have a place in history. But the price you pay is that you will be defined by your presidency. > > Hoover, by almost all accounts, was a very talented and successful man for most of his life. But he failed as President and that’s what people remember him for. > > People will still know Donald Trump’s name in two hundred years; and they’ll remember him as a failure. You have no idea how much worse Trump’s successors might be, with the present electoral process being no check against it. We haven’t yet gotten to a genocidal despot, who might be loudly cheered. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/7 "2020-03-17T05:39:07Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > You have no idea how much worse Trump’s successors might be, with the present electoral process being no check against it. We haven’t yet gotten to a genocidal despot, who might be loudly cheered. But “not quite so bad as Kim Jong-Il” is not, in itself, enough to guarantee that Trump will be forgotten. He will still have been bad enough to be vividly remembered. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/8 "2020-03-17T05:40:01Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > You have no idea how much worse Trump’s successors might be, with the present electoral process being no check against it. We haven’t yet gotten to a genocidal despot, who might be loudly cheered. I agree. As I recently said in another thread, Trump has been held in check by his own incompetence. But we’re going to have somebody who is equally amoral but competent. That person will see how a bumbling idiot like Trump was able to get away with so much and realize they could become a real dictator. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/9 "2020-03-17T09:51:28Z")
Think back to 2004. George Bush II had deceived the populace and launched a long unnecessary war against the wrong country and destabilized the whole Middle East. People were getting tired of the war and the casualties. But yet the people put him back in for another term. And it wasn’t like his opponent was a Nazi child-molester or something. And until Trump was elected everyone was going on about how Bush would be remembered for being the worst president ever. Does anybody ever even think about him any more? Don’t assume the voters are logical or cannot be manipulated. ---
**Author:** ![2Bits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e95f7d/32.png) [@2Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Bits)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/10 "2020-03-17T14:55:50Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > But “not quite so bad as Kim Jong-Il” is not, in itself, enough to guarantee that Trump will be forgotten. He will still have been bad enough to be vividly remembered. Perhaps not as “vividly” as this virus if the worse case scenarios pan out IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/11 "2020-03-17T17:43:47Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > No because trumps incompetence and corruption made it worse. > > It’ll hopefully be the final thing he really fucked up and people will never mention trump as anything more than an attempt to recharge white supremacy after eight years of Obama. > > Kind of like how we never think of George Wallace as an independent individual, just as an evil response to civil rights, trump was just a response from white Christian conservative America to having a black president. I have a feeling that 3 things will be prominent about Trump’s presidency- 1. impeached and curiously not convicted. 2. General sleaze, dishonesty and ideological awfulness (consorting with alt-right, etc…) 3. Mishandling of this pandemic. I have a feeling that in most history books, they’ll have his name right next to it, as an example of incompetent bungling, leaving his legacy forever tarnished, even if he was to find Jesus after office and go the Jimmy Carter humanitarian route. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/12 "2020-03-17T17:47:31Z")
Worst Simpsons episode ever. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/13 "2020-03-17T18:16:22Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Don’t assume the voters are logical or cannot be manipulated. Don’t blame the voters. They chose Al Gore over George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. It’s the elections, not the voters, that get manipulated. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/14 "2020-03-17T18:33:04Z")
I really hope that people don’t forget the huge list of other faults he has exhibited and just focus on mishandling this pandemic. I’d hate for him to be able to think it was just this virus that did him in, when there was so much else to despise him for. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/15 "2020-03-17T19:27:34Z")
I’m afraid that now that he’s pretending to be president people are going to forget his earlier offenses. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/16 "2020-03-17T20:12:06Z")
I think in future, the work “Trump” will be in common usage. As in “Man, Bob really Trumped up that negotiation. They walked out in the first minute” Or “He said he was with friends, but it was obvious that he was Trumping, and is having an affair” Or “Be right back, gotta take a steaming Trump” ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/17 "2020-03-18T04:01:37Z")
New nursery rhymes and playparty songs will evolve. Trumpy Towers, Trumpy Towers All fall down; all fall down. Ooh I’m sick, ooh you’re sick too; Have a shot; vaccine’s hot. And: Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry; Go to sleep, my little darling. When you wake, we’ll all be dead From COVID-19 the president gave us. And: Bimp, Bamp, Bomp, Bump Trimp, Tramp, Tromp, Trump Assholes, assholes All fall DOWN! Hoover and Dubya didn’t inspire many songs. Well, Hoover’s replacement did. Back again, back again We’ve got Franklin D. Roosevelt back again Since Roosevelt got elected Moonshine liquor’s been corrected We’ve got legal wine, whiskey, beer and gin Hooper was an excellent person in an impossible situation. Dubya was a mediocre person in a self-made lousy situation. Trimp/Tramp/Tromp/Trump is a lousy person in a fatal situation. Homeless camps were once called Hoovervilles. This POTUS will be honored with gold toilet-tissue brands. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/18 "2020-03-18T04:42:03Z")
Moved from the Quarantine Zone to the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/19 "2020-03-18T05:15:31Z")
Besides the Trump administration [dismissing the anti Pandemic group as “not being needed” in 2018](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/flashback-trump-fires-his-pandemic-team_n_5e7104cbe4b0987b13b0f5e5), even more was dismissed by the ignoramus or his henchmen. Things that now are clear that there were needed a lot. > **[A crucial federal program tracking dangerous diseases is shutting down](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/10/29/20936921/usaid-predict-pandemic-preparedness)** > > Predict, a pandemic preparedness program, thrived under Bush and Obama. Now it’s canceled. > [@](#): > > A crucial federal program tracking dangerous diseases is shutting down > > Predict, a pandemic preparedness program, thrived under Bush and Obama. Now it’s canceled. > > -By Kelsey Piper Oct 29, 2019 > [@](#): > > Ever since the 2005 H5N1 bird flu scare, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has run a project to track and research these diseases, called Predict. At a cost of $207 million during its existence, the program has collected more than 100,000 samples and found nearly 1,000 novel viruses, including a new Ebola virus. > > But on Friday, the New York Times reported that the US government is shutting down the program. According to its former director Dennis Carroll, the program enjoyed enthusiastic support under Bush and Obama, but “things got complicated” in the last few years until the program “essentially collapsed.” > [@](#): > > The end of Predict is a symptom of a bigger problem: The US government isn’t taking the risk of pandemics as seriously as it should be, and it isn’t investing enough in spreading the expertise and best practices that might be needed in the case of a global pandemic. > > “It is the prospect of another such pandemic — not a nuclear war or a terrorist attack or a natural disaster — that poses the greatest risk of a massive casualty event in the United States,” Ron Klain, the former White House Ebola response coordinator, wrote for Vox last year. And yet pandemic preparedness gets very little attention. > > Klain proposes three solutions: better vaccines, better US infectious disease response capabilities, and bolstering global response capabilities. That last item was the goal that Predict was aimed at. Since pandemics can so easily sweep across national borders, it’s impossible for any country to be secure without good response systems around the world. That requires work in many of the poorest parts of the world to ensure critical research on detecting viruses gets done and to ensure local labs and response teams are prepared to report outbreaks and cooperate internationally to address them. With less infrastructure to accomplish that, we’ll all be worse off. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2020, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622/20 "2020-03-18T05:38:36Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I’m afraid that now that he’s pretending to be president people are going to forget his earlier offenses. Or never accept that there were offenses in the first place. I work in a place that contains a nest of Trumpites, and they firmly believe that the Fake News media have been misreporting the great job with regard to this crisis, as he they have with with everything else related to his Presidency. Maybe this attitude will fade with time, but I am not optimistic. _grinds teeth_ Addressing the OP: one way or another, Trump’s name is indelibly and forever associated with this crisis, even if there ends up being some disagreement over whether the association is positive or negative. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-vs-the-covid-19-coronavirus/849622.md?page=2)