The Trump Coronavirus Scandal Continues

Who’s responsible for America’s disastrous mismanagement of COVID-19? Four months ago, when the U.S. death toll was around 160,000, I outlined President Donald Trump’s role in the catastrophe. Since then, the body count has nearly doubled. A new report, published this weekend in the Washington Post, adds to the incriminating evidence. It details multiple incidents of negligence and malfeasance, attributed by the Post’s sources to specific administration officials. Each of these incidents deserves further investigation. Here’s what the Post found on the alleged culprits.

1. Trump. The president’s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, surveyed swing states in July and found decisive support for mask mandates. A Trump campaign memo noted that most Republicans supported “mandatory masks at least indoors when in public.” The memo said voters favored the idea of Trump “issuing an executive order mandating the use of masks in public places.” The Post says that based on these findings, Fabrizio, Jared Kushner, and then–Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale “urged Trump to model good behavior by wearing a mask, and to encourage his supporters to do so.” But Trump refused. A campaign adviser says Trump listened, but “the argument just didn’t move him.”

3. Mark Meadows. A few months into the crisis, Trump stopped showing up at press briefings on the virus. An administration official says Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, made this decision on the grounds that politically, talking about COVID “was a loser message.” Meadows rejected pleas from Fabrizio and other advisers to promote masks. In the fall, he told health officials—including Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force—that “he did not believe their troubling data assessment” of the coming winter death toll. And when COVID invaded the White House, Meadows “sought to conceal some cases … and instructed at least one fellow adviser who sought to disclose an infection not to.” A Post source says Meadows “threatened to fire White House Medical Unit doctors … if they helped release information about new infections.” Meadows’ office denies this allegation.

Thousands of Americans would have died in this pandemic even under ideal government. But the Trump administration’s incompetence and malfeasance made the carnage many times worse. The U.S. death toll is well above 300,000, far worse than any other country, and growing by thousands every day. In proportional terms, we have one of the worst fatality rates in the world. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is, because people in our government suppressed information, downplayed the threat, and discouraged or obstructed public health measures. Every one of those people should be investigate