How Trump Missed His, and America’s, Best Chance on Coronavirus
There is another world out there. There is another world, with another President Donald J. Trump. There is another world in which President Trump saw coronavirus sweeping through China and grasped how powerfully and elegantly his claims about the authoritarian and deceptive nature of the Chinese state had been illustrated. The government had reprimanded the doctor who had warned of the virus, and, tragically, the doctor had become its victim. How could anybody doubt him on the Chinese question after its government had displayed such selfish negligence? Simultaneously, Trump could have realised how much a novel and aggressive virus demonstrated the fact that strong national borders are a necessity. He could have ended travel between China and the US—temporarily, of course—and hurried to quarantine people who had travelled near Wuhan. How could anybody query his stance on national self-interest as migration carried a pandemic round the world? Seeing that this crisis was about to demonstrate the perils of relying on foreign imports for essential supplies, Trump could have restated the case for economic nationalism. Indeed, …