Donald Trump -- Post Reality President

Make America Great Again

 What most stands out about Donald Trump and makes him different from other Presidents is his complete indifference to reality, as opposed to appearance.

Of course, many President have found appearance easier to manage than reality,  Many have sought to create illusions; many have preferred to address illusion than reality.  But all have had at least some awareness that reality is out there.

Donald Trump's true innovation is to realize that reality is so large and so complex that voters never see more than a tiny bit of it, so why bother with reality at all. If you promise to build a wall on the southern border, just build a few miles and say you are building the wall along the entire border.  Most Trump supporters have never been to the border at all and have no idea what it looks like.  And for the ones who have been to the border and seen that the wall is not build, just that that most of it is built and their area is one of the last.  How many Americans have the time and money to travel the entire length of the border to see how much of the wall is built?  And how many who could have better things to do?

Getting Mexico to pay for the wall is even easier.  You don't have to get Mexico to pay for the wall at all.  Just say Mexico is paying for the wall.  How can anyone prove you wrong?

The same applies to "taking the oil" in the Middle East.  During the 2016 campaign, a few debate moderators tried to raise the issue of what a logistical challenge seizing every oil field in an entire country would be.  But Donald Trump cares nothing for such things.  Just send a few soldiers to guard a few oil wells and say you have "taken the oil."  Who is going to go the the country in question and personally investigate which oil fields we do and do not control?  

And if any reporter tries pointing out inconvenient facts about these things, just dismiss it as "fake news."  How will your followers know the difference?

The same approach applies to the economy as well.  When your opponent is in charge, proclaim the economy a disaster.  As soon as you take over, proclaim the economy the best ever.  Nothing has to change except the marketing pitch.  The day before the election, the economy was a false prosperity, propped up by low interest rates, ready to crash as soon as rates were normalized, which must happen.  If the stock market was doing well, a bubble was forming and about to burst.  And Labor Department statistics showing low unemployment were falsified.  The day after the election, the economy was the best ever!  Any proposal to raise interest rates was sabotage.  The stock bubble filled in overnight and all gains were real!  Unemployment statistics were only fake with Obama in power!  Now they are real!

So naturally his approach to COVID has been the same.  Ignore it and hope it goes away.  Pretend it isn't happening,  And when the disruptions caused by attempts to stop the disease become too obvious to ignore, go back to normal and hope no one notices the outbreak.