Let’s wish Trump good health — and a healthy realization that his actions have consequences

Let’s wish Trump good health — and a healthy realization that his actions have consequences

President Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One on Oct. 1.

President Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One on Oct. 1. (Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post)

This column has been updated.

Opinion by 

Dana Milbank

Columnist

Oct. 3, 2020 at 8:41 a.m. GMT+9

Even as he awaited his coronavirus test results Thursday night, President Trump was looking for ways to blame others.

“It’s very hard when you’re with soldiers, when you are with airmen, when you’re with the Marines, and the police officers, I’m with them so much,” he said. “And when they come over to you, it’s hard to say, ‘Stay back, stay back.’ You know, it’s a tough kind of a situation, it’s a terrible thing.”

Of course, it likely wouldn’t have been a problem if he and they were wearing masks and respecting distancing. Many of the cops, and the military, had to be there, to escort him as he kept up heavy travel during the pandemic. But sure, blame the cops and the troops.

It was a classic example of a president unable to accept that his actions have consequences.

It’s unseemly to talk about schadenfreude or karma. But this is one heck of a teachable moment, if not for Trump then at least for his followers, who take their cues from his reckless behavior. Friday morning, White House officials described Trump’s symptoms as “mild” and murmured about a presidential address to the nation. By Friday evening, Trump was in the hospital.

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson became more aggressive fighting the virus, and urged Britons to lose weight, after his life-threatening struggle with covid-19. We could save tens or hundreds of thousands of American lives if Trump’s supporters accepted that the virus is no joke and that taking precautions such as mask-wearing and social distancing is not some politically correct conspiracy.

It has been eight months since Trump began to pooh-pooh the virus. We have seen more than 200,000 covid-19 deaths in the United States since he said it was a “flu” that would “go away in April.” At Tuesday’s debate (it’s possible Trump contracted the virus from aide Hope Hicks that evening or at a mass rally the next night), Trump defended his rallies and his cavalier thinking about masks, suggesting public health officials agree with him and mocking Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s assiduous mask-wearing.

“Are you not worried about the disease issue, sir?” moderator Chris Wallace asked.

“So far we have had no problem whatsoever,” Trump said of his rallies. “We’ve had no negative effect.” The death of Herman Cain six weeks after he attended Trump’s Tulsa rally, and some evidence of post-rally infections, apparently didn’t count.

For much of his life, Trump has lived as if there were “no negative effect” — no consequences — for his behavior.

He skipped Vietnam while “suckers” and “losers” died there, then joked that avoiding STDs was his “personal Vietnam.”

He had numerous business failures but was often bailed out, by his father or by creditors.

He engaged in adulterous behavior but paid for women’s silence.

He abused his power by threatening a vulnerable ally’s military aid if the ally didn’t help with his reelection, but Senate Republicans’ acquittal spared him.

He’s rescued friends from legal consequences while teeing up probes of his opponents, and his Justice Department has provided justification.

He has produced falsehood after fabrication, and the White House has tried to use the federal government to make whatever he said seem true.

He has avoided taxes and congressional oversight and directed public funds to his private business interests with impunity.

Two decades ago, another Republican president, George W. Bush, told us: “My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, ‘If it feels good, do it; if you’ve got a problem, blame somebody else,’ to one in which every single American understands that he or she are responsible for the decisions that you make.”

Now we have a president who personifies the feel-good culture and blames his problems on just about everybody else — Democrats, governors, foreigners, immigrants, minorities, scientists, the media, you name it.

But the virus isn’t subject to bluster and blame, only scientific truths. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has said we could have the pandemic under control within four to eight weeks “if we can get everyone to wear masks right now.”

Instead, Trump has modeled recklessness and relied on luck — and hydroxychloroquine, of course.

The Post reports that Trump was in close contact with dozens of people Thursday and didn’t wear a mask. He had traveled with Hicks, who had been seen without a mask, to Pennsylvania for a rally Sunday, to Cleveland for the debate Tuesday and to a campaign rally Wednesday in Minnesota, where Hicks began showing symptoms.

After Trump’s positive coronavirus test, White House spokesman Judd Deere said: “The president takes the health and safety of himself and everyone who works in support of him and the American people very seriously.”

That’s nice. But if there were any good to come out of this unfortunate situation, it would be that Trump and his supporters decided to take the health of all Americans seriously.

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