When Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he was infected with coronavirus, the outcome could have gone a number of ways. We’ve been told from the onset of the pandemic that those aged 70 and older are at a higher risk from the disease. Seventy-four and officially "obese," the president faced the realistic possibility that he could become critically ill, raising the question: would Trump, like his transatlantic ally Boris Johnson, be caught up in an intensive care bed drama with doctors battling to save his life?
Quite the opposite happened. Trump’s theatrics involved making an abrupt return to the White House after spending just a weekend at Walter Reade National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. In an address to the world’s media from a balcony at the White House, Trump jubilantly removed his face mask, gave his signature two thumbs up, and proceeded to pronounce how wonderful he felt.
Trump’s response to the coronavirus infection is evocative of Brazil’s right-wing firebrand President Jair Bolsonaro, dubbed “the Trump of the Tropics,”, who, after dismissing the coronavirus as little more than a common cold, fell ill with the virus in July. The 65-year-old recovered from what seemed a mild form of COVID-19 and attributed his comparative immunity to his “background as an athlete.”
For reasons that continue to baffle medics, every patient’s experience of coronavirus is different – a fact borne out in the experiences of the populist troika that includes Trump, Johnson and Bolsonaro.
What seems more concrete is that in infecting three of the world’s most right-wing leaders, the virus underscored not so much the incompetence of these leaders as the way their common failures – easing lockdown measures too early and prioritizing the economy over people’s health – revealed the basic incompatibility of populism and respect for human life.
Despite having caught the very thing they tried their hardest to pretend was not a problem, little changed in terms of the leaders’ appetite – or distinct lack of – to ensure people’s limited exposure to the virus in order to save lives. Rather than implementing stricter measures to curtail the virus's spread, these heads of state have sought at every turn to shield their economy, not their people, from the disease.
How much do they care?
The UK government is currently spending $38 billion to mitigate the economic impacts of the pandemic, but has failed to implement aggressive measures to fight it.
Similar “economy first” tactics have been rife in the United States. In May, Trump was criticized for effectively abandoning a public health strategy to address the pandemic, showing a “clear willingness to trade lives for the Dow Jones.”
A similar tale unfolded in Brazil. As the nation’s largest city, Sao Paolo, went into lockdown in March, Bolsonaro spat at the “hysteria” over the virus and urged Brazil’s mayors and state governors to roll back lockdown measures, calling on everyday Brazilians to go back to work.
Bringing greater gravity to the economy-before-lives approach are the idiocy and incompetence that have reigned in the countries led by this populist triad.
In June, Brazil overtook the UK as the country with the second highest COVID-19 death toll, with only the US standing above them. Medical experts have voiced despair about Bolsonaro’s “calamitous response to the pandemic,” including his flippant disregard for health ministry recommendations. Bolsonaro took to the streets and explicitly ignored social distancing guidelines, earning the Brazilian leader the title of “a killer.”
Carelessness for the safety of others is also a dangerous affliction of Donald Trump – one that has reached perilous new heights as the president recovers from coronavirus. Trump's desperation to leave the hospital prematurely and give a theatrical speech belittling the power of the virus epitomized Trump’s childlike idiocy and refusal to admit the real risks of the deadly disease.
Prior to returning to the White House, Trump insisted on temporarily leaving his hospital to drive around the block in an armored car and bask in the adoration of a small crowd of faithful supporters. What has been described as a “super spreader event” was met with outragefor the way it also endangered his own loyal public servants.
Like Trump and Bolsonaro, Boris Johnson has downplayed the dangerous effects of COVID-19 and ignored medical advice. Just three weeks before his coronavirus diagnosis in March, the British prime minister was “shaking hands with everyone,” including patients suffering with the virus, despite medical advice warning against the practice.
Johnson’s incompetent and flippant coronavirus response came at the peril of the country, which has faced blunder after blunder. Failing to grasp the scale of the crisis, Johnson’s early response to the pandemic was slow. Scientific experts have said thousands of lives could have been saved if Johnson had imposed a lockdown earlier.
A more recent government gaffe condemned for putting thousands of lives at risk involved almost 16,000 positive coronavirus test results being missed due to a “catastrophic” data error.
One of the most alarming aspects of the right-wing trio’s spectacular Covid-19 cock-up is that their popularity in their respective countries isn’t necessarily abating.
In Brazil, a poll published in August showed Bolsonaro's approval rating was at its highest since he took office in 2019. At the time of the poll, Brazil had suffered from 105,000 coronavirus deaths.
In the UK, Johnson’s near-death experience with his own COVID-19 diagnosis led to a huge jump in his approval ratings, with the prime minister witnessing a wave of sympathy.
In Britain however, concerns over the government’s ongoing handling of the pandemic, and a series of controversies including the behavior of Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings – has subsequently seen the PM’s approval ratings slump.
With the presidential election set to take place on Nov. 3, all eyes are on the United States and the approval ratings of its narcissistic leader. In a different universe, Trump’s brush with COVID-19 might alter the Republican Party's tendency to downplay the virus’s threat. But by his going on ridiculous PR drives around the block, ditching his face mask in front of the world’s media, holding new rallies at the White House, and baselessly pronouncing he is “immune” to the virus, that scenario doesn’t look likely.
