The two damning reasons Trump supported lockdowns
Timothy P. Carney
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Donald Trump is now posing as the defender of freedom and the scourge of lockdowns, but in truth, he is the most Draconian lockdown president in the history of the United States.
When the COVID outbreak began in March 2020, Trump declared “we have to stay apart,” called for the closure of civil society and much of the economy, and basically handed the reins over to Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci.
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When some conservative governors tried to unwind the initial lockdowns, Trump attacked them for it.
So why did Donald Trump go along so fully with the lockdown approach at first? Part of it was certainly his famous germophobia. But two other reasons reflect not on his personality but on his fitness to be president. First, he was uninterested in pandemic response, and so he handed it over to the experts. Second, he doesn’t really have any regard for individual liberty or believe there is any limiting principle on what government leaders can do.
Let’s start with the boredom point. Do you remember Trump suggesting, absent any reason to believe so, that COVID would disappear by Easter 2020? He picked Easter because it would be “a beautiful timeline” for the resurrection of civil society or something. He said that in late March, less than two weeks after things began closing down. That was a sure sign that he was done talking about the virus.
Because it bored him, he handed management of the pandemic response over to career bureaucrats.
“The president got bored with it,” one veteran GOP operative said.
This is actually part of the defense Trump supporters launch: The nationwide lockdown guidelines weren’t Trump’s idea, he just went along with them.
This is, of course, not a good defense of a man who wants another stab at being the chief executive of the United States.
Trump has a famously short attention span for anything besides Trump, and he is incredibly impressionable. For that reason, he often simply abdicates his responsibility on important issues and lets others make the decisions.
A good executive listens to the experts and then makes decisions — especially on momentous matters. Public health experts will always put too much emphasis on illness and have too little concern for community, commerce, and liberty.
Which brings us to the second reason Trump was fine with guidelines that called for outlawing church and large gatherings: he doesn’t have any deep regard for individual liberty or freedom.
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Consider his fondness for authoritarians like Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte, Kim Jong Un, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Consider his calls to execute drug dealers and lock up political opponents. He believes in limitless law enforcement powers.
A lack of interest in governing and a disregard for freedom — the traits that led Trump to advocating lockdowns — are two very bad traits in a president.