President Trump is now fully embracing the conspiracy theory that his assorted enemies are deliberately hyping the coronavirus threat, all to damage him politically. At his Wednesday news conference, Trump agreed with Rush Limbaugh’s
suggestion that Trump’s foes are “weaponizing” the outbreak against him.
There is something deeply dangerous about this idea that might escape initial scrutiny. So let’s be clear: This cannot be described with the usual head-in-the-sand media euphemisms. This isn’t just
spin. It isn’t just
crazy Trump being crazy Trump. It isn’t just Trump
flooding the zone with chaos.
Instead, it poses a direct threat to the notion of accountability in government. This is thrown into sharp relief by coronavirus, at a time when it’s particularly urgent that the government operate neutrally, with the branches interacting in good faith.
At Trump’s presser, a
reporter cited Limbaugh and noted that he and other Trump supporters have spread the idea that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be “exaggerating the threat of coronavirus” to “weaponize” it and “hurt you politically.”
Trump later clarified he didn’t believe CDC officials in particular were doing this. But at a minimum, Trump fully confirmed his view that this is what the Democratic opposition is doing. Indeed, as
Aaron Blake reports, Trump even claimed that in sounding the alarm about the threat, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is “not thinking about the country.”
Trump has tweeted variations of this. He’s
even blamed Democrats, and the news media, for deliberately hyping the coronavirus threat expressly to panic the markets and hurt his reelection chances, which to him is apparently the most frightening thing about this situation.
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By telling voters that this is solely about hurting him, Trump is casting aside that imperative as a dead letter. This is of a piece with Trump’s constant downplaying of the threat: Everything is absolutely under control, and anyone who tells you otherwise is just out to get him.
Trump’s biggest cheerleaders in the media are aggressively feeding this instinct. As
Matthew Gertz documents, numerous Fox News segments are pushing this line: “You can’t trust the other party, you can’t trust the media, you can’t trust the experts, you can only trust Trump and those loyal to him.”
Time will tell just how badly this ends up misleading the American public about the coronavirus threat, and what the consequences will be. But we already know this is really about placing Trump’s response to it beyond accountability entirely.