“Mexico and The Wall Will Once Again Take Center Stage”
Paul Waldman writes for the Washington Post that, “The Trump administration has all but given up fighting the pandemic,” noting that despite “rising rates of infection and hospitalizations,” and projections showing up to 200,000 deaths by the beginning of October, Trump is gearing up for a series of re-election campaign rallies where, as Waldman writes: “The assembled faithful will prove their devotion to the president by not wearing masks, just as they do at the White House and at his campaign headquarters.”
President Trump has no plans for addressing the pandemic beyond trying to ignore it, advance misinformation, or shift blame from his mismanagement to his typical scapegoats – such as the go-to “scary immigrants” falsehood.
Right on cue, the Associated Press reports, “White House eyes travel from Mexico as source of virus spike,” noting that:
The White House is floating a theory that travel from Mexico may be contributing to a new wave of coronavirus infections, rather than states’ efforts to reopen their economies.
According to Pili Tobar, Deputy Director of America’s Voice:
It’s no surprise that Trump is again trying to shift blame onto Mexico and immigrants for the catastrophic results of his failure in handling this pandemic. The U.S. has the highest numbers of COVID deaths and infections in the world because of President Trump’s willful mismanagement of a public health crisis, which resulted in over 100 thousand deaths and rising cases across the country. All thanks to the administration’s lies and pressure on states to return to business as usual, despite warnings from experts.
All Trump cares about is re-election, and just as cases start spiking in swing states like Arizona, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, Trump is gearing up for his ego-boosting rallies, where attendees will be required to sign liability waivers but not wear masks or social distance, further putting more American lives in danger. We’ve seen this movie before, Trump is teeing up his favorite playbook: distract from his failures by dividing us, scapegoating immigrants, and pointing to his favorite boogeyman: Mexico. Thankfully, five years almost to the day that he announced he was running for President by calling Mexicans criminals and rapists, more and more Americans are seeing through his falsehoods and recognizing his failures and gross unfitness for office. November can’t come soon enough.
