Donald Trump's Old Ebola Tweets Reveal His Incompetence on Coronavirus

Donald Trump's Old Ebola Tweets Reveal His Incompetence on Coronavirus
By Michael Harriot
Mar 18th, 2020, 10:30am

Trump’s old tweets prove he’s a hypocritical idiot.

That’s it. That’s the lede.

What?

OK. After writing this article comparing Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis with his previous statements, The Root’s Managing Editor Genetta Adams just informed me this lede is not enough. All I can think of is an old joke about a young black airplane pilot flying his first commercial flight out of Mississippi. (Or maybe it was Alabama. Or America.)

As he greeted the passengers on the flight, he could hear the whispers from the passengers worried because they had never seen a black pilot. To calm their racist fears, he got on the intercom and assured them that he had flown thousands of flights after graduating first in his class from the best flight school in the world. Still, the uneasy passengers never relaxed. Then, halfway through the trip, the plane encountered a storm.

“Oh Lord, save us from this nigger pilot!” the passengers scream.

The black pilot gets back on the intercom and tells the people not to worry, he’s smart and capable. Just as he finishes his calming speech, the plane encounters more turbulence.

“Oh Lord, save us from this nigger pilot!” they cry out again, in unison.

Even though he is insulted, the pilot lands the plane safely and without a hitch, much to the relief of the passengers and the embarrassment of the all-white crew. The passengers explain that their outbursts were due to anxiety and had nothing to do with the color of the pilot’s skin. Even the all-white crew tries to insist that the passengers aren’t racist.

Before the next flight out of Mississippi, the pilot is informed that there’s going to be another storm, so he gets an idea.

He gives one of his white male flight attendants his uniform. The flight attendant, dressed as a pilot, greets each passenger as they board the plane while the pilot is in the cockpit ready to take off. Of course, they encounter the storm again. As the pilot guides the plane through the turbulence, the passengers panic again. As the inclement weather jostled the travelers through the air, the crew members ran to the cockpit to gloat.

“See?” they said smugly. “The passengers would have panicked regardless of your skin color. Why do you have to make everything about race.”

“I can’t really hear anything,” the pilot replied, barely able to hold on to the steering wheel. (Plane’s have steering wheels, right?) “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m kinda busy here trying not to crash this motherfucker.”

To prove their point, the all-white crew decided to turn on the two-way intercom so the pilot could hear the passengers. Just before he exited the turbulence, the cockpit’s speakers blasted the frantic prayers of the entire plane. The black pilot was the only one who noticed the passengers’ prayers were slightly different.

“Oh Lord,” they screamed in unison. “Save us from this storm!”

Anyway, here’s what Trump has previously said about Barack Obama, leadership, science, medicine and shouldering responsibility during a crisis.


On Vacations
Since the first COVID-19 death was reported on Jan. 11, 2020, Trump has held nine rallies, visited Mar-a-Lago five times and played at least seven rounds of golf. Let’s see what he has previously said about that kind of behavior.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/125990387226652672

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/525495434928988160

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/521813597799067648

Mishandling It From the Start
One of the sparks that caused the spread of the coronavirus was the Trump administration disregarding the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and allowing infected patients to travel on commercial flights, the Washington Post reports. He further overruled the CDC’s advice warning seniors not to fly.

I’m sure he has never said anything about that.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/495379061972410369

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/517807091067932672

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/520562181616959488

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/522516449567735808

Politicizing a Crisis
After more than two months of inaction, Trump held his first press conference on Feb. 29, 2020. He immediately criticized Democrats and the press for politicizing a national crisis. Surely, Trump wouldn’t even think of criticizing out great nation’s leadership during a catastrophe. It would be downright un-American.

Oh wait...look what I found.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/263280389039218690

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/264390196819283968

Let’s look at what he said in 2014, as the Obama administration faced the Ebola crisis:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/525742989101252608

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/517206258089484289

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/527153009860808705

Trusting the Science
Trump claims to have a “natural instinct for science.” Well, let’s look at what he previously regarded science and research, including what he said during global outbreaks.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/507158574670573568

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/517613167359574016

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/497819123708350464

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/527110542008549376

Hiring the ‘Best People’
Way back in 2017, officials warned that the U.S. was ill-prepared for a global pandemic after reducing funding to the CDC and dismissing the National Security Council’s infectious disease experts.

He put noted not-scientist Mike Pence in charge of the coronavirus crisis after criticizing the Obama administration for having the CDC and its Ebola experts consult with national security experts.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/523237015329193984

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/523194743531249664

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/520501358546653185

Taking Responsibility
Trump famously said the coronavirus crisis was not his “responsibility at all” because it was an unavoidable situation that no one could have expected.

I’m sure he didn’t blame Obama for the same kind of problems.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/525472979443273728

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/665525201589936128

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/522394479429689344

See how easy it is to criticize the pilot when you’re sitting in the back seat?

O, Lord, save us from this idiot president...

And this storm.

https://www.theroot.com/donald-trumps-old-ebola-tweets-reveal-his-incompetence-1842383794

A dangerous rift in the Democratic Party

Super Tuesday is here and we are getting closer to finding out who will be the one to face Trump in the General election. I can't wait to know who it will be and I wish we can put all this bickering behind us, but I know it's not going to happen since many are still holding grudges that span back to 2016.

If Biden ends up becoming our nominee it would be a good thing, but I fear that we may permanently alienate a massive amount of Bernie supporters and some Independents from voting for Democrats ever again if we don't start getting them to trust us. They should be doing that too, but I don't see that happening so I believe we have to be the ones to do it in order to make the party stronger. Many of them already distrust the Democratic party because of perceived slights or lies like the ones Trump has been peddling. The more things like this go on unresolved the worse things may become down the line.

If we want to gain their trust one way to do so would be to prevent candidates from entering the race so late like what happened with Bloomberg. I think It was bad optics for the DNC to let this happen. If Biden wins the Primary he could throw Bernie's supporters a bone by compromising with them on some things that they would want. We non politicians also need to try to convince them that everything will be alright and that they will be taken care of. If we can gain back their trust I'm sure we will be in a better position against Trump and other Republican opponents in the future.

Rep. Steve King of Iowa gets a statue in his honor