Is President Trump Victim Of Motivated Hate Campaign? – OpEd

Normally, when a person finds himself to be COVID positive, every one around would sympathize with him, wish him well and pray for his speedy recovery. However, this is not so in the case of President Trump.

After Trump announced that he has been tested COVID positive, several comments are appearing in the news channels and social media. Looking into these comments, one gets an impression  that there is a motivated hate campaign against President Trump and those behind this campaign seem to get vicarious satisfaction in ridiculing him at every opportunity, even if it were to be “an opportunity seized by them due to Trump being declared COVID positive.”

Look at the type of vicious comments going around, after Trump has been declared COVID positive.

One cartoon  rapidly spreading in social media shows  a “picture”  of COVID infected Trump drinking dettol to cure himself.

Another comment says that there is something now positive about President Trump.

A third comment in the social media shows people wishing Trump to remain positive.

Even worse than the above vicious comments  is one statement  in a news channel that says “our thoughts and prayers are with the virus at this difficult time”.

Are these critics so cruel that they cannot give up their feelings of hate at the targeted person, even when he is in the hospital battling against the dreaded COVID 19?

In the four years of Trump’s administration, certainly there are many positive moves, which critics, cartoonists and some journalists apart from the people belonging to the opposition party, conveniently and deliberately ignore. Trump’s move to curtail the flow of immigrants to USA, his efforts to increase the job avenues in the USA for American citizens, asking American investors to invest in America and prevent China growing at the cost of the USA by exploiting the US market and several other steps have all been efforts to fulfill the promises made by him as “America first” policy, during his previous election campaign. 

Trump’s successful peace moves in the Middle East region is an extraordinary achievement that the critics are not taking note of, for whatever reasons.

There are some short falls in the Trump administration and whatever such short falls must be pointed out with data and objective analysis. Has this been done adequately?

It is true that Trump harshly reacted to the criticisms on several occasions and he was returning with the same coin, sometimes with sarcasm and some other times even with venom.

While several criticisms against Trump have not caught the imagination of the people, one criticism that seems to be staying is that Trump has not managed the COVID crisis in the USA well. The question is that in the given circumstances, could any other President could have handled it better.

The ground reality and the fact is that the entire world was caught unaware with regard to the COVID-19 crisis and even WHO was not an exception. China seriously erred by failing to forewarn the world when the COVID virus happened in Wuhan and the entire world thought that they would not be affected. However, things did not go that way.

During the last nine months, there has been considerable confusion and  differences of opinion around the world amongst the medical practitioners, scientists and others about the cause and effect of COVID-19. There have been differences of opinion on whether wearing masks and social distancing would prevent the spread of viruses. Even as the research efforts to find a vaccine have been going on, as an interim measure, several drugs were suggested of which Hydroxychloroquin is one. Several scientists suggested the use of this drug and Trump, obviously based on the views of his advisers, advised the use of Hydroxychloroquine drugs. Several countries used it and India exported the drug to several countries who gratefully received it.

Meanwhile, many other suggestions have been made by well-meaning scientists and researchers such as drinking warm water once in 15 minutes, and some scientists suggested the use of medicinal soaps to wash the hands and others suggesting ordinary soaps would be enough. Even with regard to the use of sanitizers, some people said that the content of alcohol in it could harm the skin due to repeated use.  Nobody could say anything conclusively on the matter.

Then, why ridicule Trump  for suggesting the Hydroxychloroquin drug?  Obviously, Trump was making suggestions given to him by his advisers like any other President would do.

Another complaint against Trump is that he did not take effective steps earlier to prevent the spread of the virus adequately. Many people think that even countries like India — which started social distancing and imposed a lockdown quite early — have not seen any fall in the spread of the disease. Therefore, whether Trump initiating early steps (with whatever vague measures suggested) would have stopped the spread of disease is a matter of conjecture.

One cannot ignore the fact that several people demonstrated against the directives for using masks and social distancing. Further, in the American system of governance, it is known that several state governors function independently and often do not observe the directives of the Federal government.

President Trump explained that his earlier statement that the virus would go away soon was made, so that it would not spread panic among his country men. Is there anything wrong in this approach? In times of such crisis, keeping the morale of the people high is vitally important.

During the first Presidential debate Biden used several un-parliamentary terms calling Trump a liar, a clown and asking him to shut up, however, President Trump is being more criticized than Biden for the chaotic debate. The anchor, Chris Wallace, sat helplessly watching and nobody criticized him severely for his ineffective role.

The critics seem to have an attitude towards Trump, which reflects the saying that, “if  I win the toss, I win; if you win the toss, you lose.”

Will the critics and hate mongers keep silent at least now, until Trump recovers? While several people who are obviously motivated critics and pledged haters have been using unacceptable terms against Trump such as “idiot” and “fool” in social media, will these people realize that they are viewed as heartless and uncivilized people, if they persist with such statement of abuse against Trump, even as he is in hospital.

Can we expect that Democratic candidate Biden will stop his campaign since Trump cannot campaign now, and resume it when Trump recovers and restarts his campaign?

Is it too much now to expect such magnanimous gestures in the present political climate in the USA?