Trump Blames High Coronavirus Death Rate on Blue States

Like all things Trump says, this is both inaccurate and offensive.

Donald Trump continued his vilification of blue states yesterday as he discussed the coronavirus pandemic. In a press conference, Trump tried to downplay the nearly 200k COVID-19 deaths in America, saying, “The blue states had tremendous death rates … If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at, we’re really at a very low level.”

Sure, our death rates are low, if you dismiss HALF OF THE COUNTRY. But this is hardly the first time Trump has expressed his disdain for Democratic-led states and cities. The president has a history of ignoring the wildfires on the west coast, despite much of the damage being done on federal land. And he has frequently targeted Democrat-leaning states, retweeting a video that declared “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”

Despite being president to the entire country, Trump’s red state favoritism has infected all aspects of his governance. His advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner even spiked efforts to build a national coronavirus testing program to punish blue states, according to an exposé in Vanity Fair:

“Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushner’s team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. “The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,” said the expert. hat logic may have swayed Kushner.

‘It was very clear that Jared was ultimately the decision maker as to what [plan] was going to come out,’ the expert said.”

Not only is Trump’s blaming of blue states horrific, it is also inaccurate. Four of the ten states with the highest death counts are led by Republican governors. And cases are continuing to rise all across the South and the Midwest.

Trump’s blundering response is also a betrayal of the Republicans living in blue states who voted for him. Whether or not they internalize his insults and change their votes in 2020 remains to be seen. But what else would we expect from the most divisive president in modern memory?