. In early April it was still possible to imagine that the virus really would abate by the middle of summer. That this hasn’t happened — that the virus is still raging out of control in America while being brought under control in so many other countries — is directly attributable to the epic failure of leadership by a president who infamously proclaimed ‘I don’t take responsibility at all.’ ”
Astoundingly, in spite of the near-national economic collapse from the Covid shutdown, with more than 11% unemployment, many more than 40 million applying for unemployment compensation benefits, and thousands of businesses teetering on the edge of bankruptcy or collapse, per recent polling, the president still receives a positive response from slightly more than half the population for his handling of the economy.
Now brewing as well is a fracas in waiting over how best to open up educational facilities and schools across the country, once the new school year begins at the end of August. Parents and teachers are increasingly nervous about what is going to happen when — or if — schools reopen and how physical distancing will take place and infections held down. The president is insisting all schools must open, pretty much come what may, even if this creates a virulent second wave for this virus.
Essentially, her argument is that the president’s father raised a son who became fixated on always being able to say he was the best at everything he touched, and that everything he did was perfect. As a result, a persistent, poisonous, narcissistic unreality thoroughly permeates the Trump mindset, affecting everything he says, does or believes. The book was already a best seller before a single copy hit the stores.
As for Congress, while the court did not order the president to turn over his records to Congress, it did not rule out the possibility that if congressional investigating committees approached lower courts with more tightly drawn requests, specifically related to ongoing investigations, that might be acceptable.
Thus the president has not gained a fatal wound from these two court decisions. Rather, he now has festering ones that will continue to dog him, regardless of whether he is re-elected in less than four months’ time.