A rigid mind

Trump's response to covid-19 has seemed bizarre because it's so obviously contrary to self-interest.  He repeatedly says it will just disappear, perhaps by magic, though common sense would tell him it's unwise to go on record predicting something so unlikely.  He keeps pushing "re-opening" and deprecating precautions, in hopes of reviving the economy, though common sense would tell him that a hugely increased death toll (caused largely by the course of action he urged) would hurt his re-election chances more than the recession would.  He ignores and rejects expert advice, though common sense would tell him that it's of practical use in navigating the crisis which will now define his presidency.

It's actually a huge missed opportunity.  Before covid-19 came along, Trump was already suffering from low approval ratings, a highly-motivated opposition, and the disdain of most of the public outside his own blind cult following.  If he had handled the pandemic well -- as much as Cuomo has in New York, for example -- he could have won widespread acclaim and probably guaranteed his own re-election, even a landslide.  Why didn't he see this?

It's not a matter of pandering to the Trumpanzees and Republican politicians who are downplaying the crisis.  It's they who have followed his lead in doing so, not vice-versa.

This looks to me like something more bizarre and alarming than his standard selfishness and greed.  It looks like a strange kind of mental rigidity, an inability to shift gears.  He was committed to the narrative of a booming economy leading to his re-election, and he can't shift away from that narrative to respond to a change in circumstances even when it would obviously be in his own interest to do so.  He hasn't been able to recognize that the pandemic is both a crisis and an opportunity, one which could doom him if he mishandles it or hugely boost him if he rises to the occasion.  His response has been to try and brush it away as soon as possible, in any way possible, so he can get back to the original narrative about the booming economy.

A president with a normally-functioning mind, even if he were totally venal and concerned only with self-interest, would realize that the virus has irreversibly changed the whole dynamic and that he would now be judged almost entirely on his response to it.  Trump can't seem to do that.

I don't know whether it's an effect of age (although 73 isn't all that old) or just some bizarre mental deficiency.  But it seems crippling since it prevents him from adapting to change and acting in his own self-interest.

Trump has lived most of his life in a position where his wealth and power protected him from suffering serious consequences from making bad decisions.  He became president against the will of the majority of voters due to a black-swan combination of freak circumstances.  He's survived in office because competent and intelligent evil men like McConnell chose, for reasons of their own, to shield him and prop him up.  If Trump had not been born rich, he would probably be homeless or dead by now; he couldn't function in a normal job or a normal life situation which requires normal thinking processes.

We should be able to get him out in November.  It's too bad that so many people will die in the meantime because, largely, of this odd glitch in one man's brain.