[Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of a 3-Part Series. See Part I: HERE, Part 3: HERE.]  

Trump’s task in leading the country’s defense against the coronavirus pandemic has been made immeasurably more difficult by the Democrats’ disloyal attempts to undermine its commander-in-chief at every turn. These attacks are summed up in the absurd caricature Democrats have created of the president as a “pathological liar,” a “narcissist uninterested in anything but himself,” and “out of control,” “incompetent,” “bigoted,” “anti-scientific,” and of course an anti-immigrant racist. And, therefore, a threat to national security rather than its guardian. These attacks have been carried to such extremes that perfectly sensible measures adopted by governments all over the world, such as closing borders, are characterized as “racist” when enacted by him – and carried out in a particularly advantageous fashion, such as his ban on travel from China within days of the virus being designated a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.

Since Trump is a leader who relies on his instincts, a bold risk taker who is willing to buck opposition from all sides if he feels his instincts are right, but is also ready to correct course if his instincts prove wrong, he is an exceptionally easy target for hostile critics. He is particularly vulnerable in the midst of a crisis which calls for alarm and calm simultaneously – for a realistic assessment of the threat but also for a leader who can convincingly provide a basis for optimism to those dependent on him lest they succumb to panic and despair.

This balancing act is made far more difficult in an environment where basic facts are still unknown because of the failures of the CDC and previous administrations to prepare for such a pandemic. Trump’s antagonists have exploited these fault lines to maximum advantage in their campaign to destroy him, seizing on one element to the exclusion of others. When judgments are driven by irrational hatreds any outcome is possible. The victims of the malodorous judgments that follow from these hatreds are all Americans who are dependent on him, since he is and remains the duly elected leader of the country.

Thus, if Trump touts an untested anti-viral drug cocktail like hydroxychloroquine and zythromax, as a possible solution to the crisis, his detractors will find a scientific skeptic whose doubts can serve as a basis to accuse Trump of medical malpractice, or incompetence or dangerous confusion – even though the jury is still out on whether such a cocktail will actually work. Similarly, when Trump raises the possibility of lifting the cloud of the virus on a certain date, like Easter, to avoid an economic collapse and provide hope anew, his antagonists attack him as acting from self-serving motives on behalf of Wall Street and giant corporations which have become – verbally at least – the new enemies of a Marxified Democrat Party.

Or, more pointedly, if Trump seeks to calm a panicking public by saying the situation is “under control” – the innocent equivalent of “your government is on the case” – this is denounced as an irresponsible lie that shows Trump (as usual) doesn’t know what he is talking about and is only concerned with burnishing his image. As Trump’s presidential rival Joe Biden said in his first campaign ad:

Crisis comes to every presidency. We don’t blame them for that. What matters is how they handle it. Donald Trump didn’t create the coronavirus, but he is the one who called it a ‘hoax,’ who eliminated the pandemic response team, and who let the virus spread unchecked across America. He should stop talking and start listening to the medical experts.[1]

These sentiments were hardly designed to instill confidence in the man who is the still the constitutionally appointed leader of the nation’s efforts to defeat the virus.

Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh responded to Biden’s vile attack by shifting attention to the political disaster to which Biden and the Democrats were contributing: “It used to be that Americans faced national adversity with unity,” Murtaugh observed, “but Joe Biden and his allies have abandoned that principle in favor of rank, despicable politics.”[2]

With a few notable exceptions, it is the leadership of the Democrat Party and its media allies who spread the falsehoods that Trump had dismissed the virus as a “hoax,” cut the budget of the Centers for Disease Control, and failed to provide an adequate number of surgical masks and ventilators to hospitals and their staffs. The “hoax” charge was particularly absurd since Trump had closed the border with China in the face of Democrat slanders that the measure was unneeded and “racist,” or that Trump had declared a state of emergency making it the top priority of his presidency.[3] But that didn’t stop the disloyal Biden and his Democrat allies bent on advancing their own agendas, however destructive to their fellow citizens.

The scarcity of masks was the result of the failure of the Obama administration to replenish the nation’s mask stockpiles after depleting them in the course of the H1N1 and Ebola epidemics. It was also the Obama Administration which had sought multi-million dollar cuts in the Centers for Disease Control budget, which were fortunately blocked at the time by the Republican Congress. Trump had actually increased the CDC’s funding.[4] Despite Trump’s obvious deference to his medical team, an army of Democrat and media saboteurs relentlessly attacked the president as “anti-science,” while insisting that he didn’t listen to his medical experts. This charge was specifically refuted by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the epidemiologist who headed Trump’s crisis team. Fauci stated that he had never been over-ruled by the president when they disagreed over a scientific issue. Dr. Deborah Birx, who coordinated the task force on the virus, and who reaffirmed Dr. Fauci’s view of Trump as a responsible leader, was viciously attacked for her testimony as a “hack” and “Stepford Doc” by former Clinton shill Joe Lockhart and a legion of other Trump-haters in the media.[5]

The treacherous lengths to which leaders of the Democrat Party have gone to demonize and defame Trump are exemplified in Hillary Clinton’s crusade to tar him as a “racist” for referring to the infection as a “Chinese virus.” Clinton denounced Trump in a tweet, saying, “The president is turning to racist rhetoric,” for using that descriptor. His purpose, Clinton explained was “to distract from his failures to take the coronavirus seriously early on, make tests widely available, and adequately prepare the country for a period of crisis.” Clinton’s attack was framed in the language that had become the creed of the Democrat Party. Calling the term “China virus” a racist epithet was an absurdity to anyone not sharing the ideological assumptions of Identity Politics and Cultural Marxism. The names of other troublesome diseases like “German measles,” “Lyme Disease and “Spanish flu” were also derived from their geographical points of origin. Not only had the virus originated in China, but by concealing its appearance and allowing millions of Wuhan citizens to leave the infected city and travel to unsuspecting countries abroad, the Chinese Communist dictatorship had cynically exposed the global population to its deadly effects.

The president’s characterization was, in fact, defensive. To cover up its malfeasance, the Chinese Communist government had launched a global propaganda campaign accusing the U.S. military of deliberately creating the virus and maliciously spreading it. As Trump explained, “China was putting out information, which was false, that our military gave this to them. That was false, and rather than having an argument, I said I have to call it where it came from.”[6] So seriously did the Chinese Communist rulers take their psychological war based on this falsehood that they launched a $2 trillion lawsuit suit against the United States for allegedly creating and spreading the virus.[7] In this Cold War, the Democrat Party presented itself as appeasers or outright sympathizers with the enemy assault on their own country. So great was their hatred of Trump.

 In other words, not only was Clinton aiding and abetting a disinformation campaign against her own country and its president, but she was actively undermining her commander-in-chief’s efforts to combat the virus threatening American citizens. Clinton’s disturbing readiness to abet China’s psychological warfare against her own country, was immediately praised by China’s ambassador to the United States who said: “Justice Speaks Loudly.”[8] What was loud and clear, however, was not justice, but a fault line in America’s body politic so volatile and deep as to pose an existential threat to the nation itself.

 David Horowitz is the author of the forthcoming Humanix book, Blitz: Trump Will Smash the Left and Win.