Trump’s COVID Response Was Reagan-esque

That’s Not A Compliment For Either President

Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan both had to deal with novel viruses during their presidencies.

Since the U.S. is one of the richest countries in the world, we should have also been one of the best prepared for a pandemic. Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s abysmal leadership during the response to the COVID crisis is a top reason that the U.S. is the leader in total cases and total deaths from the virus. However, given Republicans’ continued love for former president Ronald Reagan, it should have been no surprise that Trump’s COVID response mirrors Reagan’s actions to combat HIV/AIDS.

HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) was a novel virus itself when it gained steam in the early days of Reagan’s first term. However, Reagan’s instinct and initial strategy for the virus was simple: ignore it.

It had no name at the time, but the virus that would become known as HIV/AIDS was first discussed in the media by the New York Times in July of 1981, though it would not be given front-page coverage once it was named until May of 1983. When it came to official acknowledgement by the government, it was first described by the CDC in 1982. Reagan himself would wait until a press conference on September 17th, 1985 to finally concede its existence. By the end of that year, the total number of AIDS cases and deaths in the U.S. would grow to 15,527 and 12,529, respectively.

1985 was notable in terms of Reagan’s response for another reason as well, and it shares a striking similarity to a milestone in Trump’s COVID response.

A new kind of narcissism was revealed when Reagan lost a friend of many years to the virus he refused to acknowledge for so long. In 1985, Ronald’s old Hollywood friend, Rock Hudson, died from the illness. Before his death, Rock tried to leverage his friendship with Ronald in order to get treatment at a French military hospital, yet Ronald and his wife Nancy simply ignored him. Nancy’s reasoning was that she “did not feel this was something the White House should get into”.

Though the ties were not as direct as with Reagan, Trump’s version of this was the death of Herman Cain in July of this year. Cain’s close associates claim they have “no idea” where he contracted the illness, but that seems to be more so out of ignorance than investigation. Donald Trump held a rally in Tulsa, OK on June 20, which boasted a lack of both masks and social distancing, and Cain was proudly in attendance without a mask.

A mask-less Herman Cain at Trump’s June 20th rally in Tulsa, OK (via @THEHermanCain on Twitter)

Though there is no doubt that Trump oversaw far more deaths from a novel virus than Reagan, the latter’s approach to HIV/AIDS is equally appalling, Frankly, Ronald Reagan’s handling of HIV/AIDS, and his role in stigmatizing it, is not talked about enough when reviewing his legacy. Between this, his 1980 campaign speech on “states’ rights” that invited racist, white southerners into the Republican Party (the same people who would eventually become Trump’s base), and lowering taxes for the rich by disguising it as tax cuts for everyone, we should all look at Reagan’s presidency for what it really was, not what the movie-star president wanted us to think it was.

Civil Rights activists James Chaney, Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were murdered by the KKK. Ronald Reagan decided to give a speech on states’ rights just miles from where their bodies were dumped.

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