Trump Authorized Funding to the States
Our Governor gave it to Nigerian Scammers. and that wasn't Trump's fault either.
He authorized funding to lots of things. That's on him. Whatever his excuse is, whether it be listening to bad advice or anything else. He's the one responsible.
In addition to the funding, he signed the state emergency orders. All 50. He didn't have to sign them. That is also on him.
The state lockdowns were following guidance he gave them.
The state lockdowns used definitions of essential and nonessential businesses that he gave them. If he wanted to say that all businesses are essential, which would have been true, with the result that all would have stayed open, he could have. He did not. If he wanted to put out such broad guidelines for essential businesses that the ones having to close would have been limited to very few businesses, he could have. He did not. He chose to provide very limited definitions of "essential." Was that because he was too dumb to know any better and the result of actions taken by advisers he trusted? Perhaps. But that's no excuse.
The states themselves couldn't have afforded to lockdown without the federal government giving stimulus checks out to both individuals and businesses and extended unemployment benefits during that time. Trump signed that stimulus, and bullied any Republicans who, like Thomas Massie, stood in his way of pushing it through without a roll call vote. As we speak Trump is pushing for more of this to subsidize lockdowns on into next year.
Trump similarly bullied Republican governors who defied his lockdown guidance and opened their states sooner than he wanted them too. The Georgia governor is continuing to suffer politically for having gotten on Trump's bad side when he did that.
The lockdowns were entirely premised on the promise of a vaccine coming soon, without having to wait for the usual lengthy period of testing to get FDA approval. That promise relied on Trump's Operation Warp Speed. Without Operation Warp Speed, there could be no lockdowns.
Before a single state locked down, Trump himself had already personally ordered the nationwide lockdown on international travel, and quite recently imposed additional new restrictions on entry into the US from a number of countries. This is Trump, acting as president, without a single governor's involvement.
There's plenty of blame to go around to the governors. But Trump is not off the hook, not by a long shot. And bad advisers is no excuse.
