Howard Stern Takes Aim at Trump's Lack of Leadership During the Covid-19 Crisis

During this Covid-19 crisis - the worst crisis to hit this nation and the world since World War II - we Americans have been tragically without solid, or even remotely responsible, leadership, capable of handing such adverse times. Of course, we Americans collectively have been almost asking for this kind of mediocrity to handle such a disaster. After all, just looking at those we have elected into the White House over the past three to four decades, we have put in there a professional actor, a slick politician with a well-established history of lying, a born-again Christian former drug addict and eventual war criminal who felt that God was on his side and showed no tolerance to drug addicts during his years in the White House, a man with very limited political experience who willingly, perhaps even enthusiastically, rode the wave of popular (and mistaken) perceptions about him for two terms in office, and finally, an arrogant billionaire with an exhaustive history of being a liar and a con artist, and who has proven to be exactly those things since he has taken over in the Oval Office. 

This last one is the man we have now, who is so transparently ill-equipped to handle this crisis, that it would almost be comical, if it were not so damn tragic.  He started off his "handling" of this crisis by basically denying how serious the coronavirus was, and quickly predicting it would simply go away. At one point, while there were still just 15 confirmed cases and zero deaths in the United States, he predicted that within two weeks, it would be zero. Supporters considered this a bold prediction, but in fact, it was either delusional, or even perhaps criminally misleading. 

Yes, that was the beginning. But he grew more serious about it once it became a problem that was impossible to ignore, and broke all travel to Europe, even though again, in typical fashion, he painted broad brushstrokes that his White House then had to backtrack from, needing to clarify if the restrictions pertained to trade. Then, he fixated on trying to get this thing referred to as the "Chinese virus," and only finally agreed to stop calling it this once it was proven not only useless in terms of helping to contain it, much less cure it, but also once this bt of racism had the predictable result of seeing hate crimes within the country spike. That, too, has been a common and consistent byproduct of having Trump in charge in this country, because hate crimes have spiked up ever since his candidacy gained prominence back in 2016. 

Since all of that, Trump has spent his time doing something else that has become a staple of his presidency: praising himself and his handling of the crisis. Unfortunately, too many Americans are so brainwashed and incapable of an ounce of objectivity or reason to recognize these empty boasts as precisely that, because his approval ratings match his highest ever (49 percent) while a whopping 60 percent of Americans approve of his handling of the Covid-19 crisis, a staggering number when one thinks of all of the clear missteps and objectionable behavior and even policies from this White House since this thing first started, right up to now. This, despite his public battles with governors, who he warned better be friendly to him and his administration if they needed help, and while he was cutting food stamps and still actively trying to kill Obamacare, which would throw about 20 million more people off of healthcare, all during this time of a national (really, international) crisis. 

As the United States emerged as the leading nation, if that is the right term for it, for confirmed cases, and as the death toll rises daily, Trump keeps on praising himself. He proudly declared that his press conferences, which have been criticized for being deliberately misleading and contradictory (again, a typical characteristic of his entire time in office) had the best ratings on television. Then, he claimed that he was number one on Facebook.

How is it that so many Americans are convinced that a man who thinks about himself and how great and popular he is during a crisis like this is handling things well? It really is beyond me. 

Howard Stern is another celebrity who is fixated with his popularity. As such, he perhaps has a unique understanding of Donald Trump, someone he knew fairly well before Trump ever got into the White House. And Stern recently pulled no punches in his assessment of Donald Trump and his presidency. Here is what he had to say recently about Trump's fixation on ratings, when he should be focusing more seriously on the dilemma that is facing the American people he was voted to work for and represent:

Stern wasn’t having it.  “It’s not your incredible reality TV show that you’re putting on for the country,” he said, according to The Hill. “It’s because we’re in crisis and we’re tuning in to see what the president has to say. We’re looking for leadership, motherfuckers!”  

The SiriusXM radio host also blasted Trump’s constant praise for himself.  

“As far as Donald’s concerned, Donald thinks he’s the best president there ever was,” he said. “I can honestly tell you that Donald doesn’t give one shit about public service.”  

I do not always agree with Howard Stern and his opinions. But on these points that he made, it sounds about right. Trump does not give one shit about anything that does not, in one way or another, benefit him directly, either by enriching him, or by giving him what he so desperately, and exclusively, seems to pursue above all else: approval and ratings, come what may.

Again, I reiterate: we have been asking for this kind of a disastrous presidency during a true crisis for a long, long time. And the tragedy that is unfolding seems to be worse here in the United States than it is elsewhere as a direct result of this trend towards increasing immaturity among the American people, a trend that has been growing worse and worse now for many decades.

Soon, we will be seeing the full scale tragedy of it all.





Here is the link that got me on this topic to begin with:


Howard Stern Nails Trump’s Problem: ‘Doesn’t Give One S**t About Public Service’ by Ed Mazza, April 1, 2020:
Radio icon rips into the president for bragging about his ratings amid the pandemic.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/howard-stern-donald-trump-coronavirus_n_5e83ed5fc5b6a1bb764f9afa?utm_source=main_fb&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063&section=politics&fbclid=IwAR3O-lJkanOwR5C2qcw-cMhpvEbP2ppIsMvSbSc5devYjqgBCou-mo_YKUY&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZmFjZWJvb2suY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAE6UUEhLyBxZIESmHmhLDEjWoa0Xogm0xuRFXe3xfsE7s8FA0AUqxSbHbrNY_Sh_q_Tuu3IhBfgIvyn6x-K8S-vrfMnKr-i4MvW2TvgflM2Gzc1bRT2CN4qIAfuzxEvRDm6M_4ZucZpaHZHhPcn7AUpoJKOnHT5kXjtCRdBFsAIi&guccounter=2