We’ll show them!

So basically they’re working hard to…raise their own body count?

In perhaps his most overt effort to shun the wearing of masks, Trump retweeted a tweet from Fox News analyst Brit Hume ridiculing Joe Biden for appearing with a face mask during a Memorial Day ceremony in Delaware.

Trump hates the masks, Trump refuses to wear the mask, Trump keeps telling everyone the masks are voluntary. Last week he even made a point of saying he didn’t wear a mask in public view on his visit to the Ford plant because he didn’t want to give reporters the satisfaction.

The implication was pretty clear: When it comes to wearing a mask, public health isn’t the only consideration. So, too, are pride and Trump’s appetite for provocation. That message, perhaps better than anything, summarizes his attitude toward masks. Whatever can be gained by a president setting an example for the American people, there are other considerations.

Or, to put it in more trumpian terms: fuck setting an example, he just wants to do what he wants to do.

It’s not difficult to see the public consequences to this more laissez-faire approach to masks. In the days before Trump’s Monday retweet, anecdotal images showed Memorial Day weekend revelers in places such as the Lake of the Ozarks flouting not just mask-wearing guidelines but also social-distancing guidelines.

Polls have indicated members of Trump’s party are much more likely to flout the mask guideline. A Quinnipiac University poll last week showed 90 percent of Democrats thought Trump should wear a mask in public, but just 38 percent of Republicans said the same.

So…in other words they’re thinning their own numbers. On purpose. I’m not sure they’ve really thought this through.

5 Responses to “We’ll show them!”