All presidents are probably a bit more sympathetic to their supporters than their opponents. But I’ve never seen a president so obviously relish the suffering of people in states that voted against him, even though that suffering includes many people in blue states that did vote for him. Trump positively gloats over any piece of news suggesting the virus hit blue states harder, or stories of crime or homelessness in blue states.
But karma’s a bitch, and that attitude may come back to haunt him:
But until recently, the president was largely unreceptive to that message, they said, not fully grasping the magnitude of the pandemic — and overly preoccupied with his own sense of grievance, beginning many conversations casting himself as the blameless victim of the crisis.
In the past couple of weeks, senior advisers began presenting Trump with maps and data showing spikes in coronavirus cases among “our people” in Republican states, a senior administration official said. They also shared projections predicting that virus surges could soon hit politically important states in the Midwest — including Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, the official said.
In case you don’t know, “our people” doesn’t refer to Americans. Trump’s not patriotic; he’s a nationalist. “Our people” means Trump voters.
He may still win, but his decision to stick his head in the sand for 6 months is certainly making that task more difficult.
Perhaps I should have more compassion for Trump, who is the biggest victim of Covid-19:
Trump also maintained such a sense of grievance — about how the virus was personally impacting him, his presidency and his reelection prospects — that aides recount spending valuable time listening to his gripes, rather than focusing on crafting a national strategy to combat the pandemic.