OPINION:
President Donald Trump is a germaphobe. Everybody knows it; it’s a well-reported claim the president himself has confirmed.
This puts him in a vulnerable leadership spot on the coronavirus outbreak.
How could it not?
It’s akin to having a father who lost his son to lung cancer set smoking policy. Or having a mother who lost her daughter to a drunken driver establish blood-alcohol limits. Or having an arachnophobe clean the barn.
“Shaking hands is ’barbaric’: Donald Trump, the germaphobe in chief,” The Washington Post wrote in headline from January, 2017.
The Post piece went on to quote Trump as saying, “I’m also very much of a germophobe, by the way, believe me.”
He’s not changed much through the years.
“Trump is such a germaphobe that aides aren’t allowed to cough in his presence and visitors must wash their hands before entering the Oval Office, report says,” Business Insider reported in July, 2019.
From The Hill, in February: “Trump nods at reputation as germaphobe during coronavirus briefing: ’I try to bail out as much as possible’ after sneezes.”
And from Vanity Fair, this past March: “’He’s Definitely Melting Down Over This’: Trump, Germaphobe in Chief, Struggles to Control the Covid-19 Story.”
This is not to say Trump can’t lead the country well through this coronavirus storm.
He’s doing a great job; he’s doing better than most would in his shoes.
But, he’s vulnerable on the medical front. He’s vulnerable to overkill based on medical advisements. There’s no way his own admitted germophobia doesn’t color, to some degree, his interpretations and understanding of coronavirus dangers, his filtering and analysis of medical advisements, his acceptance versus challenge of health industry recommendations.
And you think the Democrats don’t know this? You think the anti-Trumpers aren’t aware?
If Trump could be compared to Superman in the way he’s boldly, brashly, brazenly taken on the the globalists, the entrenched politicians, the climate change alarmists, the socialists, China and the United Nations, all the while bolstering the U.S. economy to great gain — well then, the Lex Luthors of the deep state no doubt think they’ve found their kryptonite with the coronavirus.
The partisan hacks of the left will use this national panic to their best political advantage.
What Trump needs more than anything right now is clear, factual information on the coronavirus — in context, in comparison, in a cooler head look at other diseases, other considerations, other national priorities. Fewer doctors, more economists. Anything less is a disservice to truth, and to the country.
Anything less makes Trump vulnerable to his own germophobia.
Anything less hands the left a big ol’ batch of kryptonite that will be used not just to take down Trump, but also all his White House wins. Then make way for the new president: the one wearing the Democratic Party button.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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