Having insisted that COVID-19 is in retreat across the US, Donald Trump now finds himself having to eat his words. Not only is the virus spreading but it is accelerating in the very states that voted for him in the past.
His core support is under threat just as the presidential election campaign starts to build up for the vote in eight months’ time. Across the Midwest and South, in Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky and North and South Dakota, and from cities through to small towns, the pandemic is now spreading not least in states where governors either ignored federal government lock-down advice or followed Trump’s lead and eased up on initial restrictions.
COVID-19 has now killed well over 83,000 people in the US, by far the worst of any country in the world, and there have been close to 1.5 million reported cases. The toll is now far greater than the combined US military losses in Vietnam, Afghanistan, the Gulf War and the war with Iraq. It has killed more than 25 times the number of people killed in the 9/11 attacks and certainly raises many questions over the relevance of the current US military posture.
