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One of the greatest successes of the Russian/Republican Influence Operation has been the annihilation of truth itself. It’s nearly impossible to argue policy with Trump cultists because they don’t believe the facts any such discussion would have to rely on.Thus here you have cult members like Bob Smith saying “Who said he did this, fake news from CNN?”Trump cultists don’t just believe the mainstream news has a liberal slant—which it does, to be honest. They also believe that the mainstream news, from the New York Times to CNN, lie all the time in order to attack Trump. It’s a big, big jump from slanted coverage to outright lying, but they’ve made the jump.So you can say “Well Pulitzer Prize-winning factchecker PolitiFact, which calls lilberals out all the time for lying, along with right wingers, says this is true.”Trump cultists: “They’re lying. They’re liberals trying to destroy the President.”You get the same response to anything you cite—even conservative publications like The Economist—unless it’s Fox News or one of the many far right astroturf websites like NewsMax.But I’ll give it a shot anyway:How about that noted Communist magazine Fortune?“…The cuts started in 2018, as the White House focused on eliminating funding to Obama-era disease security programs. In March of that year, Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, whose job it was to lead the U.S. response in the event of a pandemic, abruptly left the administration and his global health security team was disbanded.“That same year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was forced to slash its efforts to prevent global disease outbreak by 80% as its funding for the program began to run out. The agency, at the time, opted to focus on 10 priority countries and scale back in others, including China.“Also cut was the Complex Crises Fund, a $30 million emergency response pool that was at he secretary of state’s disposal to deploy disease experts and others in the event of a crisis. (The fund was created by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.)“Overall in 2018, Trump called for $15 billion in reduced health spending that had previously been approved, as he looked at increasing budget deficits, cutting the global disease-fighting budgets of the CDC, National Security Council (NSC), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Health and Human Services (HHS) in the process.“The effects of those cuts are being felt today. While the CDC announced plans to test people with flu-like symptoms for COVID-19, those have been delayed and only three of the country’s 100 public-health labs have been able to test for coronavirus. The administration’s request for additional funding came roughly two weeks after officials said HHS was almost out of funding for its response to the virus.”Trump administration budget cuts could become a major problem as coronavirus spreadsFact check from fact checking site Snopes confirms this:Did Trump Administration Fire the US Pandemic Response Team?Their conclusion? Yes it did.PolitiFact reached a similar conclusion:“In May 2018, the top White House official in charge of the U.S. response to pandemics left the administration. Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer was the senior director of global health and biodefense on the National Security Council and oversaw global health security issues, a specialty that had been bolstered under President Barack Obama.“After Ziemer’s departure, the global health team was reorganized as part of an effort by then-National Security Adviser John Bolton. Meanwhile, Tom Bossert, a homeland security adviser who recommended strong defenses against disease and biological warfare, was reportedly pushed out by Bolton in 2018. Neither White House official or their teams, which were responsible for coordinating the U.S. response to pandemic outbreaks across agencies, have been replaced during the past two years.”PolitiFact - Did Donald Trump fire pandemic officials, defund CDC?EDIT ADD: Bob Trammell’s answer in this thread is worth noting. I can’t reply to it because, like so many snowflakes, he has blacklisted me from commenting on his stuff (I don’t blacklist anyone—ever, BTW).He and I have something in common: we both got social science BAs from UCLA. But it stops there. I always appreciate his answers, because they demonstrate a phenomenon that has been noticed by pollsters: even though most Trump cult members are not educated, those who are have the same opinions/beliefs as their undereducated brethren—they just use more and bigger words to express them.This shows the power of ideology over native wit. Truth and reason are sacrificed for belief, just as all of us who attended Sunday School were trained to do (though many religions, to be fair, don’t expect you to treat the outside world as if the same rules apply).Let’s examine Trallell’s “more words.”First, he claims Trump didn’t exactly fire the team—he just disbanded it. This is quibbling over the meaning of the word. Same as happened with Ambassador Yovanovitch. Did he fire her? He yanked her from her post in Ukraine without notice, publicly smeared and humiliated her, and shortly thereafter she left government service. In my book he fired her. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. But feel free to call it something else—the bottom line’s the same.Second, he defends disbanding the team because it wasn’t needed at the time.Seriously? On that basis let’s disband all the nation’s fire departments, and only try to reassemble them as fires occur. Ditto FEMA. Ditto our armed forces. And let’s quit maintaining bridges. Just rebuild them after they collapse from lack of maintenance, and tell the families of those who died that they have our “thoughts and prayers.”The trouble with pandemics is that they’re, well, pandemics. Look up the word. It means the thing is spreading more rapidly than you can respond unless you’re prepared beforehand. And then it will cost far more to reassemble what you need after the fact than it will cost to be prepared in the first place. Plus the loss of life.’Trump is stepping over dollars to pick up nickels—and his cult followers applaud.Next he says the President’s budget request is a “negotiating tool.” He isn’t negotiating with an adversary. It’s with his own party (in the Senate). And forgive me if I don’t try to read his mind. This isn’t a real estate developer negotiating with a trade union. I’m going to assume he actually means what he says until or unless he says otherwise. Talking about the Democratic House ignoring what he requests is a red herring. The Republican Senate can and will block anything the House does that doesn’t suit Republican priorities.And his refusal to replace CDC staff who leave isn’t a negotiating tool. Replacing appointed medical experts with political commissars isn’t a negotiating tool. Muzzling medical experts from telling us what the situation is isn’t a negotiating tool. Saying he wishes the passengers could be forced to stay aboard the Princess plague ship isn’t a negotiating tool.It’s Trump revealing his beliefs and priorities—which boils down to Trump putting his re-election before the lives of the people his office requires him to serve and protect.Trammel says “What matters is he has quickly and effectively addressed the problem in spite of politicalization of the coronavirus by democrats and liberals.”Well, that’s exactly what Trump constantly brags about having done.But it’s not what has happened. We are vastly behind other affected countries in dealing with this. We don’t have more than a tiny fraction of the test kits needed. His travel ban is bizarre. He has excluded countries with fewer per capita cases and included ones with more. His messaging is that the focus should be keeping the disease out of the country.But it’s here and spreading rapidly—not from visitors from abroad, but from Americans carrying, with each carrier affecting an average of over 50 people. The virus puts a far heavier viral load in carriers’ sputum and saliva, making it stunningly contagious.We knew it was here in January. His response has been to serve and protect…the stock market. At all costs. He has muzzled the epidemiologists and stepped in front of them to share his own very stable genius expertise about disease. His messaging has been variable and often contradicting what the experts are saying, and he has attacked the experts who do tell us the truth.We’re not just unprepared in terms of what the government is doing, but also in providing stable, consistent leadership to tell us what we should be doing. At ever single state he has done less than he should and told us to do less than we should.For anyone to believe that he has provided the leadership needed in this national emergency would require that they unplug all their reasoning capacity.If only Biden were President already. He would not be second-guessing the medical experts and serving the short term needs of the stock market.Those who voted for Trump can be excused to some extent. Those who still support him, however, have no excuse. It will mark them with shame for the rest of their lives.

I think the real question is why Fox News is not covering the central and most damning issue of all: the fact that an American president deliberately caused the deaths of countless Americans by not telling them the truth about the coronavirus. Hell, Trump admitted his crime in an official government letter to the WHO …Trump publicly blamed the World Health Organization for being slow to sound alarm bells about the coronavirus. He accused the WHO of downplaying the asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 … but that is exactly what he was doing himself, as he revealed in taped conversations, on the record, with Bob Woodward!"On March 3, 2020, the World Health Organization cited official Chinese data to downplay the very serious risk of asymptomatic spread, telling the world that 'COVID-19 does not transmit as efficiently as influenza.'" Trump wrote, in a May 18 letter addressed to WHO leadership. "It is now clear that China's assertions, repeated to the world by the World Health Organization, were wildly inaccurate.""Many lives could have been saved" had the WHO warned the world earlier, Trump wrote. Later that month, he announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the global health agency.Of course, Trump was guilty of the same crimes as China and the WHO, if his allegations against them were correct. In any case, he knew the truth no later than Feb. 7, when on the record, in a taped interview with Bob Woodward, Trump revealed that he was fully aware of just how infectious and deadly the coronavirus really was. As Trump lectured the WHO, “many lives could have been saved” if he had told the truth as soon as he knew it himself.Here we have Trump admitting that he allowed many people to die whose lives could have been saved.

Let’s forget everything that the Obama administration did, which Biden obviously was a part of, and let’s forget everything that has been done since the stock market crashed and unemployment skyrocketed because of the virus. Let’s just look at what each candidate did leading up to Trump declaring the coronavirus a national emergency.May 23, 2017. President Trump's budget request calls for massive cuts in spending on scientific research, medical research, and disease prevention. The Trump budget cuts $1.2 billion from the CDC, $82 million from the center that works on vaccine-preventable and respiratory diseases. The budget calls for a 17 percent cut to CDC’s global health programs that monitor and respond to disease outbreaks around the world. It also cuts about 10 percent from CDC’s office of public health preparedness and response. Former CDC director Tom Frieden described the administration's CDC request as “unsafe at any level of enactment. Would increase illness, death, risks to Americans, and health care costs.”April 10, 2018. Trump fires homeland security adviser on the NSC Tom Bossert, whose job included coordinating the response to global pandemics. Bossert was not replaced.May 2018. President Donald Trump’s biodefense preparedness adviser warns that a flu pandemic is the country’s No. 1 health security threat, and the U.S. was not prepared. Rear Adm. Tim Ziemer, the NSC's senior director for global health security and biodefense, leaves the council and was not replaced. Luciana Borio resigns as the NSC's director for medical and biodefense preparedness policy. She is not replaced.October 24, 2019. Washington Post: “None of these 195 countries—the U.S. included—is fully prepared for a pandemic.” The report cited states factors driving down the U.S. score include the risks of social unrest, and low confidence in government.October 25, 2019. Joe Biden: “We are not prepared for a pandemic. Trump has rolled back progress President Obama and I made to strengthen global health security. We need leadership that builds public trust, focuses on real threats, and mobilizes the world to stop outbreaks before they reach our shores.”Trump, on the same day: “The button on the IPhone was FAR better than the Swipe!”December 20, 2019 - January 5, 2020. Trump vacations in Mar-a-Lago.December 31, 2019 - Cases of unknown pneumonia detected in Wuhan, China between December 12 and December 29 are reported to WHO.January 7, 2020 - China confirms that they have identified the virus as a corona strain that would later be dubbed Covid-19January 9, 2020. Trump holds a “Keep America Great” rally in OhioJanuary 11, 2020 - China confirms first Covid-19 death.January 13, 2020 - Trump attends college football championship game.January 14, 2020. Trump holds “Keep America Great” rally in Wisconsin.January 17-19, 2020. Trump vacations in Mar-a-Lago.January 21, 2020. First confirmed case of Covid-19 in U.S.January 22, 2020. Trump: “We have it totally under control. ... It’s going to be just fine.”January 24, 2020. Trump tweets that “the risk of transmission within the U.S. is low”January 27, 2020 - USA Today published Op Ed by Biden. Biden outlines a plan for responding to the coronavirus outbreak saying, it “will get worse before it gets better.” He discusses Trump’s 2014 criticism of the Obama response to the Ebola outbreak where Trump “rallied against the evidence-based response our administration put in place — which quelled the crisis and saved hundreds of thousands of lives — in favor of reactionary travel bans that would only have made things worse. He advocated abandoning exposed and infected American citizens rather than bringing them home for treatment.” Biden went on to say, “To be blunt, I am concerned that the Trump administration’s shortsighted policies have left us unprepared for a dangerous epidemic that will come sooner or later.”January 28, 2020. Trump holds “Keep America Great” rally in New Jersey.January 29, 2020 - White House announces a task force is being formed to monitor the spread of Covid-19. Headed by Secretary Alex Azar, the task force includes CDC Director Redfield, Dr. Fauci, one deputy secretary, an associate director, two people serving in acting roles, and five assistants to the President.January 30, 2020. Trump holds “Keep America Great” rally in Iowa. Trump states, “We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully...and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for it. So that I can assure you.”January 31, 2020. Trump announces it will deny foreigners who have been to China in the last two weeks from entering the US.January 31-February 2, 2020. Trump vacations at Mar-a-Lago.February 1, 2020. Biden tweets: “We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump’s record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency.”February 10, 2020. Trump holds “Keep America Great” rally in New Hampshire.Early to mid-February: First two known US deaths from coronavirus.February 14-16, 2020. Trump vacations at Mar-a-Lago, then attends the Daytona 500.February 18-21, 2020. Trump vacations at his hotel in Las Vegas, holding “Keep America Great” rallies in Arizona on the 19th, Colorado on the 20th, and Nevada on the 21st.February 24, 2020. Trump tweets, “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”February 25, 2020. Trump: “You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country. We have very few people with it, and the people that have it are … getting better. They’re all getting better. … As far as what we’re doing with the new virus, I think that we’re doing a great job.”February 26, 2020: US reports first case of community spread. Trump states, “And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."Biden, on the same day: “what I would do were I president now, I would not be taking China's word for it. I would insist that China allow our scientists in to make a hard determination of how it started, where it's from, how far along it is. Because that is not happening now. And... we should be allowed to do that and they should want us to do that, because we have genuine experts who know how to confront these things. But we need to invest immediately. We should have done it from the beginning, the moment the virus appeared. But we're getting late, but we've got good scientists. And I just hope the president gets on the same page as the scientists.”February 27, 2020. Trump says of the coronavirus, “It’s going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle—it will disappear.”February 28, 2020. Trump holds “Keep America Great” rally in South Carolina. Trump called the Democrats' criticism of his response to the outbreak as "their new hoax," and downplayed the severity of the outbreak, comparing it to the common flu and saying, “you hear 35 and 40,000 people, and we’ve lost nobody, and you wonder, the press is in hysteria mode.” The US recorded it’s first official coronavirus death hours later.Biden, on the same day: “I'm less concerned about the immediate economic impact than I am about whether or not we gain control of this. The idea that the experts are not allowed to speak, the president has silenced them. Dr. Fauci, who was in three administrations, worked in our administration. We took care of Ebola...Let the experts take this over. Everyone will have more confidence.”March 2, 2020. Trump holds “Keep America Great” rally in North Carolina.March 6, 2020. Trump visits CDC headquarters in Atlanta to check on progress fighting the coronavirus outbreak.March 6-9, 2020. Trump vacations at Mar-a-Lago.March 9, 2020. Biden cancels a rally scheduled for March 10 due to coronavirus concerns. Trump: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on.”March 10, Trump: “And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”March 11, 2020. WHO declares Covid-19 officially a pandemic. Trump announces he will bar foreigners from Europe from entering the US for 30 days.March 12, 2020. Biden presents a detailed plan for combating the coronavirus pandemic, published by Medium.Trump, on the same day: “It’s going to go away. ... The United States, because of what I did and what the administration did with China, we have 32 deaths at this point … when you look at the kind of numbers that you’re seeing coming out of other countries, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it.”March 13, 2020. Trump declares Covid-19 a national emergency.March 17, 2020. Trump: "I've always known this is a real — this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic."I’m going to go with the guy who recognized it as a threat and called for action early on, not the guy who spent 23 of the first 69 days of 2020 on vacation calling it a hoax, and then declared it an emergency on day 70.