Trump’s Own Supporters Will Be Hurt Most By His Disastrous Coronavirus Response

MSNBC’s Joy Reid pointed out on Saturday that Donald Trump’s disastrous response to the coronavirus outbreak in the United States could end up hurting his own supporters more than anybody else.

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As the MSNBC host noted, most of Trump’s supporters are older and live in states that “refuse to expand the Affordable Care Act,” making them particularly high risk.

“One in eight Trump voters lives in a county with no ICU beds,” the MSNBC host said. “Many Trump voters live in states that refuse to expand the Affordable Care Act, so people without a lot of money don’t have any health insurance.”

Not to mention the fact that Trump spent the early weeks of this outbreak downplaying the virus and suggesting that it was a hoax, which Fox News echoed repeatedly to its audience of older viewers.

Video:

Reid said:

The fact that we also have an outbreak where the president of the United States did not take seriously his own intelligence community saying no, this is going to be bad. Members of the intel committee in the Senate knew it was going to be bad, only told rich donors, didn’t tell everyone else. Meanwhile, the president is downplaying something that his media, his affinity media picks up his line that it’s nothing, that it’s a hoax. Now these are the same people who tend to be older and who tend to live in states that don’t have health care. Washington Post reports one in eight Trump voters lives in a county with no ICU beds. Many Trump voters live in states that refuse to expand the Affordable Care Act, so people without a lot of money don’t have any health insurance. How lopsided could we wind up seeing this outbreak become … because Donald Trump’s own followers are now behind the curve.

Worse news: Trump supporters likely won’t care

Donald Trump was right when he claimed he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and still not get his supporters to abandon him.

But in this case, instead of a shooting, it’s a global pandemic. A virus is spreading rapidly across the United States, and the president spent weeks at the beginning of this crisis downplaying it, calling it a hoax.

Polling shows that Trump’s effort to dismiss the crisis to protect his own political fortunes has had an impact. According to Gallup, 73 percent of Democrats are worried about the outbreak, while just 42 percent of Republicans are.

Some of Trump’s most diehard supporters even believe that this deadly virus is no big deal, just another myth perpetrated by Democrats in an attempt to topple their dear leader.

Ultimately, Donald Trump’s refusal to be honest about this outbreak and take swift action to combat it will hurt all Americans, but it is his supporters who appear to be most vulnerable.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.