A new op-ed in the Maine Beacon from Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra argues that Donald Trump is parachuting into Maine today to pat himself on the back for a job well done with the pandemic, without regard for the harrowing death toll and collapsing economy that have been made worse by his inadequate response.

More than 100,000 Americans have died, and more than 41 million Americans have lost their jobs. And now, as we continue to face the most serious public health crisis the world has seen in a century, Trump has decided to move on, declaring victory too soon and once again making this crisis worse than it needs to be.

As he tweets threats and stokes division, showing little in the way of empathy for a nation in crisis and no capacity for leadership, he’s coming to Maine to use our essential frontline workers as a backdrop for his hollow victory celebration.

 

Maine Beacon: Mainers Need Real Leadership from Trump, Not a Photo Op

By: Kathleen Marra, Chair, Maine Democratic Party

June 5, 2020

Key Points:

  • Donald Trump is coming to Maine on Friday to cap off an incredibly difficult week made much worse by his dangerous leadership. All of his actions, from tweeting that protestors should be shot, to announcing that he would instruct the US military to overtake American cities, to directing the removal of peaceful protestors with tear gas to make way for a photo op, shows just how alarmingly unfit he is to lead our country.

 

  • But let’s not let Trump’s attempts to distract us shield his failed leadership on the pandemic. Despite Susan Collins claiming otherwise, Trump did not, in fact, do “a lot that was right in the beginning” of his coronavirus response. 

 

  • Rather than follow recommendations of public health experts, he endangered the lives of the people he is charged with protecting. Now, more than 100,000 Americans have died, including nearly 100 people in Maine, and our economy is facing collapse as 41 million Americans have lost their jobs, including nearly 100,000 Maine workers. 

 

  • From the beginning, the Trump Administration didn’t make testing a priority and recklessly allowed the virus to spread undetected for weeks. Following a brief increase in testing, it stalled in April even as experts emphasized the need to extensively ramp it up. 

 

  • Trump’s testing failure is directly responsible for the economic shutdown and unemployment crisis that other countries have avoided.

 

  • More than half of employed Mainers work for a small business, but many of our state’s employers have been forced to close under the weight of the pandemic. Funds intended for small businesses from the Paycheck Protection Program, authored by Susan Collins, have instead flowed into big corporations and businesses with close ties to Trump while leaving many Maine small businesses behind.

 

  • Without the widespread testing and contact tracing that protects Trump in the White House, Americans can’t safely get back to work. But his woefully inadequate testing plan denies that shortages exist and leaves the responsibility to the states to scramble for their own testing supplies. 

 

  • It didn’t have to be this way. But there’s no evidence to suggest that Trump’s erratic and impulsive decision making has changed. Unbelievably, Trump and Republicans are plowing ahead with a lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act, a move that was enabled by Susan Collins’ vote for the 2017 GOP tax bill and could lead to a more than 164 percent increase in the number of uninsured Mainers in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.

 

  • We deserve real leadership from our federal government right now, not a photo op. 

###