So this "invisible enemy" phrase Trump uses rather than Covid-19 or even virus

[dflprincess]

Is it a way to try and get people to excuse him? After all, how could he know about this, it's invisible!

Sorry, I'm starting to wonder about all sorts of things - at least most the time I keep it to myself.

[blm]

1. I agree with the supposition.

[underpants]

2. Something tells me there is an old racist component to it

I don’t know what it is - probably about black people hiding (in the dark) or something. Sorry not up in my racism history.

Stinks of something Stephen Miller and/or Bannon worked up.

[Solomon]

10. That's exactly what I feel about it.

[underpants]

13. Okay I think I found it

“....in a wood pile” you can figure out what’s missing there. Apparently this was used in political publications having to do with Lincoln. He split rails as a young man so there could be something about him that isn’t as it seems.

I read that “fly in the ointment” and “elephant in the room” became more acceptable versions of the saying. I was NOT aware of that.

The expression was used in literature from Faulkner to Agatha Christie to Dr. Suess.

[matt819]

3. Anti-Semitic trope

https://lasvegas.adl.org/news/the-myth-of-jews-as-invisible-enemy-emerges-again-in-coronavirus-era/

Snip

Some U.S. officials have taken to referring to the COVID-19 virus as the “invisible enemy.” Such phraseology has been used in the past regarding Polio and other viruses with epidemic potential. This speaks to the fact that the coronavirus is lethal, is beyond a specific place or people, and is hard to identify and control because it is unseen.
As a person who has spent his adult professional life fighting antisemitism, whenever I hear the phrase “invisible enemy” I can’t help but think about that form of prejudice.
There is no better brief descriptor of the thinking of the antisemite than those two words. At their core, and which makes it so different from other forms of bigotry, antisemites see Jews as the “invisible enemy.”

Snip


My guess? Deliberate.

[Solomon]

11. Yes. This too.

[underpants]

12. My post above - some racist element

I’m going to go looking. Thanks, I knew it was something.

[Newest Reality]

4. Yes, that's my view so far....

He test markets on a regular basis. During this crisis, what looks like confusion or flip-flopping, may actually be a method to create a varied set of video and sound bites that can then later be cherry picked for later campaign materials.

No matter how things turn out by the General Election, he can be made to look like he was on it, justified and effective.

Thus, the "invisible enemy" is right on spot and exactly as you said. How can you see something coming that can't be seen? You can't blame him.

Also, I question the use of the term enemy in this case. It is a pandemic; a crisis of huge proportions; a disease; a virus. You could call it a threat and there are other appropriate terms. It is not capable of planning or strategy as an actual enemy would do. However, this gives him a standing as having bravely fought off an "enemy" which goes with his "wartime" President routine. We may see something to that effect later if they decide to use it. That's all rather imprecise to say the least and clearly for the sake of manipulation which is Trump's skill.

[Baked Potato]

5. How's a mere mortal man s'pose to see sumthin' invisible?

Yep, working his sleight of hand, moving that pea around under the walnut shell.

[tulipsandroses]

6. The china virus did not stick so he's trying something else - same motive

shift blame.

[Thomas Hurt]

7. Fascist newspeak. Selective Populism

Two word phrases to communicate to the stupid and magical thinkers.

You don't have to have the majority behind you just have to convince the stupid, ignorant and apathetic that what you are saying is the will of the people.

[procon]

8. He's trying to disconnect himself from the corona virud,

and any of he other official names used by the scientific people and Democrats. Today he started referring to it as "the plague" and "the scourge", as if he referring to Something different than Every one else.

[thesquanderer]

9. I read that Xi asked him to stop calling it the Chinese virus.

That may have not been the only blowback he had received about that terminology, but might have been the one that mattered to him.

For whatever reason, he wanted to stop calling it the Chinese virus, but I bet actually calling it coronavirus of covid-19 would have seemed to him like a kind of public admission that he was wrong to call it the Chinese virus. So by using these other euphemisms like "invisible enemy," he gets to stop calling it the Chinese virus without appearing to possibly acknowledge/legitimize the fact that he really should have been calling it something else to begin with.