For Trump, G.O.P. Created an Alternative America Beyond Covid-19
WASHINGTON — For four days, the Republican National Convention projected the image of a nation that had beaten the coronavirus, with maskless supporters packed close together and free to carry on with their lives thanks to the quick, powerful and effective response of President Trump, who crushed a pandemic when it reached American shores.
The truth is another story.
With more than 180,000 Americans dead and the economy still mired in recession, no issue threatens Mr. Trump’s re-election like the coronavirus. To make the post-pandemic imagery stick, speaker after speaker — especially the president — had to paint a narrative that rewrote history and was resplendent with distortions, exaggerations and outright falsehoods.
From the start of the pandemic Mr. Trump downplayed the coronavirus, saying in an interview in January that “we have it totally under control” and speculating in February that it “could maybe go away.” Far from condemning Beijing’s handling of what he would later refer to as the “China virus” or the “Chinese virus,” Mr. Trump initially praised President Xi Jinping’s handling of it.
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