This is bad

Over the past three years, America has been lucky, in a way. Donald Trump’s ineptness and corruption have created one major crisis for us after another. But we haven’t really had to face any external existential threats. Then this week happened – and wow is this bad all around, for everyone involved.

The coronavirus isn’t Donald Trump’s fault. But it is his fault that he corruptly gutted the Centers for Disease Control. It is his fault that there’s no one in his White House who has the competence to deal with a crisis like this. It’s his fault that he’s using press conferences to spread misinformation about the virus. And it’s his fault that he’s spreading deranged conspiracy theories to try to blame the origin of the virus on his political adversaries.

The stock market has been plummeting all week. Part of the reason is that the coronavirus is already impacting world economies, which is going to end up impacting the U.S. economy soon, whether the virus ends up being a serious medical problem here or not. Another part of it is that Wall Street investors aren’t stupid. They’ve spent three years betting that Trump’s bumbling wouldn’t completely screw up the roaring Obama economy. But they know that Trump is an inept deranged idiot. They know he’s going to botch things if the virus does start spreading here. And they know he’s going to botch the economic crisis that we’re suddenly in.

So the smart money is already running for the exits. The Dow Jones has lost about twelve percent of its total value this week. If the stock market endures another two weeks like this, the Dow Jones will end up being lower than it was when President Obama took office. Wall Street has always known that Trump isn’t up to the task of handing any economic difficulty. Until now he’s never had to face any. But now they’re giving up on him in rapid fashion. It’s bad for everyone involved – but it’s particularly bad for Trump.