Trump is bluffing again
Donald Trump has a consistent habit of loudly threatening to do things that he either can’t realistically pull off, or literally can’t do. He then counts on the Resistance either not being aware that he can’t actually do such a thing, or being too scared by the threat to think it through.
That’s why it’s so important that we all keep a level head when Trump makes a particularly evil threat, such as forcing schools to reopen in the fall, in the midst of a worsening pandemic. The sheer horror of the threat itself can tend to overshadow the reality that the President doesn’t even decide if schools open; Governors and local authorities do.
Trump is threatening to cut off funding to schools that don’t open, but he doesn’t hold those purse strings. Congress does, and we don’t imagine Speaker Pelosi caving to him on this. Trump may try to find a way to push around some funds to pressure school districts, but that would lead to a court battle over misappropriation of funds, and Trump doesn’t tend to win those.
At the end of the day – and it always comes back to this – Donald Trump doesn’t have a magic wand. There are some idiot Republican Governors who will try to force schools to open simply because Trump wants them open, but that doesn’t mean Trump can just unilaterally open schools across the nation. Moreover, Trump knows this. He’s bluffing yet again, in the hope we’ll be too scared to remember that he can’t actually do what he’s threatening to do. It’s more important than ever that we don’t cave to this guy when he’s bluffing.
