Like the mayor who opened the beaches too soon in the film Jaws, Trump can't see the trees for the forest

It seems that every day Trump makes a new head-scratching comment that makes one wonder if he is suffering from dementia, like a street corner vagrant off his medication who no longer has the sense to keep his views that emanate from the darkest corners of his mind to himself. Yesterday, Trump announced that it was his “very stable genius” belief that it was a “badge of honor” that the U.S. was leading the world in COVID-19 deaths, which is curious because he once bragged that the U.S. would be down to zero cases not two months ago. Of course, that was before he said it would be “very good” if the death count could be kept between 100 and 200,000. 

It is also curious that not a week ago it was reported that Trump was “embracing” a conspiracy theory his advisors (presumably led by Stephen Miller) was pushing, that the COVID-19 death count was “overstated” to hurt Trump politically—this in spite of the fact that most heath experts believe that the actual count is grossly understated, most particularly in states where Republican governors and legislatures hold sway and can control its reporting. 

Trump has been all over the map on the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating that he and his advisors have refused to accept that there is a “real” problem or ever had a plan to deal with it—having rejected the Obama National Security pandemic plan for petty personal political reasons. Everything the Trump administration does is judged for approval by Fox News and the far-right media, who “speak” for a small but vociferously and purposefully misinformed voter base. To obfuscate the issue, William Barr has made it his personal mission to first protect Trump from further investigations into his crimes (relating from his financial claims forms, and from the secret Mueller grand jury material), while conducting self-evidently political investigation against the Russia probe investigation with the help of John Durham, who he tasked for the purpose the very day of the release of the Mueller report. 

Even when Trump may theoretically have a point, such as the high number of virus infections and deaths indicating that the U.S. is “better” at testing than other countries, coming from him it sounds like he is just scrambling to find a way to put a “happy face” on the issue, after being forced to back down from being made to look like an insensitive, dangerous ignoramus who is only making problems worse. There is the old saying about someone not being able to see the forest for the trees, meaning being too involved in the details rather than the whole; in Trump's case, it is the opposite.

Trump knows that he can’t depend on his “handling” of the economy as a political weapon for the time being, so it was in obvious desperation that two weeks ago he called for the immediate reopening of the country despite the admission that more infections and deaths would result from it. The “benefits” of reopening the country before the virus was under control would “outweigh” the dangers of doing so too early. It is one thing to ignore Trump for inconsequential ignorances or make late night jokes about them, but this is different. Remember the film Jaws, when the mayor, desperate to keep the summer tourist business going, reopened the beaches before the shark was killed? Trump is that mayor, except that he is the “mayor” of the whole country.