The anti-science, conspiracy-driven, and radical right-wing agenda of the Trump administration has directly led to the needless deaths of tens of thousands of Americans and foreign citizens amid the worst pandemic to strike the world since the 1918 influenza scourge. Like any fascist tyrant, Trump requires scapegoats to maintain his power base and he has discovered plenty of them.
In addition to scapegoating almost a dozen U.S. state governors, two past U.S. presidents, and the Democratic Party, Trump has seen fit to blame the World Health Organization for the Covid-19 pandemic, even threatening to cut off U.S. assistance to the global health body.
Trump’s attack on the WHO came as no real surprise. The director-general of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is from Ethiopia, a nation Trump included in his sweeping reference to African nations as “shithole countries.” Trump also falsely accused the WHO of being “China-centric.” Dr. Tedros hit back at Trump’s criticisms, stressing that countries should avoid politicizing Covid-19 “if you don’t want to have many more body bags.”
Trump’s familiar fascist tactic of scapegoating others for his own failures is what was ultimately behind his attacks on the WHO and China. However, Trump’s xenophobia and racism were not the only reasons for his attacks. Trump was echoing the propaganda of several right-wing entities, including those that back Taiwan’s admission to the WHO against strong Chinese opposition, the Falun Gong and its press mouthpiece, “Epoch Times,” that are opposed to the Chinese government and receive favorable treatment by the Trump White House; and white supremacist groups opposed to the WHO director being a black man from Ethiopia. Also irritating Trump was Dr. Tedros’s admonitions to Washington that it was not helpful to refer to Covid-19 as the “Chinese virus” or “Wuhan virus.” Anti-Asian racial attacks were reported from around the world after Trump and his supporters began blaming the virus on China.
The influence of the cultish terrorist organization, Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), which used the pandemic to increase pressure on Tehran, is strong within the Trump White House.
Rather than continue to maintain the U.S. government’s pandemic and epidemic watch and reaction infrastructure, one that coordinated much of its activities with the WHO and similar national entities around the globe, the Trump administration brutishly slashed and burned the capabilities of the government to monitor the outbreak of human, animal, and plant diseases. These
In 2019, Trump ignored the findings of the first annual report by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, an entity established by the WHO and World Bank, which predicted a global pandemic that could kill tens of millions of people. The previous year, the Trump White House abolished the National Security Council’s directorate of Global Health Security and Biothreats. The directorate’s “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents” was tossed aside and ignored. Department of Homeland Security staff elements charged with ensuring the national defense against a pandemic were fired or re-assigned. A U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention doctor assigned to the U.S. embassy in Beijing and was responsible for coordinating U.S. efforts with her Chinese counterparts was called back to the United States with the position remaining unfilled. Trump also ended the State Department’s PREDICT program that funded joint U.S.-Chinese pandemic research and warning programs, as well as similar operations coordinated with some 60 other foreign laboratories.
A November 2019 report from the National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), a part of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), issued a few weeks prior to the first Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, provided an early warning of the impact of Covid-19 in China. The NCMI has access to National Security Agency intercepts of Chinese cell phone calls, emails, and encrypted communications among senior officials of the Chinese government. In a still- classified report, the NCMI warned that the virus outbreak in Wuhan stood to be a cataclysmic event that posed a threat to U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Covid-19’s effect on U.S. naval forces, including the USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS Ronald Reagan, aircraft carriers assigned to the U.S. Seventh Fleet, proved the accuracy of the NCMI’s November report.
Trump simply ignored reports from the NCMI, the WHO, and his own White House trade official, Peter Navarro. By the end of January, while Trump still considered the threat of Covid-19 to be a “hoax” ginned up by his Democratic opponents, Trump had been amply warned via classified President’s Daily Briefs and Navarro’s memoranda to the National Security Council that the world was on the precipice of a pandemic catastrophe. Trump continued to ignore the situation, even claiming the virus would disappear when the weather became warmer in the Spring. On February 23, Navarro sent the following memo to Trump via the National Security Adviser, acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and the Covid-19 Task Force chaired by Vice President Mike Pence:
MEMORANDUM FOR PRESIDENT
THROUGH NSA, COS, COVID-19 TASK FORCE
There is an increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1-2 million souls.
Certain far-right elements in the Trump administration, particularly Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, began figuring out ways to weaponize Covid-19 to bring about “regime change.” Sanctions were increased against Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. Pompeo and his cohorts, including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, took full advantage of the terrible impact of Covid-19 on Iran to deny medical and financial support to the Iranian government and people. The influence of the cultish terrorist organization, Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), which used the pandemic to increase pressure on Tehran, is strong within the Trump White House. In addition, the right-wing Florida Republican senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, used the pandemic to coordinate with wealthy Cuban and Venezuelan expatriates in south Florida to increase political pressure on Cuba and Venezuela.
Trump’s Attorney General and capo, William Barr, used the opportunity of the pandemic to indict President Nicolas Maduro and senior officials of his government on phony drug smuggling charges, the same gambit that was used by Barr against Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega when George H. W. Bush wanted him out of the way.
The Trump White House, with creepy Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner calling the shots, began using all sorts of methods, including piracy, theft, and extortion, to divert into stockpiles controlled by Kushner ventilators, medical supplies, and pharmaceuticals ordered by other countries. Victims of Trump’s and Kushner’s mafia-like scheme included Canada, France, Germany, Barbados, Brazil, and the Cayman Islands.
Meanwhile, other countries became the benefactors as the United States became a pariah state. Iran offered to share its Covid-19 medical expertise with other countries. China and Russia provided medical supplies and personnel to Covid-19 hard-hit Italy. China sent medical supplies to France and Serbia. Also assisting Italy with supplies were Austria, France, and Germany. Against pressure by the Trump administration to expel Cuban doctors working abroad, nation after nation flipped their middle fingers at Washington and welcomed Cuban medical teams to Italy, Andorra, Qatar, Barbados, Montserrat, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, Suriname, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Angola, Portugal, Mexico, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and the British Virgin Islands.
Rejecting the porcine snorts from Pompeo, Andorran Foreign Minister Maria Ubach declared, “I am aware of the position of the United States, but we are a sovereign country and we can choose the partners with which we are going to have cooperation.” Pompeo and his team of dime store cowboys were further incensed after the United Kingdom formally thanked Cuba for allowing the cruise ship “Braemar” to dock in Cuba to repatriate British passengers back home. The Cuban gesture came after other Caribbean nations refused to allow the ship to dock and offload passengers after an outbreak of Covid-like symptoms on board.
After the scourge of Covid-19 passes and the world is largely finished with disposing of its dead, there will come a time for calling those to account who ignored and took advantage of the pandemic for their own selfish interests. Mr. Trump will most deservedly be at the head of the line when it comes to pointing accusatory fingers.
Subscribe to The Iranian newsletter
Iranians in different cities of Iran chanting loudly:.
“OUR ENEMY IS HERE, THEY’RE LYING OUR ENEMY IS AMERICA”.
They’re saying Criminal mullahs are our enemy, NOT America. I hope traitors listen to what million Iranians are saying and to be ashamed.
An Iranian monarchist supporter of Trump, Pompeo says:
“You need to watch news more often dear, so you won’t get surprised.”
This fellow may actually have a point:
The fascist decision makers may have watched too much Fox news and not watched other news channels or definitely not done enough reading, and that is why they focused on utilizing the plague for their anti Iranian and anti Chinese propaganda while ignoring importation and expansion of the virus in the US .
Crime Against Humanity
“Health Experts Condemn Donald Trump’s WHO Funding Freeze: ‘Crime Against Humanity’. Leading health experts denounced President Donald Trump’s decision to halt U.S. funding for the World Health Organization amid the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/donald-trump-who-funding-criticism-084624310.html
Also, Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister said today:
“The world is learning what Iran has known & experienced all along: US regime’s bullying, threatening & vainglorious blathering isn’t just an addiction: it kills people.
Like “maximum pressure” against Iran, the shameful defunding WHO amid a pandemic will live in infamy.”
Iraj,
These are all copy and paste. I thought you’re against copy and paste. You were critiquing me about it, saying you don’t want to read my comments because it is copy and paste.
How come you’re doing the same thing ?
That is called “Hypocrisy” and the person who involve in hypocrisy is “hypocrite”. Hypocrisy means saying something and doing something else. It is immoral an unethical.
It seems like he copy/paste that I mentioned about your posts a while back is bothering you and has become an issue in your mind. You are constantly repeating it.
Now here:
You copy and post parts of an article/book/report/comment/idea without mentioning the source as if it was yours. It is called ‘Plagiarism’, using some other person’s ideas and information without acknowledging that specific person as the source.
You write a few sentence and then copy/paste some text from other source in the body of the comment. It’s easy to see because they have different styles of writing, composition, etc.
Posting news, information, ideas and thoughts of a writer/reporter/writer, etc. while mentioning the source is not plagiarism, it’s relaying news/information, etc.
For example my source for the above report is in the body of my comment as ‘Yahoo and Huffington Post’.
Thanks for the constructive advise.
First of all, constructive criticism never bothers me at all. In fact, I try to improve myself based on criticism and other people’s point of view.
Second, I always write my comment first. Then I quote from sources by using deetto mark such as (“) in my quotation. I do it because I want to support my opinion by referring to the fact. I am telling to the readers, “hey, I got this opinion based on the historical fact and here is the source”. To support my opinion I use the source. For example, Saddam had arm treaty with Russia during his invasion to Iran. He was from Al-Baath socialist party, successor of his uncle Hassan Al bakr. with his close ties to Moscow, so I have to copy and paste that part because some people falsely think he was backed by U.S or in simple language, America told him to invade Iran.
Now, how can I show it.? I have to copy and paste his treaty with Moscow. Then again, I have to copy and paste when he turned away from Russia toward America after invasion.
Third, hypocrisy bothers me a lot and it is disease for society. Hypocrisy means saying something and doing something else. To be critical of copy and paste and turn around and do exact the same thing. Another example for hypocrisy is when people talk about democracy, but delete other people’s opinions or insult other people because they have different view. Another example is when some people speak of freedom, but having zero tolerance for opposite opinions. We have so many of them on Iranian sites. They talk very highly of Mosaddegh for being follower of democracy, but the same person insult others if they have different view of Mosaddehg. so what happened to democracy ?
It is funny that those idiots can Not even see what they’re doing. Another example is when some people speak of racial equality, but they’re living in super white neighborhood and unwilling to live even one day in black neighborhood. So what happened to racial equality ? These are some examples of hypocrisy. It is immoral and unethical. I like president Trump because unlike “white liberal” he is NOT hypocrite. He speaks his mind straight forward.
In context of Iran in addition to MEK terrorist cult that the writer mentions, monarchist were also making much noise.
These sociopaths (Reza Pahlavi monarchists and MEK zealots), who are very well funded by Islamofascist Saudis (*), more so than their fascist masters assumed that COVID-19 would not hit US as hard as it would hit Iran. That was a serious miscalculation on the part of fascists of all stripes.
* “Pro-Sanction Iranian-Canadians Attend Town Hall by Saudi Funded TV Channel”:
https://www.icjournal.ca/post/pro-sanction-iranian-canadians-at-town-hall-by-saudi-funded-channel
Of course, Saudi Arabia, America, Israel and European countries are allies of Iranian people against ruling criminal mullahs. On the other hand, Russia, Syria and China and some terrorist countries such as Somalia, Suddan are allies of criminal mullahs agains America.
Is that surprise you ? Did you watch the news that Zarif was shaking hands with Chinese counterpart saying they’re standing with China against America ? Did you know criminal mullahs were sending money to some African countries to promote their Islamic revolution ?
You need to watch news more often dear, so you won’t get surprised.
I find it embarrassing that our “dear” shahzadeh and the “dear” sociopaths surrounding him are sycophants of MBS, Pompeo etc., but that is a sentimental thing, not important.
What is really problematic is that big idiots such as Pompeo may be fooled by these sycophants in thinking that they can easily take over Iran or drag Iran into war without much consequences for Americans……. like when these fascists got fooled by Iraqi Ahmed Chalabi and got themselves in deep $#!+ in Iraq.
By the way, it seems the dear horse of our shahzadeh recently kicked your head again when you were cleaning him, this time much herder than before; …you are confusing you being brainwashed by Fox news with watching news.
it is more embarrassing to tell westerners a bunch of stinky rag heads, from stone age, are brainwashing our intellectuals and running our country.
Once our dear shahzadeh Reza Pahlavi takes the office, the same relationship with the rest of world will be resumed and our youths can come to America and get educated, return to Iran and build the country. The normal relationship with rest of the world will be resumed the same as during shah days.
Mr. Pompeo and other people who works in Trump administration have the same goal. No one wants to take over Iran. They want to kick mullahs rear end out of their peacock throne. Their wish is the same as million Iranians.
Have you watched the news what Iranians were saying ? Of course NOT. Since you don’t listen to news I say it for you. Iranians were chanting loudly on streets:
“Our enemies are here, they are lying it is America”. That was slogan from Iranians, NOT from me or pompeo or Fox news. Unfortunately, you never watch the news, so you comment comes cross as very Uninformed person.
Mullahs’ place is in mosques, NOT politic. They hate jews. That is fine, but they have to keep that hate in the mosques, NOT part of Iran’s government policy.
Dr. Bakhtiar suggested to make city of Qum like a Vatican in Rome for mullahs, so they stay there to practice religion. That was excellent idea but Khomaini didn’t accept and the result is a big mess in Iran…… Poverty, misery, disgrace, and finally coronavirus and death from China.
U.S has more army bases in Italy than any other country. Is that mean U.S is taking over Italy ? what an idiot way of thinking. Mullahs propagate such an idea even among our intellectuals. Unfortunately some naive people fall for it.