The Travel Bans That Failed

Now that President Donald Trump has surrendered the United States to the coronavirus — without much available testing, except for himself and his White House cronies — the toll of illness and death is sure to explode. As America counts the cost of their horrific incompetence, in the midst of his reelection campaign, the president will trumpet his sole attempt to stem the looming pandemic: his closing of the nation’s borders to China and later Europe.

“I put the ban on China, as you know,” he said at a press briefing on April 20, uttering the defensive mantra he repeats whenever anyone mentions his refusal to do anything useful. Lately, he has congratulated himself that way at least once a day. It’s an essential element of the administration’s policy of deflecting blame toward Beijing. Sometimes he mentions that he “put a ban on Europe” and even says that his courageous actions “saved many lives.”

But the truth, which most people are apparently too polite to point out, is that Trump never effectively closed the borders to China or Europe. He never stopped the disease vectors from East or West. And none of the actions Trump did take to shut down travel saved a single life. Continue reading.