Coronavirus lays bare all the pathologies of the Trump administration

Diseases, far more than any human enemy, ruthlessly expose and exploit the weaknesses of their victims. Now the coronavirus outbreak is laying bare the pathologies of the Trump administration — which include compulsive lying, pandering to dictators, ideological aversion to “globalism,” inveterate hostility toward experts and expertise, and (in a related development) sheer incompetence.

Even as the epidemic was growing, President Trump was trying to tamp down concern by fulsomely praising Xi Jinping for China’s response on Feb. 7: “He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus.” Trump went on to assure the world that Xi “will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone.” This turned out to be nearly as premature as Trump’s earlier assurance that another communist dictator, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, had “agreed to denuclearization.”