It barely sounds credible, the idea that an American President could be using the Coronavirus as a political weapon to reward supporters and punish his political enemies.
Yet there is some evidence that President Trump is doing precisely that. Three quarters of Americans are now living under some form of Lockdown. Arizona, Maryland, Tennessee and Virginia are the latest States to tell their citizens to stay at home.
More than 3,000 Americans have already died from the virus.
Federal aid via the CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) is reaching some States, but not others, and it seems to be the Red, Republican States that are benefiting, while the Blue, Democrat States are being punished by the Trump administration.
Trump needs to win Florida in November. Latest polls suggest that if Joe Biden is their candidate, the Democrats could win there. So, surprise, surprise, Florida is getting everything that Governor Ron DeSantis asked for, and more.
South Dakota has received $30 million dollars in aid so far.
Compare and contrast with California. It received just 170 ventilators. They were broken. Or New York, the worst-affected State in the country and whose Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has been out-trumping Trump in media coverage.
Illinois received 300,000 masks, but they were standard surgical masks, not the N95 masks needed. The Illinois State Governor,  J B Pritzker (of the Pritzker family, by the way, which owns the Hyatt hotel chain) said: “What we were sent were not the N95 masks that we were promised.”
“I love Michigan” said Donald Trump of the vital Swing State that he absolutely has to win in November if he’s to stay in The White House . Right now, though, he’s behind in the polls in Michigan (again assuming Joe Biden is his Democrat opponent), and Trump is reported to have “interfered” in the allocation of Federal funds to Michigan.
Trump has been bragging about the testing being done, saying: “We’ve tested more now than any nation in the world…I haven’t heard about testing being a problem.”
Not so, according to Montana Governor Steve Bullock: “If we don’t get test kits from the CDC, we won’t be able to do testing in Montana.”
Washington State Governor Jay Inslee says he desperately needs test kits. “The White House knows very well about this desperate need for test kits”, he said.
As if all this wasn’t enough, Trump has made the incredible claim that some Sates are “hoarding” critical medical equipment including masks and ventilators, and that face masks are being stolen from hospitals. But he has failed to present a shred of evidence at all for either outlandish claim.
In fact, the president has failed to rise to the challenge of leading through this crisis, despite awarding himself 10 out of 10 for his own performance. He hasn’t changed. The same vitriol, the same blaming others, the same lack of true leadership.
Humility and some degree of empathy are  just  two of the qualities essential to good leadership which Donald Trump sorely lacks.
His daily White House briefings have been embarrassingly inadequate, full of narcissistic bluster and self-congratulation with no words of comfort for the families of those who are suffering or who have died, and no words of gratitude to those health workers in the front line.
But playing politics with people’s lives? Denying aid where it’s needed for some perceived political gain? Even he couldn’t stoop so low. Or could he?
