Trump was presented with a message from Anthony Fauci. Fauci said a British computer model was predicting the COVID deaths of at least 2 million Americans by the end of summer 2020.
Without questions or objections, or careful analysis from scientific advisors both inside and outside of official circles, Trump accepted this estimate.
The computer model came from Professor Neil Ferguson. Less than hour of checking would have disclosed that Ferguson had a track record of grossly failed predictions in this area.
Trump accepted the COVID estimate of deaths.
Then came the recommendation of a national lockdown.
Implementation of a lockdown would be a monstrous violation of the spirit and meaning of the Constitution.
As a federal judge in Pennsylvania would later note in his decision, which was overturned by a higher court, there is NO national emergency which can justify imprisoning the population in their homes.1
Years later, Trump would claim he left the decision to lock down to the individual states. This was an evasion. Trump had the power to stand up to the lockdown orders. He had the power to say no. He had the power and the bully pulpit—he could have told the American people freedom must never be squashed in that way.
He refused to take that stance and make that stand and issue an order to stop all lockdowns.
Nor did he call in his economic advisors and ask them to spell out the extent of the long-term damage an extended national lockdown would cause.
His advisors (or any sensible person) would have painted a picture so grim no President in his right mind would have allowed the lockdown.
At this point, Trump basically ceded his Presidency to Fauci, who became “the voice of reason” speaking to the nation.
Trump’s next major violation of law and sanity arrived with his Warp Speed program, designed to bring a vaccine to the public in a matter of months. And this injection would be based on an experimental genetic technology that had never been launched before.