Donald Trump Is Columbusing the Coronavirus
Trump-talk about COVID-19 sounds like something Columbus would say
When I hear Trump-talk at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings, I hear Columbus. Trump is columbusing the coronavirus.
Columbusing is usually defined as claiming to have discovered something that exists that people already know and use. It’s claiming something as yours that’s not yours to claim. It can include renaming that “discovery.” Some call it making something “new” or discovering something for whites, and columbusing often involves cultural appropriation, erasure, stealing, and profits.
Trump’s columbusing fits the spirit of the definition. Trump is Columbus-ish. He’s not saying he discovered the coronavirus. He’s not trying to own the virus. But he is claiming a first-time encounter that “nobody has ever seen” or could’ve predicted. And with that claim, Trump ignores, disembodies, and no-bodies preexisting history and preexisting knowledge in a Columbus-like way.
After I saw Columbus in Trump, I went online to see what people are saying about Trump’s “nobody-has-ever” statements. On March 19, The Washington Post published an article with this title, “Trump keeps saying ‘nobody’ could have foreseen coronavirus. We keep finding out about new warning signs.”
And the article includes several Columbus-like comments from Trump:
“I would view it as something that just surprised the whole world.”
“uncharted territory.”
“Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion.”
“So there’s never been anything like this in history. There’s never been...And nobody’s ever seen anything like this...Nobody ever saw numbers like this even with regard to testing.”
He’s wildly inaccurate, and far from the land of truth, and he expects praise for his wrongs and what he calls first-time efforts. It’s all so Columbus of him. But some may ask, where’s the theft in Trump’s columbusing? Answer: He’s stealing time. He’s stealing confidence. He’s stealing intelligence. He’s stealing memories. And he’s presenting it all as new and true.
This isn’t a slip of the tongue. His word choice isn’t a personal quirk. Trump isn’t misspeaking. He’s saying exactly what he wants to say—repeatedly, on purpose, and for a purpose.
The “why” matters here, too. Trump is pardoning himself in the court of public opinion for his criminally negligent and reckless response to the coronavirus. And Trump is giving himself credit where it isn’t due so he can stay in power. The real job of the White House Coronavirus Task Force is to make Trump look good.
A recent poll says 55% of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling the pandemic, and those numbers are up from earlier polls. This is a con. Trump is a conman, and his talk about the coronavirus is a con job. And it’s working. That’s another way Trump is columbusing the coronavirus. Columbusing is a con. Columbus was a conman and his con jobs worked for him too.
One more thing: Trump’s racist names for the coronavirus are Columbus-esque. Like Columbus, Trump has no regard for the immediate and long-term effects of the names he uses.
During a press conference in October 2019, at the White House with the Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Trump said, “To me, it will always be Columbus Day.”
That time, he didn’t lie.