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Comment by hn_throwaway_99 | Hacker News Reader

I honestly don't believe this is a serious question, and anyone paying any attention over the last 4 years couldn't believe it is a serious question either.

But to humor you, here is a good summary from Olivia Troye, former Republican member of the White House Covid task force and aid to Pence: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/olivia-troye-whi...

Basically, Trump's only concern about Covid was how it would affect his re-election chances. And this isn't just some "disgruntled staffer". Basically everything she says backs up Trump's own public pronouncements of only seeing Covid as some politically motivated attack, instead of one of the most serious threats facing our nation in decades.

Trump has been extremely transparent that he only views events as how they will help or hurt him. That's a very fair definition of amoral to me.

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> Trump's only concern about Covid was

This is fake news. Trump was one of the first Western leaders that reacted to COVID, closing the borders to China back in February. He was relentlessly mocked as a result, accused of being racist.

Edit: looks like some people disagree with facts.

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/trumps-snowballing-china-t...

> On Jan. 31, the Trump administration declared a public health emergency for the novel coronavirus and announced travel restrictions to and from China, effective Feb. 2.

Your own reference proves it’s anything but fake news. That link states right off the bat that banning travel was virtually useless. He’s on record with Bob Woodward talking about how he knew the virus is serious but he wanted to avoid ‘panic’. If Trump spent a fraction of the energy he’s devoting to without any proof undermining our voting he would have been re-elected free and clear.

The often-repeated claim was that he didn’t do anything, that he ignored or downplayed it. That isn’t true.

Its true that the problem was virtually unsolvable regardless of policy for pretty much every Western country (except a few small / sparsely populated islands), the virus started spreading way before it was detected, but that’s hindsight.

> or downplayed it. That isn’t true.

Donald Trump is literally on tape with Bob Woodward saying he deliberately downplayed it.

>"...Trump has been extremely transparent that he only views events as how they will help or hurt him"

I'd say that this is the default behavior of majority of the population. Politicians do it probably even more. They just do not admit it.

that is the scary thing that debate is not allowed. biden voted laws that he is now opposed how is it not viewing event as how it will help or hurt him?

People change, and politicians are still beholden to their public. Where's the contradiction in that?

same for fracking right he changed his mind in a few month, same for black people that his laws and kamala harris jailed for small possession while she was joking on radio that of course she was smoking weed because she was jamaican.

the contradiction is that you give a pass for some people but not for donald trump only by pure political opinion.

Yeah... because Biden and Harris are retracting on bad policy, while, _at best_ Trump became an outgoing racist out of political convenience.

This is the viewpoint that confuses me, depending on what you mean by “default” behaviour. Do you think the everyday altruism displayed by people are exceptions? Or do you believe those people aren’t actually being nice to you/others and have ulterior motives? Such a viewpoint must make the world look like a very sad place indeed.

You may argue that altruism is actually in self-interest, by making you feel good, but that’s circular logic[1].

[1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_egoism#Circularity

>"Do you think the everyday altruism displayed by people are exceptions"

Not exceptions but ratio of altruistic vs self-centric actions would be I think less than 1%. That is based on my life time experience. Maybe somebody else has better one.

As for the world being a sad place: well it is. The amount of people in need is staggering.

The point of politicians and especially leaders is that they are supposed to represent a group of people, and represent their best interests, not their own. If you just want to boost your own interests, then go into business and leave public service to those who are better suited to it.

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