It was a massive unforced error that he’s been scrambling for months to fix.
He could literally have done nothing and it would have been better.
Almost all of his other missteps and mistakes can be rationalised - there was some benefit to himself or someone who bribed him or voted for him. But this screwworm thing just perfectly encapsulates him as a person and his presidency as a whole - something works well for 70 years to protect Americans and he destroys it through malicious incompetence.
More info about how the program worked - America’s never ending battle against flesh eating worms (2020) - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-ea...
And then he was re-elected.
Unfortunately, it would seem that stupid, unnecessary, self-own changes are not a red line for a significant fraction of the voting public.
Both parties of capital interests have lots of blood on their hands for the intentional mishandling of the pandemic (which has not ended) in the name of propping up our archaic consumption-first economies.
https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/how-the-press-manufactured-co...
The pandemic did end, because it turned into an endemic, meaning it is now an endemic and not a pandemic, meaning the pandemic part of it went away. Endemic is another word for "like a pandemic, but never ends".
There was a reasonable, desirable goal he was aiming for.
But this screwworm thing is so stupid simply because there was no upside to it. It just hurt Americans, especially Trump voters. No one benefited other than screwworms now feasting on American cattle.
Struggling to find a policy where that doesn't apply.
If he'd gotten elected and then gone and lived on the golf course for four years it's hard to argue things would be worse on the other side of the pond.
I remember looking into it when it happened.
It's believed the vector is smuggled cows/beef.