TELL Magazine

There is nothing as exact as a major crisis to assess the worth of leaders. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed many of them to be impostors, unfit for the high offices of president and prime minister they hold.

President Donald Trump is a classic example of leaders who have been found out by the pandemic. He is a narcissist of the worst kind and a pathological liar. And he never ceases to display his bumbling incompetence.

But he has met his match in King Corona that has made him look who he really is: a misfit in the White House. Trump loves to curse and put people down, hiding his cowardice and crass ignorance behind a thin veneer of bombast and tomfoolery. But to his chagrin, corona is beyond his acid tongue and impulsive indulgences.

Obsessed with his desire to get re-elected in November, he first ignored the pandemic and downplayed its potency to wreak havoc on Americans and the US economy. Then he grudgingly accepted the reality but soon after went back to his default mode of downplaying the crisis buffeting his country and the world at large.

In his desperation to make the pandemic go away, he has proposed solutions that are outlandish and extremely bizarre, and which have left people around the world breathless. Like his wondering why people can’t be injected with disinfectant and blasted with ultra violet light to kill the virus inside the body.

If he had the chance to confront COVID-19, Trump would complain of being very unfairly treated by the virus. The conversation might go like this:

TRUMP: Who are you?

VIRUS: I’m COVID-19, the invisible invader and vicious killer. I now rule the world.

TRUMP: Why have you destroyed the greatest economy the world has ever seen? And I built it. Why?

VIRUS: Stop whining. Your economy is not the only one I have shut down.

TRUMP: It is not fair. Now I’m not sure I’ll be re-elected. And I love the powers of the presidency to do whatever I want.

VIRUS: You want to fight me with disinfectant and ultra violet light. Are you serious?

TRUMP: You must be a Democrat, that’s why the fake news media love you and are cheering you on.

VIRUS: You mean the lamestream media?

TRUMP: They are one and the same.

VIRUS: Listen up. I’m not a democrat. And I’m not Sleepy Joe (Biden), Crooked Hilary (Clinton), Lying Ted (Cruz), and Moonface George (Conway). I’m COVID-19, the king of the world. And by the way,

Donald, Hilary isn’t crooked, you’re the crook. Ted hasn’t told lies, you’re the liar. And Joe isn’t sleepy, you’re the one that has slept on your job.

TRUMP: You’re like them. The democrats tried their impeachment hoax. And the fake news media invented the Russian hoax, that President Putin helped me defeat Hilary. Now you’ve joined them to destroy the greatest economy the world has ever seen. I built it. It’s not fair.

VIRUS: I don’t care about your economy and re-election. Just one question for you. Are you still going to build your fantasy Space Nuclear Force?

Trump is not the only denialist. Jair Bolsonaro is another one. The Brazilian president is an unabashed admirer of Trump and he is his acolyte. The right-wing ideologue is walking the same path as Trump while his country has now become the epicenter of the pandemic in South America.

And where is Paul Biya? The Cameroonian president is silent. He’s probably leading the fight against the virus in his country from France where he resides most of the time.

At least, we can consider ourselves lucky. Buhari is in Aso Rock even though he has become more invisible and irrelevant.