Four Simple Reasons Why Trump Won't Wear a Mask in Public

I am not at all surprised that President Trump refused to wear a mask in front of cameras while touring a Ford plant today in Ypsilanti, Michigan manufacturing PPE despite warnings from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

There are four simple reasons for President Trump's behavior.

First, President Trump cares only for himself.

Second, President Trump believes the rules do not apply to him and that he is above the law.

Third, President Trump is pandering to his supporters.

Finally, no one is prepared to say no to President Trump.

That President Trump cares only for himself is self-evident. If he wore a mask it would send the message that the COVID-19 pandemic is about all of us including the President of the United States. But wearing a mask would show empathy and Trump considers empathy a sign of weakness. He would rather spend his time engaging in conspiracy theories about President Obama than easing our collective pain with the loss of 95,000 Americans and counting.

When someone cares only for himself can we be surprised when that same person does not believe he is subject to the rules? This is a bad enough quality in an ordinary citizen, but when the President of the United States exhibits this trait during a global pandemic which has reached the White House and Mar-a-Lago then this is a clear and present danger. Because there will be a critical mass of the population who will ask themselves, "If the President isn't wearing a mask then why should I?"

This brings me to Trump's most fervent supporters who will be emboldened to stop wearing masks. Expect many more people to declare, "I got hydroxychloroquine, I'm fine," as happened at a protest a week ago in Long Island amid Trump's claim that he has been taking the anti-malarial drug to prevent COVID-19 despite no clinical evidence to support doing so. Indeed, I do not believe Trump is actually taking hydroxychloroquine, but was inspired to make the claim after viewing the protests on TV. After all, the main target of those protesters was the media with a local TV news reporter named Kevin Vesey being told, among other things, that he is an enemy of the people and that he's a virus. It is well worth remembering that when Trump refused to wear the mask on camera he said, "I didn't want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it." Statements like this will keep Trump supporters motivated to go to the polls for him.

But above all else no one was going to stop Trump from defying the law. Not Bill Ford who said whether Trump wore a mask was "up to him" reinforcing the conviction that the rules don't apply to the President. And for all of Michigan AG Nessel's strong words and condemnation of Trump being "incredibly disrespectful to our state" neither she nor Governor Whitmer were prepared to enforce state law and incur the wrath of Trump and the MAGATs. Sometimes words just aren't enough. Because this is only the beginning. Unless someone puts their foot down and demand that Trump wears a mask in public then he isn't going do it.

We cannot President Trump where it concerns reasons one through three. But we can where it concerns reason four and if we aren't willing to exercise that power then we are complicit in all the reasons why President Trump behaves the way he does.