Trump's Sexism Is Going to Get People Killed in Michigan
Politics

President Trump is waging war against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. She fits the qualifications of the ideal Trump villain: She’s a Democrat, she’s a woman, and she declines to show the same deference towards him as most of his sycophants. But Trump’s disdain toward Whitmer isn’t just run-of-the-mill hostility and pettiness unfolding for public consumption; it’s a form of gendered disdain that will exacerbate covid-19‘s severity in the state of Michigan.
As Trump reprimands and scolds Democratic governors across the United States, he is showing disproportionate preferential treatment for those he favors. For example, Florida, where Trump yes-man Ron DeSantis is governor, has reportedly received multiple shipments of the medical supplies they’ve requested to combat covid-19, according to FEMA documents. Many other states—including Michigan—have not been so lucky. Whitmer has long expressed frustration about the shortage of tests and supplies in her state, and has accused the Trump administration of poor planning for covid-19. While some equipment has arrived in Michigan, it will soon run out. Meanwhile, orders for protective equipment have been delayed or canceled entirely due to bidding wars between states.
Health and Human Services insists that the federal government isn’t playing favorites, and that the distribution is merely based on an assessment of the state’s needs. But it’s hard to take that at face value when the President is publicly attacking Whitmer and blaming her incompetence, rather than a lack of supplies, for the rising number of covid-19 cases and deaths in the state of Michigan. As of Monday morning, there were 5,472 confirmed covid-19 cases in Michigan and 132 deaths, making it the state with the fifth-highest death toll in the country.
During an interview with Sean Hannity on Thursday, Trump claimed that Whitmer wasn’t doing enough to help her state, referring to her as a new governor who wasn’t pleasant to work with.