Trump Never Wanted “Total Authority” Over the Pandemic

This headline in my morning LA Times cracks me up:
Trump “relents.” Sure. Does anyone think for even a minute that Trump ever wanted total control over reopening the economy—or any other aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic? He spent two months telling us it was no big deal, and ever since then he’s done nothing but blame it on other people. He’s blamed China. He’s blamed WHO. He’s blamed Obama. He’s blamed the states. He’s blamed unnamed experts who failed to tell him anything was going on. He’s blamed the media. He’s blamed General Motors. He’s blamed hospitals.
In the meantime, the only concrete action he’s taken has been putting Jared in charge of a dodgy airlift operation that allows him to distribute medical supplies at his personal whim.
Trump doesn’t have a clue what to do about a pandemic that can’t be removed from the front pages by simply distracting everyone with some random, outrageous comment. So all that’s left is to make sure that someone else gets the blame for it. To that end, his “total authority” comment worked great: it suckered everyone into being outraged and demanding that he acknowledge state control. Now he’s pretending to relent when that was almost certainly his goal in the first place. You wanted state control, you got it.
Animal cunning, boys and girls. Always remember that. Trump may not be book smart, but his animal cunning quotient is off the charts.