You know, if there’s one mantra I’ve taken to heart during this pandemic—besides “the
badder the banana, the better the bread”—it’s “be prepared.” Like, I’d be nowhere
right now without the army of Boy Scouts I trapped in my woodshed who taught me that
motto. How do you think all that wood got chopped? Don’t call their parents. They’re
fine. Clearly, though, the Trump administration was not prepared for COVID-19. And to find
out what exactly went wrong and why, Mike Rubens talked to journalist, author, and noted
historian of the what the f— happened here genre, Michael Lewis.
As Trump has said, the coronavirus came out of nowhere.
- Unforseen problem. What a problem. This is a very unforeseen thing. There’s never
been a thing like this in the history of the world. Something that just surprised the whole
world. Yep, the whole world. Except the U.S. intelligence
community, the CDC, the Pentagon, Trump’s own freaky trade advisor, and about 1,000
movies, including two starring Brad Pitt. - The idea that this kind of came out of the
blue is insane. The pandemic and the terrible response didn’t
surprise author Michael Lewis. His most recent book tells how Team Trump bungled the transition
from Team Obama. But it’s true message is, “This is what happens when dumb-dumbs who
don’t give a shit are put in charge of the most complicated, important tasks in the world.”
- That’s a fair description. Thank you, Michael Lewis! To learn more, I
purchased a plant and sat down remotely with Lewis to ask: what does happen?
- Tens of thousands of people are going to die because they did not bother to learn about
how the Obama administration prepared for a pandemic.
Yeah. That. That’s what happens. But why? Let’s go back. Back before Trump unleashed
the tiny failure Kraken. Back before he gutted the pandemic response team and other smart
efforts to track and fight diseases. Back to this moment. This combination of world’s
worst first date and double hostage video. Here, outgoing president Obama promises to
- facilitate a transition that ensures our President-elect is successful.
Stirring words. They shake hands. Ew! - The pandemic starts with this moment.
Yes. Well, no, not because of the handshake. #SocialDistancing #NeverTouchDonaldTrump.
The original sin was this: - Barack Obama’s administration has put
1,000 people on the job for six months to prepare briefings for the Trump people. And
the idea is, the day after the election, hundreds of people from the Trump campaign are supposed
to roll in and learn things from, like, how you run the nuclear arsenal, or how do you
run the weather service, or how you prepare for a pandemic. And Trump fired his transition
team right then. And nobody ever went and got those briefings.
Yes, the massive USDA, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, which manages our
nuclear weapons! People just didn’t show up. Well, okay, they didn’t skip every briefing.
For example: - This meeting that had been staged between
outgoing Obama cabinet officers and incoming Trump cabinet officers where they played at
a little tabletop game where they prepared for a pandemic. And during this game, Wilbur
Ross, incoming Secretary of Commerce, fell asleep. Was snoring.
You see, Donald. Ross doesn’t just fall asleep when you’re talking. He also does
it when it’s important. To simplify things, the Obama administration even prepared a pandemic
playbook. Also apparently ignored. But again, why? Is this just more of a failure not to
have cloned Jared enough times? - You know, it’s funny. One answer is knowledge
makes life complicated. If you’ve got some very simplistic view of the world—the government’s
all stupid, it’s all bunch of poorly paid bureaucrats, I don’t need to pay attention
to any of them. It’s easier to move through the world if you aren’t bothered by lots
of knowledge. And I do think of Donald Trump as the ultimate expression of the desire to
remain ignorant. The mindless menace of the coronavirus didn’t
come out of nowhere. But neither did this mindless menace.
- I don’t think of Donald Trump as like a break with the past so much as the natural
conclusion of 40 years of Republican rhetoric about the federal government.
Yes. Let’s rewind further, to when we had a president with a more dignified background.
And to this famous quote from him. - The nine most terrifying words in the English
language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
Really? Worse than “Can anyone here on this airplane fly this airplane?” Or “Hey everyone,
please come to my improv show tonight.” Fast forward. CPAC 2017. A gloating Steve
Bannon describes the goal that is now within reach.
- Deconstruction of the administrative state. Yay! You did it! And look where we are. Many
agencies lack permanent leaders and/or have unqualified leaders and/or leaders who hate
the very agency they’re leading. Remember Mike Brown, the hapless horse show executive
in charge of FEMA during Katrina? It feels like it’s all Mike Browns now. All the way
down. That means we’re all less safe. I’ve got a lot of sort of free-flowing terror
and anxiety. Could you give me a concrete target to really worry about? What else should
I be losing sleep over? - Well, how many nights do you want to lose
sleep? I’ll give you a short list. One, the National Weather Service, which actually
keeps us safe from the weather, might actually be systematically disabled… Terrorist attacks
on the power grid of the country… The dollar... Nuclear bombs are now floating around in Eastern
Europe… No bottom to a financial crisis… A bit of advice.
- Loose nuclear material… Don’t ask Michael Lewis this sort of question
if you don’t want to know the answer. Michael, is there any upside to all of this?
- The hopeful thing here is that we bounce out of that, of this whole event, with the
idea that the federal government is useless or pointless or a “deep state” or whatever
nonsense you want to think. That I did just dies. Or at least it’s severely damaged.
Otherwise, we’re all gonna die. Yes. So let’s end with a reminder of what
are actually the nine most terrifying words in the English language: “Don’t worry,
Jared Kushner is in charge of it.”