Petulant propagandists, disguised as journalists, have a new talking point. President Trump was asleep at the wheel earlier this year, eating Big Macs, sipping covfefe, watching Fox and Friends, totally missing the boat on the Chinese Coronavirus outbreak. Their new narrative is that Trump could have and should have acted sooner and if he had, all would be normal in the world.

This is the latest chapter in the book of Orange Man Bad, previous chapters including the Ukraine phone call, Russian collusion, Mueller, Stormy, Avenatti, Omarosa, and Manafort, just to name a few. Say what you want about the Fake News media, but they are persistent and determined, even if they remain “an enemy of the people” as characterized by Trump.

Too bad their energies are always directed against Trump, rather than subjects given only a brief glance, such as Benghazi, Hillary Clinton’s emails, the Steele/Brennan dossier, and real election interference.

The New York Times, briefly distracted by rewriting their tweets describing Joe Biden being credibly accused of sexual assault, took up the role of drum major in the media’s Get Trump jihad.

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Here is a NY Times headline and lead from April 11,

He could have seen what was coming: Behind Trump’s failure on the virus.

An examination reveals the president was warned about the potential for a pandemic but that internal divisions, lack of planning and his faith in his own instincts led to a halting response.

The same day, in another article they wrote,

An examination by The New York Times reveals that there were warnings from the intelligence community, national security aides and government health officials — even as the president played down the crisis.

It almost seems the NY Times had a “Orange Man Bad” special edition to ring in the Easter weekend.

The NY Times, in John Kerry fashion, was against restrictions before they were for them. On January 31 they ran an op ed warning,

We should keep this sense of caution in mind in case American politicians begin pushing for travel bans, overbroad quarantines or other measures that might not be supported by the science.

Which is it? Was he too aggressive or too passive? Did he jump the gun or drop the ball? Consistency is an irrelevant concept in modern journalism, replaced by situational outrage. The media is perpetually against anything Trump is for, or vice versa, changing their narrative to fit whatever the President is doing or saying at the moment. The only consistency is that he is an ignorant and racist rube, incapable of tying his shoes without proper oversight by the White House press corp.

Suppose President Trump had acted earlier, as the shrieking media cranks claim he should have. How might that have looked?

Dates are important in the construct of timelines and reactions. The first COVID test positive patient in the US was on January 20. The Senate impeachment trial began on January 16, four days before the first COVID case in the US. What if Trump, upon learning of this first case, and based on the CDC implementing public health entry screening at 3 US airports on January 17, instituted a national stay-at-home order for the entire country? This of course would have included all members of Congress, effectively ending the impeachment trial.

Anyone want to guess the chyrons on CNN? Words like “despot,” “tyrant,” and “dictator” would have featured prominently.

If deaths were the trigger, Trump, after the first US death on February 29, could have then issued a stay-at-home order, cancelling or postponing Super Tuesday primaries on March 3. The media would have reacted and claimed that Trump was sabotaging or rigging the opposition party’s elections. Would he be colluding with the Chinese this time rather than the Russians? Schiff and Nadler would be giddy with delight at getting another bite at the impeachment apple over Trump subverting an election.

Suppose by executive order, in early February, after declaring the coronavirus a public health emergency on January 31, President Trump cancelled all professional sporting events, Mardi Gras, classroom education, from kindergarten through graduate school, and mandated social distancing as we are seeing today? Imagine the outcry. Trump would be a fascist totalitarian.

This would still be well in advance of Nancy Pelosi, at the end of February telling San Franciscans to “visit Chinatown” insisting that it is “very safe”.

Trump actually did act quickly and aggressively ahead of the viral pandemic. The Monday morning quarterbacks who poo pooed Trump’s early reactions, labeling them unnecessary, racist, and xenophobic were behind the times.

Imagine if Trump in the future did as his detractors say he should have done now. What if in a year or two when there is another viral outbreak somewhere in the world, Trump shuts the country down?

The left, so-called guardians of civil liberties, would be apoplectic. They had best be careful what they wish for.

Brian C Joondeph, MD, is a Denver based physician and freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in American Thinker, Daily Caller, Rasmussen Reports, and other publications. Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn, Twitter, and QuodVerum.