No president, other than Richard Nixon, has ever faced a united front of Republicans and Democrats bringing him down; no president has ever been subjected to years of frivolous investigations by his political opponents; and no president since George Washington has sacrificed his personal and business interests, as Donald J. Trump, even working with no pay to serve this country.

After a protracted period of political assault by the Democrats that included the Russia collusion hoax and the Ukrainian phone call hoax, a futile impeachment failed to remove Donald Trump from office. The COVID-19 crisis became Democrats’ desperate attempt to render the President ineffective and ultimately defeat him in November 2020.

China, with its massive economy and military strength, has been acting with impunity as a US geopolitical adversary for decades. The election of Donald Trump inaugurated a potentially epochal shift in American-Chinese relations. Unlike his feeble predecessors, Trump saw the rise of China as a major economic and geopolitical threat. Using the United States’ world-dominant economic power, Trump exposed and exploited China’s economic and political vulnerabilities, threatening to set back China’s rise to global hegemon for generations.

So, it is perfectly plausible given the history of the Chinese communist statecraft that China would have seized the opportunity to unleash the Covid 19 virus to inflict mortal damage to the greatest economic and military power on earth. The prospect that millions of Chinese could also contract the virus and perish would not deter communists. 

Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, speaking in Moscow to an international conference of Communist Party leaders in 1957:

“…shocked fellow delegates by predicting that in the event of nuclear war, China’s more numerous population and hardier culture would be the ultimate victor and that even casualties of hundreds of millions would not deflect China from revolutionary course.” (Henry Kissinger “World Order,” page 222).     

The same nefarious attitude underlaid the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.

There is plenty of circumstantial evidence to support the assertion that China used Covid as a weapon. The timing was perfect. The President, Congress, and the country were preoccupied with impeachment. Furthermore, given the Democrat party’s proclivity to socialist ideology, Beijing could count on the Democrats, for whom Donald Trump was a shared enemy, to take full advantage of the crisis. It is not to imply a coordinated conspiracy between the Chinese Communists and the Democrats, although the US indeed funded the research for bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China.  Regardless, it would take a fierce progressive skeptic to deny that they both had the common impetus to exploit every opportunity to remove Donald Trump from office.

The Democrats, however, had a problem. The economy was booming, China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia were being constrained, illegal immigration was curbed, the Abraham Accords between Arabs and Israel were signed, and peace was blossoming in the Middle East. America was about to pull out of Afghanistan, and for once in the last 30 years, there was no new war in prospect.

So, the Left used scare tactics. Faulty models projected millions of deaths, instilling fear to convince the country that the economy must be shut down to save lives. The Democrat governors of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania ordered elderly hospital patients, many of whom were infected by a coronavirus, to move back to their nursing homes, precipitating a great number of deaths and partially validating the projected massive death count.

Although the inflated projections helped to shut down the economy and drive unemployment to levels not seen since the Great Depression, they also revealed the pathetic condition of the Blue States. Infamous for wasteful spending, they were woefully unprepared for an emergency. They lacked PPE, medical supplies, and ventilators and suffered a shortage of hospital beds and personnel. Before the whole dimension of this self-inflicted debacle could become evident, the Democrat governors blamed Donald Trump for their unpreparedness. They demanded excessive numbers of hospital beds, ventilators, and medical supplies from the federal government aimed at overwhelming the government bureaucracy and paralyzing the executive authority.

The scheme was as effective as it was reckless. The Democrats were convinced of the vastness of their opportunity, aware of the rigidity of government institutions and that the government bureaucracy is geared to its traditional leisurely pace, the guidelines, the approval process for manufacturing medical equipment, and complex supply chains started leading to shortages and chaos. The mainstream media, whose opposition to Donald Trump was a permanent part of the political landscape, compounded Trump’s task by creating mass hysteria, which compressed the time available for decision-making and mobilization of medical and industrial capabilities to address what appeared at the time as an impending catastrophe.

Maintaining their unbroken record of misjudging Donald Trump, they did not anticipate seeing such a comprehensive assault crumble so spectacularly. Single-minded in pursuing his objectives, Trump demonstrated strong leadership and exceptional organizational skills. His administration successfully mobilized military capabilities and the immense industrial power of the USA. In no time, the United States became the world’s largest producer of ventilators, PPE, and the leader in developing anti-coronavirus medication and vaccines. In a matter of months, the Trump Administration overwhelmed the states with additional hospital capacity, medical equipment, and personnel. These proved to be of no use as a fraction of the estimated cases actually developed. At some point, Trump realized that shutting down the whole economy was not an inevitable necessity. In terms of actual casualties caused by Covid, not just with Covid, the coronavirus was another hoax to destroy the US economy. He recognized “who stands to gain” and called the country back to work.

The Los Angeles Times in a March 24, 2020, column asked contemptuously, “Tell us, Mr. President, just how many coronavirus deaths are worth it to save the economy?” The motive for the column was apparent. The Democrats, lacking a moral dimension, believed that the collapse of the US economy would facilitate their November victory and the price was worth paying.

As French writer Jean-Baptiste Karr observed, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” During the current presidential campaign, Donald Trump again is surrounded by enemies, domestic and foreign. His domestic agendas defend traditional American values, curtail illegal immigration, impose law and order, and apply the logic of capitalism to the economy. Internationally, his America First initiative represents a combination of deterrence and cooperation based on American national interests. It constrains the military ambitions of NATO and curbs China's economic and political aspirations.

Therefore, the Democrats may still count on the Chinese despite the current strained relationship between the US and China. Trump instills an inordinate fear in both of them. Whether the Chinese are in or out does not diminish the Democrats' determination.

The Democrats’ perilous vulnerability is that they cannot win honest elections. The premonition of impotence forced the Biden administration to impose unprecedented media censorship on the former President. Furthermore, to disqualify the major contender from the presidential election, the Democrats weaponized the legal system. Multiple civil and criminal lawsuits target Donald Trump. According to Bloomberg, Trump faces up to six trials during the 2024 primary season. The lawsuits consume time, drain his resources, and stem his ability to effectively participate in the election campaign.

His opponents fear that Trump will seek to abolish the rotten corruption of the existing political system rife with incompetence and anti-Americanism. He poses an existential threat to the leadership of both political parties. His powerful enemies cannot allow him to win and will use all means at their disposal to prevent him from being elected again. Indeed, there is a dismayingly high probability that Trump may share the tragic destiny of JFK and his brother Robert.

But nothing degrades the President’s fortitude as he stands alone against a legion of enemies unified by a common jeopardy. This is the characteristic that makes him dear to millions of Americans.

Trump’s enemies are aware of his popularity and are not falling prey to the illusion that voters are not conscious of their choice. They are mindful that whether by intuition or infinite wisdom, the American people had elected a brilliant man as their forty-fifth president, and “We the People” may do it again despite the insurmountable odds.

Alexander G. Markovsky is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, a think tank that examines national security, energy, risk analysis, and other public policy issues. He is the author of Anatomy of a Bolshevik and Liberal Bolshevism: America Did Not Defeat Communism, She Adopted It. Mr. Markovsky is the owner and CEO of Litwin Management Services, LLC. He can be reached at alexander.g.markosky@gmai.com