The Mystery of Trump’s Anti-Mask Stance SOLVED

On February 7, 2020, Donald J. Trump told reporter Bob Woodward that COVID-19 could be transmitted through the air, that it was very dangerous and that it would be difficult to contain, saying, “This is deadly stuff,”

Why, then, did Donald Trump – having admitted to knowing this – launch an anti-mask crusade that is largely responsible for the spread of the epidemic throughout the United States.

There is one theory that he was misled by the medical experts who, in the early days of the epidemic, against all reason, advised the public not to wear masks. The medical experts, in turn, were motivated by a sudden, severe shortage of protective equipment for first responders and medical personal, and wanted to conserve the available protective equipment for the first-line workers who needed them most.

Of course, as it turns out, there was never any such shortage. There was a specific, temporary shortage of the N95 masks, but we now know that anyone can make an effective mask in less than ten minutes….and that information was already out there.

So, why did Trump “listen” to the medical experts and pose himself as being opposed to the masks, and why did he continue to ignore the advice of the “medical experts” (in quotes again) when they changed their collective minds and advised everyone to wear masks?

Trunp, despite what you may think, isn’t stupid. He is profoundly ignorant on many subjects, but he isn’t stupid. He isn’t the genius he imagines himself to be…but he isn’t a moron either.

So, knowing what he knew, why did he make wearing masks anathema to a significant percentage of the American people….his followers. Why did he lie TO THEM – his base – about the importance of wearing masks?

There were – and are – several reasons.

First and foremost, Trump is a showman, a performer. He is, in fact, an actor, and has been for decades, if not for his entire life.  As a performer, Trump knows how important his face is to his brand. In fact, Trump’s face IS one of his two “logos,” his escutcheon, his coat of arms.  (The other is the iconic photograph of the entranceway to The Trump Tower.)

Trump has a very interesting face, ugly, but very interesting, and – like a trained actor – he knows how to use his face to convey both thoughts and feelings, something he does as effectively as the most egregious scene-stealing actors.

Wearing a mask, Trump would lose the advantage that his facial expressions give him. This is one of the secrets to how he beat a baker’s dozen of other, more qualified Republican candidate in 2016.  (The other was his use of Twitter to ridicule and belittle his primary opponents.)

Since his own face was one of his most powerful rhetorical tools, he had to make it all right to show his face during his public performances., which forced him to declare that wearing a mask was somehow anti-American. Refusing to wear a mask in public also required him to refuse to wear a mask in private because that would have forced his followers to realize that Donald Trump is a hypocrite. means that he couldn’t wear a mask.

These mental gymnastics also forced him to make mook of anyone else who was wearing a mask, especially in his presence.

That ridicule served several purposes. It made NOT wearing a mask a recognition signal for Trump supporters, a symbol that would create immediate bonds between total strangers who both happened to be Trump supporters. It also co-opted people who were not wearing masks for other reasons into the de facto Trump mob.

It’s also very hard to foster peer-group linkages when everyone is masked because it fosters distrust among the members of the peer group. This contrasts with the KKK, which was traditionally supposed to be an anonymous organization, and therefore wore their silly hoods on whenever they got together. This also made it easier for law enforcement members to infiltrate the group’s meetings. This is why the Klan no longer wear their trademark hoods except on ceremonial occasions. (Remember, also, that Donald Trump was RAISED in the Klan. His father was a member of the Klan.)

There were several other benefits that Trump gleaned from his anti-masking rhetoric. One of them was that, in addition to helping his followers to recognize each other, the mask issue became a line of demarcation between Trump’s supporters and his opponents to the point where it became impossible for a masked person to have a conversation with a Trump supporter that didn’t immediately degenerate into a fight over the mask issue.

So, Trump was reaping political benefits from his anti-mask stance, which he maintained long after the legitimate medical establishment came back to its senses and started recommending masks…while Trump continued to oppose them.

Now that Trump is reaping the bitter rewards sown by his anti-mask stance, he has seen his single best crowd-pleaser disappear right before his eyes. Now, everyone on Trump’s team will have to mask up, including the Proud Boys, although they are already using actual gas masks when they make their unwanted appearances at peaceful demonstrations.

If Trump has a mild case of COVID-19, or if the experimental drugs he’s taking actually work, then he will return to the campaign re-energized as living proof that the COVID-19 hysteria was a Democratic plot to destroy Trump’s non-existent economic miracle, having learned nothing from the experience…except how to win more votes by being even more obnoxious.  True, he will have to wear a mask now. Not wearing one would be a death blow to his campaign now, but so will wearing one.

Now appears quite clear that it was Trump’s opposition to masks that has tanked the economy and that nothing other than universal face masking will recover it.

If Trump were a real leader, he would go on television and Twitter, admit that he was wrong and encourage everyone to wear a mask. Somehow, I don’t think that is going to happen.

Right now, however, Donald Trump is receiving an experimental drug under the FDA’s “compassionate use” policy that you or I would not be able to get at any price and could afford it if we could.