As you’ve probably noticed, Donald Trump and other Republicans have, in all seriousness, tried to get mileage out of the old Ronald Reagan line from 44 years ago, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”
In the 1980 campaign against then-President (really!) Jimmy Carter, Reagan could point at high inflation and the Iranian hostage crisis and at least pretend to have an argument. But today, Trump and his supporters appear to think we’ve forgotten Trump’s deadly mismanagement of the COVID pandemic, because at least in the good old days of 2020 gas was really cheap, because, um, we were supposed to be staying home and nobody could safely drive anywhere.
So hey, how WERE we all doing four years ago? Thanks to a helpful little Bluesky account called “Four Years Ago Today,” we can check in from time to time to remind ourselves. The account started earlier this month, on March 6, when Trump acolyte Elise Stefanik urged Americans on the day after Super Tuesday to remember how wonderful everything was four years ago when things were much better and, oh no, they were not.
In a new occasional feature, Yr Wonkette will peer back into the ancient past of four years ago, when we all enjoyed empty toilet paper aisles, tweets of empty streets, fears there weren’t enough tests, ventilators, PPE, or brains inside the head of the man who wanted to keep that cruise ship from docking, because the number of cases would go up and make him look bad.
Four years ago today, we were looking at screenshots of that insane New York Times front page (PDF link, no subscription needed) that used a very simple graphic design — a yellow bar graph line extending up the entire side of the front page — to underline how bad things were at the moment. Donald Trump had finally declared a national health emergency on March 13, and the following week, 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment in a single week as businesses closed and we tried to stay home as much as humanly possible.
But because we’re so liberal we won’t even take our own side in an argument, we’ll note that those job losses would have occurred under any president — and in fact happened around the world as well. What wouldn’t have happened under other presidents?
Well, on March 27, 2020, Donald Trump held a news briefing in which he bragged that he was doing the best job of getting equipment to states, and also warned governors that they needed to show proper appreciation for his help, or maybe they wouldn’t get any more.
Reporter: [Y]ou’ve suggested that some of these governors are not doing everything they need to do, like that these governors are at fault. Can you be specific? What more, in this time of a national emergency, should these governors be doing?
Trump: Well, I think we’ve done a great job for the state of Washington. And I think the governor, who’s a failed presidential candidate, as you know — he — he leveled out at zero in the polls. He’s constantly chirping and — I guess “complaining” would be a nice way of saying it. We’re building hospitals. We’ve done a great job for the state of Washington.
Michigan, all she does is — she has no idea what’s going on. And all she does is say, “Oh, it’s the federal government’s fault.” And we’ve taken such great care of Michigan.
Trump wished all governors would be appreciative, like Andrew Cuomo in New York, great, very appreciative.
Trump returned to the theme after a couple of questions, grousing that he is the US government, by proxy, so really those governors are insulting the Army Corps of Engineers:
Trump: I think they should be appreciative because you know what? When they’re not appreciative to me, they’re not appreciative to the Army Corps. They’re not appreciative to FEMA. It’s not right. These people are incredible. They’re working 24 hours a day. Mike Pence — I mean, Mike Pence, I don’t think he sleeps anymore. These — these are people that should be appreciated.
He calls all the governors. I tell him — I mean, I’m a different type of person — I say, “Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington. You’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan.”
In fact, General Motors was begging Trump (and Jared) to invoke the Defense Production Act. Trump and Jared said no.
Trump also sent some unhinged tweets that day, demanding that General Motors “immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio […] and START MAKING VENTILATORS NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!!”
Trump also tweeted that he loved Michigan, which was why “we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic,” but he added that “your Governor, Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude! #MAGA”
Gosh, weren’t those the good times? Don’t you wish you could relive them? Maybe we’ll all be able to look forward to another four years of that, the end.
[Four Years Ago Today on Bluesky / NYT / NPR / Trump White House Archives / CNBC]
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