[nik-]

The crazy thing is that Trump had a much better chance of being re-elected than most people wanted to think before this. His response to this entire pandemic was out of fear of what it was doing to his re-election chances, when if he just would have taken the proper route during this, it would have given him a much higher chance at it. The economy would have taken a hit, and people still would have died, but he wouldn't have been able to attacked on it to great effect as it's an essentially unprecedented event.

Now, of course, asking why Trump didn't have the proper response is like asking why a rock doesn't just flap its wings, but still. Even 50% less head in the sand on this and the upcoming election would be very scary. Trying to pretend it was nothing because it would hurt him ended up hurting him way more.