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Donald Trump’s former ghostwriter declared Friday that the president really doesn’t care about the deaths resulting from the coronavirus pandemic because he has “no conscience” and is solely motivated by the need to dominate.
Tony Schwartz, who co-authored Trump’s 1987 book “The Art of the Deal,” explained to MSNBC’s Ari Melber how the president’s repeated premature declarations of victory in the fight against the contagion had prompted him to “really rethink Trump’s motivation.”
“I’ve always assumed like most people have that the primary motivation is to be loved and admired and recognised and praised,” said Schwartz. “That is a motivation but the deeper motivation is domination, is to win. And that is a function of the fact that he has no conscience.”
“And let’s be clear. No conscience,” he added.
Schwartz acknowledged most people find it hard to understand how Trump doesn’t feel or make a distinction between right or wrong.
It gives the president “an enormous advantage in a situation where most people would be limited by their respect for the truth and by their concern for how they were going to have an impact on others,” added Schwartz.
“The deaths, I know this is extreme, the deaths don’t matter to him,” Schwartz concluded, in reference to the nationwide 88,000 death toll from the pandemic. “If it’s this decision between saving himself and saving others, it is no contest.”
On Friday the president said the US would reopen “vaccine or no vaccine”, announcing ‘Operation Warp Speed’ effort to create a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of 2020, despite warnings from experts that a breakthrough on the scale required could take more than 18 months.
Trump said: “That means big and it means fast. A massive scientific, industrial and logistical endeavour unlike anything our country has seen since the Manhattan Project.”
“Its objective is to finish developing and then manufacture and distribute a proven coronavirus vaccine as fast as possible. Again, we’d love to see if we can do it prior to the end of the year.”
He appeared alongside infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci who – according to the Guardian – wore a face mask and glanced down at the ground as the president spoke. Trump did not wear a mask.