Miranda Devine: What happened when Donald Trump tweeted my email address
When Donald Trump released my email address to the world, I got a window into the sort of vile abuse and hatred that the unhinged left has for the president, writes Miranda Devine.
Opinion
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It’s not too shabby to have your column quoted in a tweet by the President of the United States. The only problem is when he accidentally includes your email address for his 87 million followers to spam.
That’s what Donald Trump did yesterday just before he left Walter Reed Hospital after being treated for the coronavirus.
Naturally, my inbox blew up.
“You suck”.
“Trump simp”.
“You’re an idiot”.
“Weirdo”.
“I farted”.
“Dear American Hating traitor”.
“You bring great shame to Australia”.
“Trump is a goddam a. hole and so are you”.
“You need to stop drinking the Kool Aid”.
“You support a Manchurian President who works for Vlad Putin.”
“Idiot”
“How’s your inbox? Lol”
“You are dumb. And Trump sux”.
“U stink”.
“Don told me to send a note”.
“Kick rocks”.
“Talentless hack”.
“Chinese virus? You racist pig”.
“Welcome to the overflowing inbox”.
“F*ck Trump and f*ck you. Can’t wait to see your tears come November”.
“You are one crazy lady”.
“Stop smoking crack”.
“History will remember you for your hand in this genocide”.
“Murderer”
“Racist”
And so on.
The president kindly deleted both tweets when he got back to the White House a couple of hours later and reposted them, minus the email address.
But what the episode shows us is just a fraction of the hatred directed at the leader of the free world.
There also is a lot of love, of course. I caught a glimpse of it in the many MAGA emails of appreciation that also hit my inbox.
But to listen to the Democrats and Washington press corps in this highly charged election season, the President is the devil incarnate, responsible for the deaths of 210,000 Americans.
Trump’s refusal to kowtow to the coronavirus and hide in a basement like his timid rival Joe Biden was a “brazen invitation” to get sick, Democrat House speaker Nancy Pelosi said so compassionately when he was admitted to hospital Friday, suffering breathing difficulties.
All weekend on CNN and MSNBC they predicted his imminent death and kept saying “morbidly obese” with relish.
Then, on Monday evening, when he walked out of hospital, seemingly recovered, and said three powerful words, “don’t be afraid”, they went into a total meltdown.
After flying back to the White House in the presidential helicopter, Marine One, Trump stood on the first-floor balcony, took off his mask and solemnly saluted, capitalising on the theatre of the moment. Then he released a video message encouraging Americans not to be frightened of the virus.
“Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it. You’re gonna beat it,” he said.
“We’re going back to work. We’re going to be out front. But don’t let it dominate your lives. Get out there and be careful.”
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This is a powerful message of hope through experience, which America and the world needs. He is not yet out of the woods, but the president has shown that the virus is not a death sentence.
COVID in October 2020 is not the same threat it was in March or even July. Treatments have been found, the fatality rate has plummeted, and vaccines are on the horizon. For people over age 70 the survival rate now is 95 per cent.
The virus is manageable, is Trump’s message, so let’s get back to living.
In any normal era, this should be cause for celebration.
But Trump’s optimism sent the haters into paroxysms of rage.
“Disgraceful!” thundered CNN. “Everyone should be afraid”.
“Trump’s message … Not sure how that will sit with the families of more than 210K Americans who are dead,” tweeted NBC’s Peter Alexander.
When Trump walked out of the hospital the first question he was asked by the gaggle of reporters outside was “Do you think you might be a superspreader?”
When he arrived home and saluted Marine One, MSNBC called it his “Mussolini Moment.” CNN said it was “something out of North Korea.”
“Only days into his diagnosis, the first thing President Trump does when he gets back to the White House is take his mask off,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins scolded.
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times attacked the hospital which made the president healthier: “When Trump walked through the doors, Walter Reed had a stellar reputation. As he walks out 72 hours later, its reputation is in tatters. There’s nothing Trump can’t ruin.”
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin went so far as to demand Congress defund Walter Reed for releasing Trump.
“If he falls ill and relapses or infects anyone else his doctors will be responsible.
“Is there no one at Walter Reed with the nerve to speak out publicly [about] this dangerous course of conduct?”
Honestly. The real reason for all the rage is because the left’s scare campaign has been exposed by Trump’s brush with the virus.
For political advantage, Democrats have tried to keep Americans scared, depressed and under house arrest, while blaming the President for every COVID death. Fear and blame are central to Biden’s re-election bid.
The most despicable lie of his side of politics is that the President “caused” the deaths of 210,000 Americans who died with or of COVID.
The largest number, 33,000, was in New York and a large chunk of those were in nursing homes. The exact number is unknown because Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to hide his culpability in ordering COVID-infected patients to nursing homes, where the disease spread like wildfire.
What also might have made a difference in New York was closing the subway, which credible studies have shown was a vector of disease. People packed together like sardines coughing all over each other and holding the same filthy poles does seem like a risky environment.
But Mayor Bill DeBlasio instead encouraged people to come into the city, as late as March 15. This was six weeks after Trump stopped travel from China and compulsorily quarantined citizens arriving from Hubei Province, for which he was branded a “xenophobe” by Biden.
The point is that leaders everywhere made mistakes dealing with this new virus.
But out in “flyover country” sensible Americans reject the left’s perverse framing of the pandemic and just want to get back to work.
The scolds who berate the President, and insist that the economy stay shuttered until every trace of virus miraculously is eliminated, are sacrificing the welfare of children and young people who are least at risk.
It is beyond selfish for old or neurotic people in power to deny younger generations – who are not at risk – the chance for a fulfilling life.
If they are frightened, they are free to stay in their basements. But let everyone else get on with it.
That’s what the President is saying, and it will probably help win him the election.
Cue gnashing of teeth.
Miranda Devine is in New York for 18 months to cover current affairs for The Daily Telegraph