While I realize we are in the early stages of the epidemic here in the U.S. and the numbers of both the infected and dead will continue to climb, let's take a look at some of the policies and actions taken by the Trump administration since 2017 as they relate to COVID-19.  

President Trump called for a Southern border wall to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.  Prevention of potentially disease carrying people from third world nations crossing our borders illegally certainly looks like a common sense way to mitigate the spread of any disease now and in the future. 

Banning flights from hot spot countries such as China once the virus was known to be highly contagious was also the right thing to do despite outcries from the left and the media (but I repeat myself) that these actions were somehow racist.  This goes hand and glove with earlier travel restrictions Mr. Trump put on countries that harbor terrorist organizations. 

Renegotiating trade agreements to help make U.S. businesses more competitive in direct opposition to globalists at large corporations who favored outsourcing as much as possible to countries such as China was a key promise from Mr. Trump.  Actions on this front have had some measure of success in bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. 

Obviously, there is much more to be done as it is evident that a great deal of important pharmaceuticals have been outsourced to China leaving Americans in need of these drugs at the mercy of the Chinese.  Manufacturing of these critical pharmaceuticals needs to be repatriated to the U.S.  Another campaign promise made by Mr. Trump was to slash the number of burdensome regulations that hamstring American businesses, especially small businesses and start-ups.  Recently more regulations which were put in place by the FDA and the CDC, two unwieldy government bureaucracies, have been removed to allow private business to quickly start the processes of developing treatments and vaccines to combat COVID-19 without the albatross of red tape hanging around their necks.

Now to be sure, there are still problems regarding the overall response to the crisis such as getting testing kits widely available and the shortages of critical medical equipment at hospitals.  We were woefully unprepared as a nation to fight COVID-19, but the same could be said about the start of WWII and somehow America quickly rose to the task. 

So, to all those Monday morning quarterbacks who have assailed Mr. Trump and his administration regarding their actions to combat COVID-19, I would suggest that you hold your venom and hatred for awhile.  As the saying goes, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way!"

One last note.  I want to thank all the medical personnel, truck drivers, supermarket employees, and first responders who are on the front lines of this epidemic.  They are the true heroes of this conflict.

Jim Nelson