What "I Alone" argues in a detailed case is that the catastrophe of 2020 was a result of Trump's proclivity to put political optics above all else, including American lives. The health of the economy mattered more to Trump than public health in an election year.
Another thread is Trump's distaste for appearing weak led him to make decisions that were often criticized by the American public.
The former president wouldn't wear masks during a global pandemic because “People tell me it makes me look weak.” Trump said he thinks he can defeat Biden because he is “weak.” The 2020 protests in Portland and Seattle “makes me look weak," Trump complained to Attorney General William Barr.
When Trump contracted COVID-19, he was resistant to go to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center because “he worried about how weak and vulnerable it would make him — and the country — look.”
"I Alone" begins with the first rumblings about COVID-19 in late December 2019 and early January 2020 and the president's blithe indifference to the reports. The authors describe Trump ignoring early warning reports on the novel coronavirus that were included in the President’s Daily Brief.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar “didn’t feel the White House leadership was treating this threat seriously.” At one point, Trump didn’t know the CDC reported to HHS.
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