Trump and Bolsonaro’s Mirrored Effect: How Responses to COVID-19 Continue to Draw Startling Comparisons on Their Leadership and Popularity

It is undeniable that negotiating the political space is often both confusing and disorientating. Then add a deadly pandemic to the mix, as well as divisive leadership, and it seems to accumulate to chaos. Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, and President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil have not only weaponised but perhaps even more dangerously, politicised the extreme-right to justify their inaction towards the spike of coronavirus deaths in their countries.

It seems apparent that both leaders have put ‘party over country’ in a bid to protect their economic interests, but ultimately the human cost is becoming all too real. Their shared commonality of rebuking science and claims of ‘fake news’ against them is truly indicative of how polarised politics has become; their decreasing popularity ratings from the public is a sign that politics is always personal.

Both Trump’s and Bolsonaro’s refusal to expand testing and to simply acknowledge the crippling reality that COVID-19 possesses on their countries reflects their divisiveness through their alignment to the political right. Advocating for the use of hydroxychloroquine to relieve the symptoms of coronavirus (despite research being inconclusive and even suggestive that this drug has adverse effects), Bolsonaro and Trump continue to make headlines for their joint disregard for factual information. Is this denial of fact a political ploy to spark alarm and panic amongst the left, or does it reveal an undiscovered facet of their administrative incompetence?

Trump’s leadership wishes to monopolise the status quo in an attempt to regain the public’s favour, something that timely coincides with his re-electoral bid for a second term. The U.S. president has received widespread criticism for asking officials to ‘’slow down the [coronavirus] testing’’. President Trump took to Twitter to justify his reasoning – he infamously tweeted that ‘’Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country […] With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!’’. With just under 5.5 million cases of coronavirus and climbing, the United States stands alone on the world’s stage. Is the U.S. isolationism of the past a part of Trump’s plan to ‘Make America Great Again’?

In March, Bolsonaro visited the United States for a meeting with President Donald Trump. When he returned to Brazil, more than 17 members of his delegation tested positive for the virus. Initially, Bolsonaro insisted that he had tested negative for COVID-19, but by the 7th July 2020, Bolsonaro was forced to confirm that he had contracted the virus. According to Johns Hopkins University, Brazil, with more than 3.3 million cases and over 100,000 deaths, has been affected more than anywhere except the U.S.

It is interesting to note that during Bolsonaro’s 2018 electoral campaign, much like with Trump’s 2016 rise to the Oval Office, their healthcare positions was at the forefront of their campaigns. The Trump administration has been continuously urging the Supreme Court to repeal Obamacare, which would leave over 20 million Americans without health insurance, something which is presented as a strategic political move rather than protecting the lives of Americans. Likewise in Brazil, in early May, Bolsonaro sacked his Minister of Health, Nelson Teich, after colliding over the country’s handling of the pandemic. He was the second health minister to leave the post in under a month; in April, Luiz Henrique Mandetta was fired after President Bolsonaro publicly ridiculed him for urging people to observe social distancing and to remain indoors.

However, Trump’s leadership is arguably more so reflective of his lack of governmental experience, which is demonstrated by his resistance to work alongside governors and state leaders on a municipal level. His dogmatic ruling indicates a substantial disregard for progressive reflection on his own previous administrative failures, (the U.S. is the leading country on the globe with over 170,000 deaths), so in turn fails to recognise any mistakes which could have been avoided. His absolutism is telling of his need to gather momentum for his re-election bid, whereas Bolsonaro has until 2022 until the next presidential election takes place. It appears that Bolsonaro has time on his side; he can afford to lose favour with the public, whilst Trump is desperately hanging onto any credibility he has left.

Bolsonaro’s principles amid the pandemic, by comparison, is precisely what he promised in his 2018 electoral campaign – promises of normalcy and rugged-individualism reside. Strikingly, COVID-19 doesn’t appear to be exempt from the reactionary status quo. Furthermore, the Brazilian president seems to be continuing his rampage against Brazil’s Supreme Court – federal judge Renato Coelho Borelli ordered Bolsonaro to comply with wearing face masks outdoors in the capital of Brasilia. Judge Borelli said in his ruling that Bolsonaro “has exposed other people to the contagion of a disease that has caused national commotion”. A lack of compliance with face coverings amongst U.S. White House officials has also drawn national media attention. Ultimately, Trump and Bolsonaro, on the outside at least, seem relatively content with watching from afar as this latest health crisis unfolds before the world’s gaze.

It is alarming to see that both leaders rely on performative politics in a bid to gain favour with their voters. It is clear that once a situation, such as a deadly global pandemic, becomes a terrifying reality, denial and denunciation appear to be both Bolsonaro’s and Trump’s only real call to action. Whether this attitude is symptomatic of political volatility or is merely exacerbated by the presence of coronavirus, Trump and Bolsonaro will have to do something miraculous to regain credibility amongst world leaders, and even more critically, amongst their own voters.

 

Liv Williams
Tweet to @1311oliviawills
Feature image courtesy of Brendan Smialowski, AFP – Getty Images