Summary of John W. Dean & Bob Altemeyer's Authoritarian Nightmare

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 Trump, despite being unschooled in genetic mutation and viral transmission, still decided that the COVID-19 virus was not a big deal. As a result, America took totally inadequate protective measures, and became widely infected with the virus.

#2 The first known victim of the coronavirus was a Chicago woman who had traveled to Wuhan and become ill after returning on Jan. 13. A second passenger from Wuhan arrived in Seattle on Jan. 15 with the disease. But it turned out that two persons in Northern California may have contracted the disease even earlier through community spread.

#3 For years, many people had warned that a pandemic like COVID-19 would eventually strike the country, and scientists had developed models predicting how it would spread and what would be needed to minimize the damage. But Trump was not interested in the virus, and his staff knew they shouldn’t bother him with uninteresting things unless they were prepared to be yelled at.

#4 On January 22, 2020, Trump was asked if there were concerns about a pandemic, and he replied, No. Not at all. But new cases continued to appear elsewhere, and American health officials began speaking aloud about how unprepared the country was for an epidemic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669366836

IRB Media

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Insights on John W. Dean's Authoritarian Nightmare

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Trump, despite being unschooled in genetic mutation and viral transmission, still decided that the COVID-19 virus was not a big deal. As a result, America took totally inadequate protective measures, and became widely infected with the virus.

#2

The first known victim of the coronavirus was a Chicago woman who had traveled to Wuhan and become ill after returning on Jan. 13. A second passenger from Wuhan arrived in Seattle on Jan. 15 with the disease. But it turned out that two persons in Northern California may have contracted the disease even earlier through community spread.

#3

For years, many people had warned that a pandemic like COVID-19 would eventually strike the country, and scientists had developed models predicting how it would spread and what would be needed to minimize the damage. But Trump was not interested in the virus, and his staff knew they shouldn’t bother him with uninteresting things unless they were prepared to be yelled at.

#4

On January 22, 2020, Trump was asked if there were concerns about a pandemic, and he replied, No. Not at all. But new cases continued to appear elsewhere, and American health officials began speaking aloud about how unprepared the country was for an epidemic.

#5

Trump’s travel ban on China did nothing to stop the spread of the virus in the United States. Instead, it allowed the disease to pour into the country from China, and it took almost four trillion dollars to recover from this mistake.

#6

Some conservative media outlets, such as Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and the Washington Times, reassured their listeners that the coronavirus was unimportant and nothing to worry about.

#7

Trump continued to insist that the virus was being well-contained, even as other countries were experiencing rapidly climbing infection rates. Stock markets began to fall from record highs on February 13, 2020, and Trump did not address the threat of the virus. He instead blamed news networks for worrying investors.

#8

American public health officials and doctors, who knew otherwise, were battling the growing epidemic day after day, risking their lives to save others.

#9

By mid-March, Trump could no longer pretend to be ignorant about the severity of the situation. He addressed the nation from the Oval Office on March 11, reading a statement written by Stephen Miller and Jared Kushner. He announced that no one from Europe would