The Trump administration “ignored” the Obama administration’s preparations for pandemic illnesses, which backfired during the quick and deadly spread of COVID-19 in early 2020. The Trump administration blamed the World Health Organization for “working with China” and embraced a “strategy of mass infection” as it politicized the outbreak (129). Trump “openly rejected” the idea that the federal government should provide pandemic resources.

This new attempt to destroy the liberal consensus created problems that that very consensus “was designed to end” by ensuring that only private individuals with financial resources had the means to provide for public needs (129), which they sold at “fifteen times” their standard price. Despite Trump’s displacement of pandemic aid to states, when states shut down to curb infection rates, he declared he had the “absolute authority” to reopen them. 

Trump told his followers that if he won in 2020, it would be because they were the rightful majority, and if he lost, the election was “rigged.” His allies compromised mail-in voting—a blow during the pandemic, which made in-person voting dangerous. He rallied “gangs waving Trump flags and flying Confederate flags” (131), leading followers to believe that pandemic lockdowns infringed upon their liberties. 

Amid this climate, in May 2020, Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin killed a Black man named George Floyd by kneeling on his neck.