Donald Trump insists on calling the Novel Coronavirus the “Chinese Virus,” and his supporters are all on board with a naming designed to deflect blame and inflame anti-Asian anger.
Trump has been using the phrase in his tweets for at least a week, after calling it a “foreign virus” in his national address last week — a tactic he’s been using to rally his base no matter the larger issue since he announced his candidacy five years ago.
The president’s overt xenophobia and racism is the context here, over-riding all other claims he and his supporters have made about naming the virus — especially the canard that this is about where this virus originated.
Hank Kalet 