You can respond-- right here-- if you think I'm incorrect when I say that Trump pushed for, and advocated, the vaccines, all along. That's not a political discussion, if we stay way from underlying motives and party platforms.
You can also respond-- right here-- if you think I'm incorrect when I say that Trump's statement of support for the vaccines is MUCH more encouraging than the average, common statements we get from Fauci, some examples of which are on the preceding pages of this thread.
I'm not throwing a Trump rally here, I'm showing the sharp contrast between good statesmanship, and poor statesmanship, when the alleged goal of the two speakers is to produce the exact same outcome.
Yes, Trump pushed for the vaccine, all along. Agreed.
Once it was clear he was not going to remain in power, I think things took a different turn. In December, politicians of all stripes [including Pence] were getting publicly vaccinated on camera to show that they believed in the vaccine and were wiling to take it. Fauci did as well. Trump got it in secret at the White House in January, and it didn't come out until March or so that he and Melania had even been vaccinated at all.
The group most skeptical of the vaccine, as demonstrated by multiple polls, were white Republicans, i.e. Trump supporters. Having the power and platform that he has, he remained extremely silent on the vaccine other than trumpeting that we wouldn't have had it without him. He didn't encourage anyone to actually get the shot until late February,
as far as I can tell.
So if you're going to call waiting two+ months to tell people to take the vaccine, when your own supporters are some of the biggest skeptics of it, who obviously look up to you, "good statesmanship", I don't know what to tell you. Fauci got jabbed on camera and has been telling people ever since to get the vaccine, but Trump supporters don't trust him. Trump could have done so much more if he was in front of this while he was still President, rather than late Feb / early Mar.