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Polls suggest Donald Trump may be remembered as one of the worst presidents in American history. Only 38 percent of Americans approve of Trump's performance in office, as shown in a new Gallop survey. With the clock ticking down on November's election, the capricious president is losing to his Democratic rival Joe Biden by double-digits.

The result is no surprise considering Trump's COVID-19 response that leaves his country the world's top in both confirmed cases and deaths. Shouting "Make America Great Again," the president is sacrificing Americans' lives for his private gains. Trump's attitude to masks explains everything. Wearing a mask slows the spread of the virus. This is common sense.

It is for this reason that American health officials urged citizens to wear masks in public. "[By wearing a mask], I want to protect myself and protect others, and also because I want to make it be a symbol for people to see that that's the kind of thing you should be doing," CNN quoted Trump's own infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci as saying. Wearing a mask is all about science and has nothing to do with politics.

But Trump is interpreting the move differently. Despite the soaring COVID-19 cases, Trump has repeatedly downplayed the importance of wearing the life-saving gadget and even mocked at those who wore them. At a May 26 press conference, Trump suggested that a news reporter was "politically correct" for wearing a mask. This undeniably discouraged many Republican supporters from putting a mask on during the pandemic, thus giving rise to more deaths and confirmed cases.

By not wearing the mask, the president is showing his confidence in handling the deadly virus. After all, with less than five months before the general election, Trump has been eager to revive the country's economy. To this end, it is of vital importance to boost investors' confidence in the American market, and not wearing a mask could, to some extent, send a message to investors that the situation in the U.S. is still under control.

The move is also an attempt to court his conservative voters. Holding high the banner of "freedom" and "democracy," these conservatives regard not wearing a mask as an important criterion in measuring the realization of their freedom. The mask is highly politicized in the American bipartisan society. According to Pew Research Center, more than 60 percent of Democrats regard it necessary to put a mask on in public, while less than 30 percent of Republicans hold the same stance. It has become a consensus in the U.S. that wearing a mask is a gesture of support for Biden, and not wearing it is for Trump.

The Trump administration's politicizing of the life-saving measure is apparently at the cost of innocent lives. At least 134,000 Americans "had to die from COVID-19 before President Donald Trump would wear a mask in public," CNN reported. It wasn't until this month that the stylish president allowed himself to appear in front of cameras with a mask on, at a time when the U.S. sees over 3.2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases. The number is about twice that of May when Trump publicly ridiculed the news reporter.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated that universal masking could save 45,000 lives by November 1. If Trump could lead by example by putting a mask on at the initial outbreak of the pandemic, more lives could have been saved. The Trump administration has been blaming other countries for starting and spreading the virus. But it is Trump's failure in COVID-19 response to blame.

Americans want a president who cares about their lives. This is also true for Trump's conservative voters when their right to life is jeopardized by so-called freedom. Apparently, Trump's anti-virus fight shows he is not the one the American public wants, and his slumping approval rate comes at no surprise.

Scriptwriter: Liu Jianxi

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