Donald at the Bat – Day 1300, Trump’s Mastery of History

Day 1300, Trump’s Mastery of History 

 

Trump’s “flu of 1917,” (outbreak, 1918)

Killed 50 million globally, into 1919.

“It might have been the reason World War II came to a halt.

“The soldiers were too sick to fight, thus influenza’s fault.”  (1)

 

There were two peaks in 1918, in spring and the fall,

Mutation likely made the fall outbreak the worst of all.

A third wave came in 1919; it was less severe.

We don’t know where it started but it might have been right here.

 

The world at war in 1918 helped the flu to spread,

With soldiers bunched together, just what all the doctors dread.

When soldiers on both sides went home, they took the flu with them.

Troop concentration, travel, spread: the toll, we know was grim.

 

Indeed, the influenza might have caused a halt to war,

But that was World War I, part of the epidemic’s lore.

The Donald told us, “World War II,” (no influenza then.)

Not flu but two atomic bombs had made Japan give in.

 

As usual, Donald Trump is uninformed on history.

His flu of “1917,” another mystery.

He’s said it many times before; I guess he will persist.

In geologic time, he’s close; At least, he’s got the gist.

 

But World War I and World War II were two decades apart,

With different reasons we have learned that caused each one to start.

One ended back in ’18 and the other, ’45.

We even have some veterans of World War II alive.

 

So Donald has his facts mixed up.  By now, we’re used to that.

We probably can blow this off, though some may smell a rat.

What if he thinks atomic bombs had cured the world of flu?

Oh, brothers, sisters, we should fear what Donald Trump might do.

 

(1)  White House Press briefing, August 10, 2020.  He really said this.