Trump ‘didn’t know people died from the flu.’ It killed his grandfather.

News with a Twist

Taking advantage of his brainlessness, “Stable Genius” to introduce new campaign song.

The Washington Post reported that on Friday at a CDC photo-op in Atlanta, President Trump talked about the number of people infected with the coronavirus in other countries vs. the United States. He also compared coronavirus disease with influenza.

“Over the last long period of time, you have an average of 36,000 people dying” a year, the president said, gesturing toward National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony S. Fauci, who nodded confirmation.

Trump continued: “I never heard those numbers. I would’ve been shocked. I would’ve said, ‘Does anybody die from the flu? I didn’t know people died from the flu.’ … And again, you had a couple of years where it was over a 100,000 people died from the flu.”

The Post went on to report, “the president is correct. Seasonal influenza has killed 12,000 to 61,000 people in the United States every year since 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been several years where more than 100,000 Americans were killed by particularly nasty influenza strains.”

One of those episodes was the 1958 pandemic, which killed 116,000 in the United States.

Another was 1918.

That is the year Trump’s paternal grandfather died.

He died of the flu.

In 1918, Friedrich Trump was a successful, 49-year-old businessman, husband and father of three living in Queens, according to Gwenda Blair in her 2001 book “The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire.” One day in May, he came home from a stroll feeling sick. He died almost immediately.

He was a victim of the first wave of the Spanish flu pandemic. A second, deadlier wave hit in the fall. All told, the pandemic killed at least 50 million people worldwide and 675,000 in the United States, according to the CDC

Friedrich’s eldest son, Frederick, was only 12 when his father died, but he and his mother would pick up the family business. It would be another 28 years before Fred and his wife would have their fourth child, a boy they named Donald.

Now, rather than lament Donald Trump’s total ignorance, even of his own family history, Brad Pascale, Trump’s always clever campaign manager, is taking advantage of Trump’s obtuseness by introducing a new campaign song, “What a Wonderful World It’s for Trump.”

In an exclusive, Around the Block has obtained the lyrics to the new rally song.

What a Wonderful World It’s for Trump

[Verse 1]

He don’t know much about history
He don’t know much biology
He don’t know much about a science book
He don’t know much about the German he took

[Chorus 1]

But he do know he’s president
And the White House is his residence
What a wonderful world it’s for Trump

[Verse 2]

He don’t know much about geography
He don’t know much trigonometry
He don’t know much about algebra
He don’t know what a book is for

[Chorus 2]

But he do know one and one is three
And facing Bernie would give him glee
What a wonderful world it’s for Trump

[Bridge]

Now, he don’t claim to be an “A” student
But “stable genius,” that’s Trump
Knowing the best words, being “really, really smart”
What a wonderful world it’s for Trump…

The song will be launched at the Trump campaign rally in Grand Rapids, MI ahead of the Michigan Democratic primary.

Let me close this column with a somewhat off topic, but actually on topic, if you consider the topic to be the ignorance of Trump and his toadies.

On Friday, Vice President Mike “Let Us Pray” Pence, the administration’s Coronavirus Czar, announced that the Grand Princess cruise ship, steaming off the coast of San Francisco with many coronavirus-infected passengers would dock at “a non-commercial port very soon.”

Today, it was reported that the ship will dock at the Port of Oakland on Monday.

Now, I understand that “Let Us Pray” Pence was the former governor of Indiana, a land-locked state, so “port” might be a foreign word to him. But, let’s be clear: the Port of Oakland is very much a “commercial” port. In fact, it’s one of the three principal commercial gateways on the Pacific Coast.

Hey, you can’t know everything!