One sunny spring morning in May 2020, President Donald Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden and announced what would turn out to be his administration’s most striking success: Operation Warp Speed, which combined an influx of money with some trimming of bureaucracy to generate safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 in record time.
Trump’s promises about Operation Warp Speed are easy to forget, but at the time doubts about the project were extremely widespread. So it’s sad or funny — or both — that Operation Warp Speed has already emerged as a vulnerability for Trump in the 2024 presidential campaign, with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida moving to distinguish himself from Trump as a vaccine skeptic. And Trump, rather than touting his achievement, has been reduced to accusing DeSantis of only pretending to be anti-vaccine, noting (accurately) that DeSantis was enthusiastic about vaccinations when the program was first underway.
Watching Republicans compete to distance themselves from a major policy success would be amusing if it weren’t so depressing. Because the implications for the country, and the next pandemic, are serious.
