“China will do anything they can to have me lose this race,” Trump said, citing its handling of the crisis as proof. Business Insider, May 1, 2020

There is, apparently, a rumor going around that the Chinese manufactured the coronavirus in a secret military lab in an effort to get rid of President Trump. I say apparently because I haven’t actually read or heard anybody actually say the rumor, I’ve only heard people referring to it to say the theory is absurd. I have also heard that the President believes and has repeated the rumor. I don’t understand that. I would think that Trump would aggressively deny that anybody manufactured this virus to make him look bad.

Think about it.

If the Chinese made this virus in a lab to make President Trump look bad, they had to be certain that he would, in fact, end up looking bad; they had to be certain that he would do a terrible job of coping with the problem. If he had done a superb job, or even a good job, he would have been a hero. The President is saying, in effect, that “The Chinese knew I would be incapable of handling a real crisis so they created one to make me look bad.”

Why would he say that?