Anna Wintour, the longtime Vogue editor-in-chief and Condé Nast artistic director, condemned President Donald Trump for his “shocking” conduct as the United States suffers through an unprecedented coronavirus pandemic. “I, like so many of us, have been appalled by how he has responded to the pandemic — the optimistic and fact-free assurances that all will be fine, the chaotic implementation of travel bans and claims about a ‘foreign virus,’ the narcissistic ease with which he has passed blame to others, his dishonesty with the American people, and worst of all, his shocking lack of empathy and compassion for those who are suffering and fearful, Wintour, 70, wrote in a Vogue op-ed.
Trump’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, as Wintour noted, has been all over the place. Trump claimed in a January 22 interview that the global panic about the disease, which has now infected at least 140,000 patients, was overblown, and that the United States had it “totally under control.” Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, falsely claimed in February that COVID-19 was completely “contained” in the United States. As of March 17, over 5000 Americans have been diagnosed with coronavirus; at least 90 people have died, many of them in Washington state. Wintour stressed that Trump’s bungling of the coronavirus crisis means that the United States “must choose a new president.”
And that president, according to Wintour, should be Joe Biden. Wintour formally endorsed the former vice president in her op-ed, declaring that Biden “is unmistakably a man of character and has so many qualities that we are in desperately short supply of in Washington right now: decency, honor, compassion, trustworthiness, and best of all experience.” She noted that there are “more challenges” awaiting the country outside of coronavirus, namely climate change.
“We must choose a president who is ready to govern, who understands how to get results out of Congress, and who can set this country on a path to sustainability,” she wrote, praising Biden. “And what a relief it will be to have a president who puts the well-being of others before his own, who doesn’t constantly think of himself first.”
Wintour also said in the op-ed that the annual Met Gala, scheduled for May 4, is now postponed indefinitely amid coronavirus concerns. The 2020 theme was to be About Time: Fashion and Duration, hosted by Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquière, Emma Stone, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Meryl Streep. “Due to the unavoidable and responsible decision by the Metropolitan Museum [of Art] to close its doors, About Time, and the opening night gala, will not take place on the date scheduled,” she wrote.