His shot at Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz is her reward for criticizing Team Trump’s responses to her city’s pleas for help. “President Trump continues to demonstrate his inability to understand what his job in this crisis was all about,” she tweeted. “This was never about him, this was never about politics. This was about saving lives.” Or, at least, it was supposed to be. For other politicians, his deep denialism might be viewed as a gaffe. To Trump, it’s a political tactic: Treat failure as success, unless you can blame it on someone else. Show disdain for inconvenient facts. Make a partisan appeal by accusing your opponents of being partisan.