He’s brought many of his supporters along with him. Seeking to provide him political cover and reacting against a perpetually hostile media, they’ve resorted to every possible argument to dismiss the threat of the coronavirus. It’s just like the flu. Only old people die. The swine flu killed more people.

And so, what is supposed to be a populist nationalist movement is reacting foolishly to what otherwise would be a natural populist nationalist issue.

It is China, the country that Trump supporters rightly want the U.S. to be more suspicious of and less reliant on, that gave the world the coronavirus. Surely this is more damaging than, say, putting together iPhones.

It is borders that are the first line of defense, both within countries and between them.

Relatedly, it is globalization and increased interconnectedness that have been a key vector for the spread of the virus.

It is the so-called “deep state,” the vast apparatus that runs the federal bureaucracy, that played a big role in botching the initial testing here.

The New York Times ran a maddening account of a Seattle-area research project that wanted to, and had the ability to, test for the coronavirus early. But it got told “no” repeatedly by federal agencies that had a pettifogging commitment to senseless rules — the project was using the wrong kind of labs, the test didn’t have approval of the Food and Drug Administration, patient privacy could be violated, etc.

It is global supply chains that have increased the vulnerability of the U.S. if the virus runs out of control, with China manufacturing a large share of medicines for the U.S. and other countries beginning to hold on to the masks and protective gear that they make.

Finally, it is the government that will have to organize the U.S. response, not the free market that populist nationalists argue is overemphasized by conservative and libertarians.

Nonetheless, Trump supporters on talk radio, on cable TV and on Twitter have gone down rabbit holes of denial rather than reacting to a threat that should be in their wheelhouse with tools that should be congenial to them.

There are honorable exceptions. Sen. Tom Cotton, the Arkansas Republican, is a China hawk attuned to the full spectrum of foreign threats, who was warning of the coronavirus when the country — or at least the media — was still obsessed with impeachment. Tucker Carlson, too, has been full-throated about the potential dangers from the beginning.

It is typical for big events to carry a distinct ideological charge. The 9/11 attacks had a strong conservative valence — an attack that emanated from overseas, that exploited holes in our immigration and security apparatus, and that cried out for a military response.

The financial crisis was the opposite — a disruption that involved the big banks, that implicated risky financial practices and that required massive fiscal stimulus.

Trump is showing signs of wanting to change his tone, but he’s been on a path toward allowing the coronavirus to discredit him and his supporters when it rightly should vindicate their key assumptions — and spur them to action.

