The fires have cooled on this subject and the consensus seems to be that mask wearing is a useful thing to prevent spread of the coronavirus. A good one can help keep you from being infected as well.

So what do you think was the reason for Trump's intransigence on this subject? Why did it become, for him and his supporters, such a big deal? Everyone got caught in the the "Orange Man bad" or "Trump is Wonderful" but apart from all that, why specifically do you think Trump got so invested in the issue?

My own thought is that 1) He saw this as a way to keep the base together, something crucial to being re-elected and 2) Trump can never ever ever admit being wrong.

It really is too bad. Fauci was on the other day saying that resistance to masks cost us a lot of lives. And I suspect that the next time we have a pandemic, these terrible lockdowns won't be necessary if people will mask up.

But as Merlin says, "it is the doom of man that he forgets".