The joint chiefs of coronavirus

As USA Today reported, “Most of the nation’s top military leaders are quarantining after coming in contact with a senior officer with COVID-19,” among them “Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Air Force Gen. John Hyten, along with service chiefs from the Army, Navy and Air Force.”

It is, perhaps, darkly amusing that the thing that’s laid America’s top command low wasn’t some terrorist or hostile nation but President Trump’s own inept response to the coronavirus. But let’s not start doomscrolling. So far, none of those so quarantined have popped a positive Covid-19 test or shown symptoms. And for what it’s worth, Slate’s Fred Kaplan believes that this shouldn’t affect military readiness or operations. The armed services’ top officials, he notes, have long been well equipped to do their jobs remotely, whether it’s handling classified information or serving in their customary advisory roles.

But what’s happening to the joint chiefs nevertheless illuminates the way the “pandemic has taken a tangible toll on military operations and planning.” As Kaplan notes, “By nature, war—training for it, mobilizing for it, and fighting it—involves packing soldiers, sailors, and aircrews into tight formations or, in some cases, tight quarters. If one of the packed-in fighters gets the virus, it can spread easily and widely.” The Pentagon has reported that “47,117 military personnel have been stricken by COVID-19” since the beginning of the outbreak.

Hopefully, Kaplan’s rosy predictions about the durability of our chain of command will hold true during periods when our military’s top officials may be in and out of coronavirus-related lockdowns. I can’t help but recall, however, HuffPost’s David Wood outlining the way in which a global war might break out: An ill-fated encounter between Russian and American fighter pilots could set off a cascade of hostilities that would require swift decisions and steely diplomacy from America’s top military personnel to safely unwind—and Wood was left uncertain about the success of such de-escalation measures before the pandemic added all of its complications.

Regardless, it’s safe to say that this is just one more layer of chaos in the 17-layer chaos dip that Washington has been swimming in for the past two weeks. Perhaps the ultimate capper on this whole affair is that Jayna McCarron, the Coast Guard aide who regularly totes the “nuclear football” around whenever President Trump is travelling, was among those who contracted Covid-19 over the past weekend. I’m sure that there is something figurative and overarching to say about that, a turn of phrase that might paint this moment in the most poetic light, but all I can really say is, as far as metaphors go, this is a little too on the nose.

TNR will be spending the next few weeks making a deep dive into 2020’s electoral landscape in our “The Fight for America's Battleground States” series. This week, we truly have a “land of contrasts,” I guess: Emma Roller explains how Wisconsin became a hotbed of white supremacist sentiment, and Eli Day takes a close look at how the long-standing traditions of Michigan’s Black community might help deliver that state to Democrats. Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings are set to begin next week, and you’ll want to read our reporting on what’s to come, including Stephanie Russell-Kraft’s analysis of the Supreme Court’s arc into Christian conservatism and Matt Ford’s explanation of why the Covid-19 outbreak in Washington will not thwart Barrett’s confirmation. Which isn’t to say that having the pandemic raging in the White House isn’t a thing to worry about. As Tim Noah notes, after four years of President Trump being figuratively toxic, he is finally literally toxic. For more political news, including fresh dispatches from our battleground state series, drop by The Soapbox.