It’s a good thing America’s suckers nixed Hillary Clinton’s presidency (oh those emails!), because otherwise we would’ve been denied the opportunity to hear America’s worst human distilled to his essence.

Of all the pearls of wisdom that have fallen from Donald Trump’s mouth, one in particular trumps all others. Last Friday, during a photo op at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said that the sick people on the Grand Princess cruise ship should stay where they were, because if they were allowed to come ashore, they’d be counted in the coronavirus statistics:

“I like the numbers being where they are. I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship.”

Those are the words of a narcissistic sociopath. Not a shred of empathy for the infected souls on board. Not a smidgen of concern for anyone or anything beyond his own “likes” and “needs.” Marinating in his ignorance, his sole concern was how “the numbers” might affect his political standing in the news cycle of the moment.

This time, he really is shooting people on Fifth Avenue. There’s no point mincing words anymore. Maybe that’s how National Public Radio wants to play it (Trump has a “breezy” style), and maybe the New York Times headline writer preferred to whitewash his sick behavior at the CDC (“Trump Urges Nation to Avoid Panicking”), but this is no time for euphemisms. Not with a pandemic on the march and the Dow in a deep dive.

And adding insult to injury, we’re forced to endure Trump’s endless lies and flights from reality.

On Feb. 24, he tweeted: “The coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.” On Feb. 25, he tweeted: “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer is complaining, for publicity purposes only, that I should be asking for more money than $2.5 billion to prepare for coronavirus….He is incompetent!” But Trump has since signed a bill for $8.3 billion.

On Feb. 26, he said: “You have 15 (infected) people, and the 15, within a couple days, is going to be down to zero.” But the latest tally is close to 600 and climbing – and those are only the people who have managed to get tested.

On Friday at the CDC, he said: “Anybody that needs a test gets a test…the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right?” But that was a lie; lots of people can’t get tested because there aren’t nearly enough test kits. And frankly, sick people aren’t interested in hearing him defend his impeached behavior with Ukraine.

This weekend, he tweeted: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine-tuned plan at the White House.” This morning, he tweeted that the “Fake News Media” is making the coronavirus look worse than it is. Yeah, whatever; tell that to the conservatives who are self-quarantining after shaking hands with an infected attendee at the recent CPAC conference. Indeed, his lies don’t even fly with some members of the conservative media.

Speaking of which: I’ll yield the floor to the conservative Washington Examiner, which posted a Sunday opinion piece that assailed Trump’s “staggering ignorance.” The key passages:

The coronavirus “is exposing how deeply unsuited he is to deal with a genuine crisis that he can’t bluff his way through…Trump will be judged on his handling of the spread of the virus. And the outcome will be clear no matter how many things he makes up, no matter how confident he pretends to be, and no matter how many insults he heaves…

“Trump appears to be more concerned with numbers that might make him look bad in the short-term, then he is with actually taking the most prudent measures to save lives over time. The current crisis is revealing what many critics feared in a potential Trump presidency. He simply has not shown an ability to break out of his typical antics, and treat the moment with the seriousness with which it deserves.”

But fear not, Trump apparently has a public health diploma from Trump University. At the CDC he said: “People are really surprised I understand this stuff. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.”

This is what happens – something like this was bound to happen – when a supposedly advanced nation entrusts citizens’ health to a hack celebrity who’s best suited for fake-firing people in a TV studio.

On the upside, a vaccine that cures demagoguery and imbecility is readily available. It’s called Election Day.