these are not bad points to raise in my view, but:

• I think there are so many more US deaths (and counting) than there need to have been, compared to populations of similar size, that it is fair to say that the vast majority of deaths would not have happened under a decent (non-"inept" ) Administration. I did do some primitive calculations on the numbers a few months ago, and I posted them here in this forum. I think the basic principles of calculation would still hold - take a hard look at countries that have responded smartly and competently to the crisis, and to countries that have responded only moderately badly, and then compare the US response. The US is winning multiple Darwin awards on a daily basis.

This is I think not just a matter of responding ineptly, but responding in a way that is actively seeking out and cultivating a higher death and injury toll and ultimately a worse economic result ... much of this ineptitude under the disingenuous claim of trying for a better economic result. The overall economic result may well be significantly worse than it would have been if the US had handled the pandemic reasonably competently. If so, then the death and injury toll from that extra bit of economic downturn is also something we would need to consider.

An important point here, as to understanding what the US numbers tell us, is understanding how the results of so many other nations from around the world give us insight into just how inept the US response has been. Even adjusting for differences in testing and honest reporting, it's clear that quite a few countries have handled this so much better than the US that it's not even close. There's an undercurrent of the usual right-wing belligerence out there that such a claim is attributable to not understanding how dishonest this or that country is about reporting, and so-on, ... or how it fails to take into account other priorities such as supposedly trying to fight for the US Economy, but at this point, those belligerent objections are more or less to be dismissed as simply trying to gum up the conversation and keep us from understanding the full embarrassment and horror of the US failure.

• On the rhetorical tool of blaming matters solely on the President when in reality they are attributable both to a President, and his admin, and to many legislators, and to millions of voters, I often agree with this objection, and I like to keep in mind in a democracy we all share in the decisions, but I think there are times when it is understandable to lay a failure at the door of the person who has been handed so much power by the people to get things done well, and who has performed so horribly.

For an example:
I've never been in the military, but I reckon if there is a battle and the head of a large division performs badly and gets a lot of folks killed due basically to their ridiculous ineptitude, then there are contexts when, in dealing with the situation, their superiors should demote or fire them and not mince words about it..... they had the chief responsibility, they blew it, and solders died.

@kmaz Those may not be the only factors that are the cause of the disparity between our numbers and those of other countries. We are a very fat unhealthy nation. We also have a much higher percentage of people that don't believe in science and do believe in various forms of magical thinking. I'm all about being smart and practical this election season...

@JeffMurray

We are also a nation that has some pretty spectacular doctors and healthcare infrastructure in place. So, in some ways, our numbers should have been better than, not worse than, other countries.

There will always be various factors. You seem to be simply uncomfortable with any attempt to attribute the entirety of a development to a single individual, and normally I would agree, but Trump's obstruction of rational pandemic response has been extraordinary, and, as I have said, there are some contexts where it is appropriate to give credit or discredit in a simplified way.

As to that obstruction:

Trump has done virtually everything wrong, from January. Even now, there is virtually no understanding, with Trump or with many citizens, of some of the basics that would and will be needed for the US to pull together and respond. It is July, six months in, and the malevolent piece of garbage that some here thought was appropriate to elect head of state of the US, on a daily basis continues his failed pandemic response. The pandemic is laying bare what most of the world already knew. A way of putting it is that many citizens in the US are undergoing an almost absurdly deep intellectual bankruptcy and are, evidently, incapable of understanding how lost they are, how far off they are in identifying principles to fight for, and how they should formulate even basic responses to easily-understood threats.

@kmaz To be sure, I think he's the most incompetent pile of trash that office has ever contained. And for the vast majority of my life, I've had people who agreed with me tell me I need to take a softer approach and that you catch more flies with honey. I adamantly disagreed; I think I even wrote a blog at one point that had a title that read something to the effect of, "I don't give a shit about catching flies I'm using vinegar". These were positions that I thought should be so universally agreed upon that I didn't think it was fair to take baby steps on it anymore. e.g. Why should we fight tooth and nail just for civil unions that may not be recognized the same as marriage or recognized everywhere? But now I'm seeing the other side. I very much believe another 4 years of Trump will end our democracy (I actually believe it's already over, but that would cement it for sure). So I'm Mr. Honey, now, and I don't think we can afford to be like I used to be now.