handling of the pandemic was a shit show. Whether it was the incoherent babbling on press conferences (which was embarrassing and disturbing to say the least, but ultimately not terribly consequential), or the mocking of mask usage and holding indoor super spreader events himself as cases and deaths were soaring, but his biggest failure was convincing his supporters that covid was not serious, that it was like a cold, and the whole reaction to it was a hoax to "get him". This resulted in stunningly different outcomes for Trump supporters vs. vs. Biden supporters. The more red a county was, the higher their death rate. Counties that overwhelmingly went for Trump (+50 point margin) had 3x the deaths per capita overall as counties that overwhelmingly went for Biden, and 6x the deaths as biden counties post vaccine availability. After the vaccine became widely available (~5/1/21), deaths in counties that voted for Trump are way up, while deaths in counties that voted for biden are way down.

THAT is ultimately the covid legacy of Trump... that he convinced his supporters to not take the pandemic seriously because the reaction to the pandemic was just a dem hoax to get him. And they believed him and paid for it with their lives. To be fair... Trump did get a huge assist from right wing media too.