Columnists
The undoing of Donald Trump
The coronavirus outbreak can’t really be said to have an upside. The illness is spreading rapidly across the world. Containment is an option that is rapidly closing. Management of its spread is becoming the top priority.
Which takes us to Donald Trump. Mr. Trump has met every crisis that has faced him—most of them arising from his own conduct— with bluster and an exclamation that all adverse coverage is “Fake News.” He has denied the existence of a climate crisis, weakening the hand of those who will succeed him; but not causing those who decry him for his inaction to muster enough of a consensus to dethrone him. He also led a charmed life with the strong performance of the stock market— but then again, he cut taxes for people with money to invest, so why wouldn’t the stock market go on a celebratory roll?
And then along comes the coronavirus crisis. By the time you read this, the World Health Organization may have officially called it a pandemic. One Harvard epidemiologist estimates that between 40 and 70 per cent of the world’s population will become infected, which even in the lower range is a frightening number.
The US is ill equipped to meet a full scale crisis. Mr. Trump cut the budget for the Center for Disease Control. Not enough test kits have been set aside for dealing with a mass outbreak. Twenty-eight million Americans have no health insurance that will pave their way to go to doctors’ offices for testing and treatment. Forty million of them don’t have paid sick days, so it costs them to quarantine. And the credibility of the United States around the world is at an all-time low, just as the need for international cooperation is at its highest.
The situation is precarious. It may be the undoing of Mr. Trump, which is the closest I will go to seeing an upside. It requires the chief executive of America to marshall his facts; to put together a team of experts; to deploy it; to adjust strategy in light of rapidly changing facts; and to communicate effectively with the American public. In other words, to live up to his job description as America’s CEO. Mr. Trump is not off to a very good start. His news conference the other day showed him to be uninformed and indifferent—more concerned about the effect on financial markets than minimizing the suffering of those who will contract the virus. He shrugged off his de-staffing of epidemiological positions by saying staff could quickly be hired back. And he all but washed his hands (he is a self-confessed germaphobe, so I guess he is allowed to wash his hands) of responsibility for the federal response by putting vice-president Mike Pence in charge.
Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Pence has earned a distinguished reputation for science-based decisionmaking. But this outbreak will challenge them in a way they have not yet been challenged. To respond effectively to the crisis, they will have to swim with the current of scientific advice they are given, rather than swim against it. And bad executive decisions will have a real consequence; more people will get sick, which will in turn send more doubts into the stock market.
Strong executive leadership is required. If Mr. Trump is intent on foisting the job onto someone else, maybe it’s time to comb through some of the back episodes of the Celebrity Apprentice to see if he has already fired the person who is best equipped to lead. How about newly pardoned former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who appeared on Celebrity Apprentice 3? He would at least be able to put a price on the virus. Or maybe Mr. Trump would be smart to turn over management of the crisis to a Democrat— such as newly dropped-out former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg. He has time on his hands and a desire for a national stage on which to show how smart he is. Why not let him be the one to wear any failure in the federal response?
The quality of crisis management will be top of mind for many voters as the November election is only eight months away. As much as Mr. Trump has conscripted a cadre of voters who feel he is ‘their guy,’ that voter loyalty can quickly be lost by inept crisis management, with its human cost.
Even Republicans who, with the exception of Mitt Romney, have stuck with the Trump cult are getting worried. One Republican Senator asked the acting Director of Homeland Security to provide an estimate of how many people in the US may become infected with the virus, its mortality rate, and what supplies the country needed to deal with a larger outbreak. He was unable to get his question answered, much to his disgust. And ultra-conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, sensing danger, has gone on the offensive and called the virus scare part of a plot to unseat Mr. Trump. Maybe this is really the beginning of the undoing of Donald Trump.
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