Presidential tweets can't paper over Trump's coronavirus failures

[babylonsister]

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/presidential-tweets-can-t-paper-over-trump-s-coronavirus-failures-n1153346


Presidential tweets can't paper over Trump's coronavirus failures
A question about Trump has lingered in the background: what would happen when the nation's first amateur president faced a genuine crisis? Now we know.
March 9, 2020, 12:47 PM EDT
By Steve Benen


As Donald Trump's focus remains on public-relations considerations, the president's current goal appears simple: he wants Americans not to believe their lying eyes. Indeed, Trump seems to have convinced himself that he can make the coronavirus crisis fade simply by force of will.

snip//

For a president who lives in the moment, rarely planning too far ahead, the coronavirus has proved to be a leadership challenge he was not prepared for either. The outbreak that has rattled the nation does not respond to Mr. Trump's favorite instruments of power: It cannot be cowed by Twitter posts, it cannot be shot down by drones, it cannot be overcome by party solidarity, it cannot be overpowered by campaign rally chants.

For three years, a question about Trump has lingered in the background: what would happen when the nation's first amateur president faced a genuine crisis? One he couldn't overpower with spectacle and nonsense? One that required him to listen, learn, and lead with a steady hand?

Such a crisis has arrived and Trump is making clear that he's not up to the task. The president's go-to moves are familiar -- lie, divert blame, contradict experts, tout a personal expertise that exists in his imagination -- but they are a poor fit for the dangerous circumstances.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. I have asked myself this very same question, that when the going gets tough, what will rump...

do? Now, in living color and tweets to boot, we are seeing his performance (dismal and pathetic in all of its glory, and deadly perhaps too, to Americans). No one can say anything, can paper over the failures w/ any number of words, which I'm sure he'll try (w/ over 30 tweets so far (of which I haven't read nor read either), he's failing miserably).