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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA President Unequal to the Moment
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/a-president-unequal-to-the-momentLetter from Trumps Washington
A President Unequal to the Moment
By Susan B. Glasser
March 12, 2020
Crises clarify. The bigger the crisis, the more the clarity, which is why the incompetence, dishonesty, and sheer callousness of the Trump Presidency have been clearer in recent days than ever before. As the coronavirus, as of Wednesday an official pandemic, spreads, the lives of Americans depend on the decisions madeor not made, as the case may beby a President uniquely ill-suited to command in this type of public-health catastrophe. In that sense, the last few weeks may well have been the most clarifying of Donald Trumps Presidency.
In a prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday night, Trump declared war on the foreign virus, blaming first China and then the European Union for spreading it, and insisting that it carried very, very low risk for Americans. The starkly militaristic and nationalistic tone of the address sounded scary and ignorant and utterly inadequate at a time when the country is being radically upended, with travel halting, workplaces and schools shuttering, and hospitals bracing for impact. The foreign virus will not be contained or shut out by a European travel ban, which the President announced, any more than it was by a China travel ban, which he had previously decreed. It is already here in states across the nation, and experts warn that it could infect millions and kill hundreds of thousands in a worst-case scenario. Trump spoke little about that, beyond a vague nudge to Congress to pass a payroll tax cut and a warning to elderly Americans to be very, very careful and avoid nonessential travel. He failed to explain or even address the shocking lack of testing of Americansa stark contrast to the response by other countriesand did not warn the public about or advise them on how to handle the difficult days ahead. Even the major measure that he announced, the European travel ban, required immediate clarification and correction from Administration officials who said it did not apply to trade, as Trump indicated in his remarks, or permanent residents. His former homeland-security adviser, Thomas Bossert, immediately panned the ban as a poor use of time & energy.
In short, Trump was detached from the unfolding reality of a global crisis that is unlike any in memory. Ive watched Presidential speeches for a few decades now. I cannot recall one that was less equal to the moment.
Trump spoke from the Oval Office exactly five weeks to the day since the end of his impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, which left him with essentially unchecked power after the Republican-led Senate voted against his removal. So much has happened since the trial, which already seems as if it happened in another era, but there is a through-line: Trump himself, constantly conflating the national interest with his personal interest. As the coronavirus spread and the President initially ignored, downplayed, and lied about iteven dismissing coverage of the risks as a media-inflamed hoaxthe costs of the Senates impeachment decision have been cast in sharp relief. It will be a long time before we can reckon with the full damage done by an Administration whose incompetence, disinformation, and sheer bungling in the early stages of the crisis have been at once predictable and breathtaking.
snip//
Trump has spent years devaluing and diminishing facts, experts, institutions, and sciencethe very things upon which we must rely in a crisisand his default setting during the coronavirus outbreak has been to deny, delay, deflect, and diminish. His speech on Wednesday night was a disappointment but not a surprise. He told us what we already knew: America is in big trouble.
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A President Unequal to the Moment (Original Post)
babylonsister
Mar 2020
OP
45 is not even competent enough to recognize that the best thing he could possibly do is resign. nt
eppur_se_muova
Mar 2020
#2
leftieNanner
(15,062 posts)1. Truth
Excellent article. Thanks for posting.
eppur_se_muova
(36,247 posts)2. 45 is not even competent enough to recognize that the best thing he could possibly do is resign. nt
babylonsister
(171,032 posts)3. That he won't do. Could land him directly in jail. nt
D_Master81
(1,822 posts)4. And then the market tanked
Futures dropped by something like 8% in the hour after the speech.