Trump's damage is already done
President Trump’s delay in preparing for the coronavirus might be the costliest presidential bungle in history, one that will likely increase the number of deaths and damage the long-term well-being of Americans. (The pathetic attempt to rewrite history to keep the Trumpian myth intact will not protect his reputation nor that of his enablers, including those who voted for acquittal in his Senate impeachment trial.) He has also poisoned the well of public opinion.
A new NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll finds only 37 percent of Americans “now say they had a good amount or a great deal of trust in what they’re hearing from the president.” Sixty percent have "not very much or no trust at all in what he’s saying.” Imagine if in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 60 percent of the population didn’t trust President George W. Bush. The understandable loss of trust in a compulsive liar is itself a crisis that might prevent the public and other politicians from taking action to protect themselves. (Fortunately, reflecting the admirable job they have been doing, “public health officials got the highest level of trust at 84%, followed by those state and local leaders (72%).”
The public’s lack of trust is based on Trump’s performance: He has been following, not leading — playing down a risk that others rose to address. Only 46 percent say the federal government is doing enough, a 15-point drop from February. However, “Americans have more faith in their local governments ... with two-thirds saying their state governments are doing enough.”
Trump has also convinced his followers that they cannot trust information provided by the media (despite his 180-degree reversal to align himself with the weeks-long effort by the media to warn of an unprecedented national crisis). “When it comes to the news media, two-thirds of Democrats trust the information they hear coming from them; independents were split; and Republicans overwhelmingly said they do not trust what they’re hearing from the media,” NPR reports. “Having significant chunks of the country either not believing their president (who controls the federal government’s response), the press (which is a gatekeeper for information), or both, could be dangerous in a pandemic.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/17/trumps-damage-is-already-done/
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