Washington sources reported that when Hurricane Dorian crashed into the Atlantic Coast in september, President donald trump assumed a take-charge role in response. But he undermined his own effectiveness after it became apparent that before displaying a map in front of the television cameras in the Oval office, he had altered it with a Sharpie pen to match his inaccurate forecast of where the storm was headed.
Meanwhile for years, experts have warned that trump has been squandering the credibility he could need in a moment of national emergency, like a terrorist attack or a public health crisis. Now, as the coronavirus races across the globe and has begun to threaten the united states, trump could face a moment of reckoning. Maintaining a calm and orderly response during an epidemic, in which countless lives could be at stake, requires that the president be a reliable public messenger.
Moreover on wednesday evening, trump delivered an almost casual account of the administration’s response to the coronavirus, leaving it to the experts appearing with him to relay the real information and assure a jittery public. Still, he kept trying to suggest the risk was low. Perhaps trump, in contrast, contradicted his own health experts in a news conference wednesday evening, insisting that the spread of the virus was not inevitable, and excoriating two of his favorite foils, house Speaker Nancy Pelosi and senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, for “trying to create a panic.”
