Republicans are pleased President Trump has stepped up to the role of “wartime” leader but say he’ll succeed only if he keeps delegating authority and trusting experts.
Trump runs the White House like a family business, hoarding decision-making while relying on a few loyal confidants for counsel. The coronavirus crisis is forcing him to adjust. After initial resistance, Trump has embraced the role of wartime president and turned to experts with whom he was previously unfamiliar from the government and the private sector to shape and execute a strategy.
For hopeful Republicans, the question is whether Trump has the discipline to stick to this new approach.
“The Trump White House, more than any other White House, has been focused on Trump. That won’t work here,” said Ari Fleischer, an often-supportive Republican operative who, as press secretary to George W. Bush on Sept. 11, 2001, experienced a White House thrust into war. “The president’s got to be seen as the head coach; the experts are the players on the field that are going to win this fight.”
When, in January, the first Americans were afflicted with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Trump dismissed it as minor and said it wouldn’t upend life in the United States as it had in China, where it started, and in other countries to which it spread. Trump created a White House task force led by Vice President Mike Pence but said the threat would quickly fade.
That changed dramatically this week. Trump conceded that drastic measures were necessary to prevent months of turmoil. In doing so, he described himself as a wartime president, willingly sharing the spotlight with technocrats. The president built his political brand dismissing elites. Now, he is leaning on their judgment to defeat the coronavirus.
Jason Miller, an ally and former adviser, said the president’s preference for bold action made him the perfect leader to turn the experts’ recommendations into action quickly. Miller, co-host with former White House counselor Steve Bannon of a podcast that has focused on the coronavirus since it was first reported in Wuhan, China, has been referring to Trump as a wartime president since January.
“It’s going to take an unconventional, unorthodox leader to cut through red tape to get things done,” Miller said, referring to the urgent need for a vaccine, medical equipment, and massive economic stimulus to save an American economy that has nearly ground to a halt from a depression. “President Trump wasn’t elected to be a hand-holder; he was elected to be an action-oriented, results-driven leader.”
Nevertheless, it is a potentially rocky transformation for a chief executive who relishes campaigning and is more comfortable on the political attack.
Although his signature stadium rallies, often laden with invective, are on hold, Trump has been typically aggressive on social media, offering cutting commentary about congressional Democrats, likely Democratic challenger Joe Biden, and the news media. And in a news conference Thursday, Trump appeared to revert to his usual, politically centered rhetoric. Republicans say Trump should not be expected to stand too far down even while managing the government’s crisis response.
But party insiders want him to understand that his usually effective political attacks will be useless if voters decide he mishandled the pandemic and its economic aftershocks.
Government mandates for a range of industries to cease operations to stop the spread of the coronavirus are poised to spike unemployment and push the U.S. into a deep recession. To win in November, even if these conditions recede, Trump has to win in March, April, and May, with a strategy that offers people confidence that the government has a plan to revitalize society, Republican strategists say.
“The only way for him to get reelected is absolutely nail the response,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist in Louisville, Kentucky. “The American people won’t blame him for the virus occurring, but what they are looking for is: How quickly can we get back to some semblance of normalcy, and did we fully and efficiently mobilize the power of the federal government to do that?”
