President Trump is not up to the task before him, it seems.
When he should be leading, he is campaigning, even down to the red reelection campaign hat. He is attacking Democrats and the media for causing panic instead of implementing a plan to stanch the panic. He’s even tweeting out pictures of himself fiddling, like Nero. He’s trying to jawbone the stock market, downplay the problem, and blame the media instead of governing and projecting a sense of calm.
My colleague Phil Klein put it well: “Trump appears to be more concerned with numbers that might make him look bad in the short term than he is with actually taking the most prudent measures to save lives over time.”
This isn’t surprising to anyone who watched him over the campaign or throughout the first three years of his presidency. His political ruthlessness, constant counterpunching, and war on the elites have served him well politically, but they’re not helping today. His administration might still roll out decent measures. His Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could still help test kits get out quickly. His Health and Human Services may efficiently and effectively deploy the $8 billion in aid.
But, on the score of being a leader who effectively keeps people informed and calm, Trump isn’t succeeding.
So, here’s something to consider: Someone besides the president could be the leader.
This is good. Biden also needs to do more:
1. Demand fiscal stimulus with automatic stablilizers so that his potential Presidency isn’t hamstrung from the start.
2. Act like a President and provide his own, evidence-based public messaging on coronavirus. https://t.co/ZIN74ZGDL8
— Ben Yelin (@byelin) March 9, 2020
The tweet above is from a smart, left-leaning Joe Biden backer I follow. I’m not convinced Biden could play the role of a real leader, here. For starters, we are politically polarized, and so, any partisan figure would have trouble uniting people. Biden specifically may be unfit because he has difficulty speaking clearly and not saying absurd things. This is a shortcoming that could be harmful at a time like this.
But it’s not insane to think a different public figure — crucially, not someone who feels the need to suck up to Trump — could take on an important leader role that could push us toward better outcomes in the current crisis.
In the abstract, a Democratic nominee could use his bully pulpit to urge a better response by hospitals, doctors, and drug companies. He could push governors of his own party to roll out their own testing regimens without CDC approval, if needed.
Any public figure, maybe a prominent and trusted senator, a businessman with a record of public spiritedness, or a former official who didn’t appear to be acting for some private client, could take the lead. Better yet, someone with clinical or research knowledge (such as Scott Gottlieb), could become something of a coronavirus czar without any White House sanction simply by working the media, working the hospitals, working the labs, and working the states and counties.
The president is in a natural position to be a leader. Sometimes, though, we expect too much from the president. Other times, the president isn’t up to the task. This country would benefit from someone else stepping up.
