It’s time for President Trump to imitate Lyndon Baines Johnson and stun the world by announcing he won’t run for reelection.
President Johnson made his famous announcement on March 31, 1968, less than a month earlier in the election year than Trump is right now. He did so as the nation faced a major crisis, as his own poll numbers were declining but not yet disastrous, and as people were questioning whether his actions related to the crisis were made with as much consideration of politics as of the best policy choices. He did so while knowing many still saw him as a slight favorite for reelection in the fall despite it all, but that his participation in the race might divert some of his efforts from governing to campaigning.
Substitute the coronavirus for the Vietnam War, and Trump faces similar circumstances. Indeed, Trump repeatedly has likened the fight against the pandemic to a martial effort, calling himself a “wartime president.”
In fact, Trump could repeat LBJ’s statement almost word for word, merely substituting “health” for “peace.” Here:
“With America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal, partisan causes, or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office, the presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”
The country would, therefore, know that Trump’s decisions and focus are more dispassionate rather than self-interested, more public service than self-service.
But why would Trump do this? After all, the desire to avoiding a fight is not ordinarily in his psychological makeup.
The answer is that he could frame it as something very much other than avoiding a fight. He has already proven he can win fight after fight after fight; what he needs now is to prove to history that he is a great and selfless leader who solved a crisis. Focusing on the crisis, rather than on politics, lets him make that bid for history’s approval.
Moreover, there is a certain psychological advantage for him here. If, say, Vice President Mike Pence runs as the Republican nominee and wins, Trump can claim credit for the country choosing Pence as the obvious continuation of, and approval of, his own presidency. But if Pence loses, well, Trump can pawn off the defeat to Pence.
Trump knows the drill well: He, the mastermind, can’t lose and didn’t lose; it was only that dingbat loser Pence who blew it. Trump is adept at claiming to choose only the “best people,” but then dismissing those same people, once he discards them, as incompetent half-wits foisted on him by others, and for whom he is not responsible.
For all those reasons, Trump should “pull an LBJ.” His withdrawal from the race would be a “win-win” situation for him, and everybody knows Trump just loves to boast about “so much winning.”
