Not a Good Day for Presidential Stability

Over the past week or so, Donald Trump has faced one story after another that documents his failures to address the coronavirus pandemic quickly or efficiently. I've shared several on this blog. This morning New York Times columnist David Leonhardt took recent Times reporting to pose the question: just how many deaths are actually Donald Trump's fault? No chance Trump missed the headline:

As we know, Trump can only tolerate so much discomfort before he goes off. It's straight-up child behavior, but that's his pattern.

Trump had already launched prior to Leonhardt's column. What really got his goat was Anthony Fauci's Sunday morning interview with CNN. Asked the inevitable question, "What if we'd gotten on this virus sooner?", Fauci made the abominable error. He played it straight.

Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those decisions is complicated. But you're right, I mean, obviously, if we had right from the very beginning shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then.

Oh dear. 

Trump lashed out. Of course he did. He RTed a tweet calling for Fauci's dismissal.

This is Trump's line: he "banned China" early. To be clear, he didn't "ban China"; he banned travel from internationals who had been to China within 14 days. And Trump is correct: he did face criticism for that.

But there's also the utter lack of logic. Day after day Trump minimized the crisis, said it was under control, said we'd be fine. This went on for nearly two months after Trump had received warnings from inside the White House and beyond, including from senators. Trump might as well say,

I did my homework one day, sort of. How unfair for the instructor to grade me on the basis of stuff I didn't study!

It's pitiful. So pitiful his followers believe it.

Some say, "Sure, there'll come a time for holding Trump accountable for his past failures. It's called the presidential campaign. For now, we should offer him all the support we can." But that logic folds like a cheap umbrella in the face of two realities. One, Trump is already campaigning, as are his opponents. But two, Trump is still screwing things up--and he will continue doing so for the foreseeable future.

Let's take two examples. Today NPR released a report concerning the failed promises Trump has made since he declared an emergency.

• He promised drive-through testing at retail partners. Largely, no.
• He promised web-supported access to testing. Contracted it to a Kushner-associated company, and basically, no.
• He promised home testing. Nuh-uh.
• He promised to full up the national reserve of crude oil to buttress the economy. No.

But the greatest reason to be afraid is that Trump may open the country too soon, prompting another spike in coronavirus activity. We're doing as well as we are not because Trump did anything but because governors and mayors shut down major parts of the country ahead of Trump's actions. Here in Pennsylvania, Gov. Wolf closed down the public schools on March 13. According to Trump's own website, Trump offered his “15 days to slow the spread” guidance on March 16. (Universities began shutting down campuses March 8 and 9.)

Now Trump is threatening to overrule those governors and local authorities in order to "open up" the country, claiming he has powers he does not have. (Trump didn't shut anything down, and he doesn't have the authority to open anything up.)

And this is why we can't give Trump a pass on failures that have already happened. He's still a threat to our safety.