This Is a Test

Donald Trump does not like to be crossed. He doesn't like being confronted with his own words and actions. He doesn't like having his authority questioned. And he can't shake the facts concerning his own failures.

So he's lashing out. In his own words....

As conservative columnist David Frum observes, we have a contradiction between Trump demanding "absolute authority" and Trump saying, "I take no responsibility." Which is it? (Answer: he always plays both sides of a question.)

You can see him melting down when stuck between total control and no responsibility. CBS reporter Paula Reid sent him into total lockdown by confronting him with the gap between what he says he's done and what he never did.

Thing is, this could get dangerous. Trump is testing how far he can go. Does it look to you like he's threatening to take some kind of coercive action against the governors? (By the way, some of those governors are Republicans.)

Trump surely broke the law by showing a campaign video during yesterday's press briefing. (You don't get to use White House resources to campaign.) A video attacking the press, no less.

The problem is, Trump has no case to make. Which of these things is true? (H/t Times reporter Peter Baker.)

• Trump, Feb. 28: "The press is in hysteria mode" over coronavirus.
• Trump campaign video, April 13: "The media minimized the risk from the start."

The truth isn't flattering. Trump refused to act on the pandemic until Wall Street executives started leaning on him hard. Andy Slavitt reporting what he's learned:

Trump is making a decision about how he wants to proceed and so I called someone who knows how he operates better than anyone I could think of — Anthony Scaramucci.

Let me retrace events. As I learned today, he had to be told by Wall Street to shut it down in March. He wasn’t comprehending that he couldn’t gaslight the virus. And since Wall Street is his self-proclaimed report card (even though it’s not for many Americans), he had to listen.

In effect what he heard was even if you can’t see the virus, the economy won’t get better unless you shut it down. He couldn’t take the market drops. That — not a looming death toll — made him decide to get out front.

Confident in his ability to sell a narrative to the public, his press conference was born. In effect, he turned that into the Easter plan. All gut/instinct. All self-confidence. All show.

So he lies. For example, yesterday he claimed that Joe Biden has apologized for calling Trump xenophobic. "He has since apologized and he said I did the right thing." Biden's reply: Nope. Never apologized.

The question is, backed against the wall, what will Trump do? It's looking very much like he'll test the Constitution. That's not new, but the stakes are way high.