United States President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus at the White House. Photo / AP
United States President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus at the White House. Photo / AP
EDITORIAL
The United States President is having to clean up a mess of his own making.
Donald Trump's clearly dangerous suggestions on Friday (NZT) about bringing "light inside the body" and ingesting or injecting disinfectants as "almost a cleaning" treatment for Covid-19, amount to the most bizarre low point ofa presidency known for them.
It followed his previous pushing of unproven meds as a potential cure. Trials suggested otherwise.
After a backlash, Trump on Saturday tried unconvincingly to suggest that he was being sarcastic.
After hearing presentation President Trump suggests irradiating people's bodies with UV light or injecting them with bleach or alcohol to deal with COVID19. pic.twitter.com/cohkLyyl9G
But later, the daily White House coronavirus briefing was cut short and no media questions were taken afterwards.
Trump's reckless comments on medical issues he has no expertise in are both literally hazardous and divert attention away from the key practical tasks of dealing with a deadly virus.
“Trump rarely attends task force meetings that precede the briefings, & he typically doesn’t prepare before he steps in front of cameras ... [even Fauci] complained the amount of time he must spend onstage each day has a ‘draining’ effect”
The President has been the most prominent practitioner of this nationalistic and bombastic style of leadership in recent years.
Trump has barrelled through numerous controversies in the past, brushing aside scandals with a celebrity-like untouchable quality that most politicians lack.
Now his statements and approach are getting a new viewing - through the lens of a pandemic that has killed more than 53,200 in the country he leads, infected 926,400, and made 26 million people unemployed in five weeks. The biggest traffic jams in the US right now are drive-up lines for food banks.
Amazing that a doctor has been forced to take time away from more important tasks TO WARN US THAT THESE MIGHT NOT BE SMART THINGS TO DO. https://t.co/QilcPe7vq2
His missteps in this crisis show up the weaknesses of populist rule, which tends to focus heavily on the personality and instincts of the leader, be dismissive of expertise and science, and light on pragmatism, planning and collective organisation.
It is a shallow approach that disrespects the need in governing for strong foundations of experience, knowledge and policy.
Populist leadership is reliant on a committed base of supporters – rather than looking outward to society as a whole – and favours political priorities. When those are put above more important aims, perspectives about what is acceptable become skewed.
Trump's intensely personal concerns – his re-election prospects, which depend on the economy bouncing back; his television ratings; his reactions to praise and criticism – have all been aired at the briefings. Vice-President Mike Pence, a former governor, and the coronavirus task force's medical experts might have made more progress by themselves.
This is occurring as citizens are focused on how the crisis will affect them and are looking for clear direction, realistic reassurance and transparency. Trump has never looked as accidental a president as he does now.
For the first time in his presidency, people can compare Trump's efforts at tackling a ubiquitous crisis with foreign leaders and US state governors. They can also compare what he says with a host of health experts in the media.
Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo has been brutally frank about New York's outbreak. California's Gavin Newsom has been resourceful and Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer tough under fire. Republican governors such as Mike DeWine of Ohio, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Larry Hogan of Maryland have put the safety of their people first.
What the Trump administration plainly yearns to do - and ditto FL, GA, TN, and other GOP governors - is to reopen, let the disease rip, take casualties, hope for rapid onset of sufficient immunity. Trump and his governors are working to ensure there won't be any other choice. 2/2
Internationally, the New York Times referred to Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison as steady hands on the tiller, adding "what Australia and New Zealand have already accomplished is a remarkable cause for hope".
Perhaps lamenting the US situation, it said that they are "both succeeding with throwback democracy – in which partisanship recedes, experts lead and quiet coordination matters more than firing up the base".
If anyone is cleaning up in the challenge of dealing with this crisis, it is not the US President.
