Make Elizabeth Warren the Coronavirus Czar [View all]
Trump isn’t up to the job of managing a crisis. We need a work-around.
By Jeet Heer
Today 10:54 am
If you judge Donald Trump’s performance as president by the lowest of low bars, there has been a slight improvement in his handling of the coronavirus crisis in the last week. He no longer suggests that talk of the virus is a “hoax” by Democrats to make him look bad. He isn’t glad-handing supporters in violation of Center for Disease Control protocol. He’s surrounded himself with experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci. He makes nods to necessary policies like social distancing.
But, evaluated by any reasonable standards, Trump is still a disaster. His daily press conferences are a farrago of untruths, a combination of outright lies and Trump misstating ideas he seems to barely understand. On Thursday’s briefing, Trump touted the existing anti-malarial drug chloroquine as a possible magic bullet, describing it as a potential “game-changer.” According to Trump, “It has shown very, very encouraging early results, and we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.” The FDA had to clarify that chloroquine still had to be tested. According to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, “That’s a drug that the president has directed us to take a closer look at as to whether an expanded-use approach to that could be done to actually see if that benefits patients.” Dr. Fauci in an interview described evidence of the drug’s effectiveness as “anecdotal.” In other words, Trump wildly oversold medicine that hasn’t proven its effectiveness in a scientific setting.
Trump’s dishonesty is only one reason he’s the worst possible person to oversee a crisis that could kill millions and wreck the global economy. He also continues to maintain a ramshackle leadership style, with family members like Jared Kushner holding ill-defined power. According to The New York Times, Kushner is running an informal coronavirus team that is vexing government officials. The newspaper reports, “Kushner’s team is causing confusion among many officials involved in the response, who say they are unsure who is in charge given Kushner’s dual role as senior adviser and Trump family member.”
Trump is totally and irredeemably unfit for power in this crisis. This should be obvious to not just his political opponents but also Republicans in Washington, who know better than anyone else Trump’s character flaws.
The current economic crisis gives Democrats a path to change the situation. Since Democratic votes are needed for any stimulus, the party has real leverage to force changes in the White House. And given the fact that Trump’s temperamental unfitness is well known, some congressional Republicans might also be on board.
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/warren-coronavirus-czar-trump/
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