Trump’s Monday evening briefing at the White House and his remarks this afternoon at a “virtual townhall” hosted in the Rose Garden represented a new chapter in audacity from a president who has already authored volumes on the theme.
His pledges about a return “much sooner than expected,” as he put it Monday, to a functioning economy, in which people can return to work and schools and the familiar rituals of consumer culture, is in defiance of what health experts in his own administration say will likely be necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19 and prevent hospitals from being overrun. It is in defiance, too, of closures of schools and businesses that governors in both parties have already ordered beyond April 12.
Increasingly, though, it has become clear that the gap between Trump’s optimism and impatience and the caution and gravity of other figures in the crisis is exactly the point, in political terms.
It reflects his reading of the power dynamics of this crisis. The one thing he has complete authority over is the words that come from his own mouth. Other people, especially governors, can assume the legal authority over closures and public sacrifice that flows from them.
This appraisal reflects a narrow view of presidential power, especially from someone who is often perceived as trying to expand the prerogatives of his office. No concern about federalism likely would stop a president who wanted the responsibility from leading a consistent nationwide response in concert with state and local officials, who would be hard-pressed to stand in defiance of a national plan.
But it has become clear that when it comes to coronavirus Trump does not want this responsibility. He says governors are free to navigate the situation in their state; he’s also free to second-guess any decision they make that he doesn’t like.
In the Fox News session, for example, Trump took shots at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has pleaded with the administration for help in getting more ventilators to the state, currently the county’s epicenter of COVID-19 and nearing the limits of its capacity to help stricken patients.
He referred to unsupported allegations from former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey that in 2015 Cuomo had turned down a chance to increase the state’s ventilator stockpile. “I’m not blaming him or anything else, but he shouldn’t be talking about us,” Trump told Fox’s Bill Hemmer. “He’s supposed to be buying his own ventilators.”
