The coronavirus is bad. Trump could make it worse.
Crisis management requires truth-telling, argues Miller Center senior fellow Chris Lu
Read the full story at Washington Monthly
To manage the growing coronavirus outbreak, the Trump administration will need something it’s been devoid of over the past three years: a commitment to truth-telling and competent leadership. Absent a dramatic change in approach, an already bad situation will likely be made much worse.
We’re dealing with a president more interested in his reelection prospects than safeguarding the public health, who disregards science and experts, and who has a disturbing pattern of shading the truth. That’s a dangerous way to govern, period. It’s even more disconcerting when dealing with a crisis—like a hurricane, wildfire, or potential pandemic—in which lives are on the line.
According to the Washington Post, Trump has told more than 16,000 false or misleading statements in his first three years in office. The emergence of the coronavirus doesn’t seem to have changed his behavior.
In his first public statement after the Dow dropped 1,000 points on Monday, President Trump propagated questionable—indeed, patently wrong—information. At a press conference in India, he said the number of cases was “probably down to 10,” adding that coronavirus is “a problem that’s going to go away.” Top economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC that the virus is “pretty close to airtight” contained.
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put the number of U.S. cases at 60, and a top CDC official said, “It’s not a question of if this will happen, but when this will happen, and how many people in this country will have severe illnesses.”
Trump has continued to say that the virus will ease with warmer weather, despite no evidence to support this assertion.
Trump has also claimed that “we are very close to a vaccine” for coronavirus. The White House issued a rare clarification afterward, saying the president was referring to a vaccine for Ebola, not coronavirus. In fact, experts believe a coronavirus vaccine could be a year away. Even worse, Trump has continued to say that the virus will ease with warmer weather, despite no evidence to support this assertion.
Trump’s unwillingness to acknowledge facts and evidence undermines one of the most important tools available during a crisis: public trust in the U.S. government. In fact, Trump is making the possibility of chaos and confusion all the more likely.