Share: 

President Trump has gotten out front in this crisis

April 7, 2020

The first thing to say here, which may have been said before, is that Don Flood has a serious and perhaps contagious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

One of the symptoms of this affliction is wrenching seriously out of context what the president actually says. Like him or hate him, President Trump talks a lot. Mr. Flood gives us some quotes. None of these was, when spoken, one sentence.

President Trump never answers a question with one sentence, or a few words. In fact, President Trump has gotten out front in this crisis more than any president in memory, and my memory of presidents dealing with crises goes back a long way, all the way to Harry Truman.

No one.

When was the last time, or ever, when a president came out to the briefing room every day for days on end?  

The second thing to say is that Mr. Flood demonstrates himself a real genius at 20-20 hindsight. I guess Mr. Trump was supposed to know, when Chinese Communist officials were punishing those Wuhan doctors for rumor-mongering, that this virus would explode into a worldwide pandemic. In fact, the president closed air travel from China to the United States early and - what this? - was criticized as a racist and xenophobe for doing it.

The United States still would like to send scientists to Wuhan to explore how the COVID-19 virus got started. No way, the Chinese Communists say. 

If he’d waited a few days to write his letter, my guess is that Don would now be criticizing the president for hoping to have the country, or at least part of it, up and running by Easter. Note that the president didn’t say this was his plan.

The term he used was “love to have” the country up and running. That’s hope, not a plan. As we learned to our sorrow under President Obama, the man who led from behind, hope is not a plan. 

All presidents have followers like Mr. Flood, men and women for whom followership is a dirty word. One was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who never did convince some Americans that Germany was a war worth fighting. Historians still wonder if Congress ever would have declared war on Germany if Pearl Harbor hadn’t been bombed and Hitler declared war first.

Reid K. Beveridge
Milton

 

  • A letter to the editor expresses a reader's opinion and, as such, is not reflective of the editorial opinions of this newspaper.

    To submit a letter to the editor for publishing, send an email to newsroom@capegazette.com. Letters must be signed and include a telephone number and address for verification. Please keep letters to 500 words or fewer. We reserve the right to edit for content and length. Letters should be responsive to issues addressed in the Cape Gazette rather than content from other publications or media. Only one letter per author will be published every 30 days. Letters restating information and opinions already offered by the same author will not be used. Letters must focus on issues of general, local concern, not personalities or specific businesses.

Subscribe to the CapeGazette.com Daily Newsletter