Coronavirus: Crisis brings Donald Trump the fight of his political life
Trump launches a video in a bid to persuade the US he’s acted as the leader he promised he’d be | WATCH
Donald Trump is feeling the pressure. In one of the more bizarre moments of his presidency, Trump hijacked his own coronavirus task force press conference for 45 minutes to defend his political performance as president in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
In front of his team of health experts, Trump lashed out repeatedly at his critics and even showed a campaign-style video suggesting that, as he put it, “everything we did was right” in his response to coronavirus.
Trump defended his early comments in January that played down the threat of the virus, saying noone in the US was taking it seriously at that time. But he remained silent about his continued attempts to play down the threat in late February and early March – the period of inaction which health experts say has contributed to the country’s grim and fast-rising death toll of more than 23,000 Americans, the highest in the world.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2020
When Trump was questioned about this obvious omission by reporters in the White House press room he called his questioners “disgraceful” and “fakes.”
“We are getting fake news and I like to have it corrected..we were way ahead of schedule … everything we did I was criticised (for) because I was too early,’ he said.
The president targeted the New York Times, which has been one of several major US newspapers to publish detailed and forensic accounts in recent days highlighting the president’s slow response to the pandemic, especially in those crucial days of late February and early March.
Why is Trump so angry? It’s because he knows he cannot afford to let this developing narrative stand and still hope to win re-election in November.
He is coming out swinging to try to persuade Americans, and especially his base, that he has acted as the self-described wartime leader he promised he would be in this moment of crisis.
This is the battle of Trump’s political life. The body count is rising fast and his poll ratings are falling. Americans have been shocked by scenes of hospitals being overrun, of body-bags being piled on top of each other in refrigerated trucks.
They are understandably asking questions about why they are watching such desperate scenes in a country as advanced as the US.
Trump’s response to such questions has been pure Trump. Rather than accept any blame, he has accused everyone but himself for America’s current predicament – from China to the World Health Organisation to the Democrats, the media, the state Governors and Barack Obama.
“We have done a job the likes of which nobody has ever done,” he said.
Many Americans who tuned in for those remarkable 45 minutes of venomous anger from their commander in chief could be forgiven for wondering whether they have the right leader for this historic moment.
Rather than try to unify the country in its time of crisis, Trump is settling scores, attacking enemies, boasting about his own TV ratings and frequently misrepresenting facts.
Like him or not, let’s hope Trump can improve and grow into this role because the stakes for the US, and the world, are unspeakably high.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
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