A selfish president has met a once in a century crisis, and Trump’s selfish inability to think about anyone else has led to his undoing.
The nearly 5-minute propaganda video that was full of edited misinformation about Trump’s response to the virus and media attacks was the apex that had been building for weeks since Trump hijacked the White House task force coronavirus briefings.
The briefings were never about managing the virus or reassuring a scared nation that their government is leading them through an unprecedented modern crisis. The daily sessions were all about Trump managing the messaging and the optics of how he is perceived to be handling the crisis.
There are precious little policymaking and no leadership in the briefings. Even the numbers that the health experts who guest star in the Trump show offer are often massaged to put forward the best message possible for Trump.
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Donald Trump is in the midst of the sort of moment where great presidents rise and leave positive marks on the nation’s history, but Trump is incapable of rising to such a moment because he can’t see it. Trump can only see Trump.
His Monday coronavirus briefing was the great unraveling that that been coming apart strand by stand since the second he stepped on that escalator in Trump Tower in 2015.
It was destiny. Trump himself has always been his biggest liability.
A small president met the biggest stage of all and revealed how tiny he really is.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
