Editor’s Note: Joe Lockhart is a CNN political analyst. He was the White House press secretary from 1998-2000 in President Bill Clinton’s administration. He co-hosts the podcast “Words Matter.” The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.
Although the result of the presidential election remains in the balance, there is no doubt in my mind President Donald Trump has run a historically bad campaign. At the root of his problem was his decision to put politics ahead of good policy. Case in point: failing to mobilize a national effort to fight the pandemic because he thought that owning the responsibility for a public health crisis was bad politics.
In making that judgment, the President actually squandered the most powerful weapon an incumbent has in his arsenal – the awesome power of the presidency and the ability to set the national agenda. By pretending Covid-19 would go away and dodging any responsibility for the deaths of more than 230,000 Americans, the President put himself on the defense for the entire campaign.
So, what should he have done? First and foremost, he should have listened to and empowered the scientists and public health officials to lead the way. No one expects the President to go into a lab and come up with a cure himself. What they do expect is for a president to do everything he can to empower scientists to do their jobs. Instead, Trump spewed a near-constant stream of lies, thwarted infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci’s ability to hammer home public health guidance, and undermined faith in the vaccine development process. At every turn, Trump has only made it harder for scientists to fight the raging pandemic. Despite the President’s efforts to rush a vaccine through “Operation Warp Speed,” the country is still reeling from a surge in Covid cases.
Second, he should taken full responsibility for the fight against the coronavirus. Even if he wasn’t motivated by doing the right thing, it would have been politically savvy to step up to the plate. This is a national crisis, and the public will always hold the President responsible. By shifting the blame to the governors, the President looked weak and lost any real ability to take credit for the fight against the virus. “We want the states to administer these tests, for the most part,” Trump said. “We want them to do it, we’re not going to be running a parking lot in Arkansas.”
Politically, there is nothing more powerful for an incumbent President than to lead a national effort, bring the country together and demonstrate on a daily basis the awesome power of the presidency and the US government.
Third, the President should have modeled good behavior. It quickly became apparent to the scientists that the most powerful defense against the virus for all Americans was staying home, social distancing, and wearing a mask. Clearly, these involved making personal sacrifices for the greater good. Trump, however, believed it was bad politics to ask people to modify their behavior and he defied his own public health experts almost from the start. Leaders like former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill drew great political power by speaking to the force of a country that comes together to face an existential challenge. Can you imagine either of these leaders saying food rationing or converting industries in the war effort was an infringement on personal liberty?
Fourth, the President has executive emergency powers to mobilize resources from all corners of America. Trump likes to act like a strongman, but when it came time to wield power of the Defense Production Act, it seemed Trump was suddenly gun-shy. Instead of mounting an organized effort to source and produce medical equipment, Trump mostly sat on his hands, downplayed the risk of the virus, and turned down the opportunity to embody a wartime president.
Ultimately, the biggest miscalculation the President made was hoping the problem would just go away. He completely mismanaged the expectations of the American people by consistently telling them things were going to improve – despite evidence to the contrary. For 15 consecutive days, Trump said we were “rounding the curve” in defeating the virus, despite the fact that infections were spiking – and still are – to record levels. He also boasted that the virus “is going to disappear. One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
When the virus refused to go away, Trump insisted on sticking to this alternate reality he created. Taking charge, setting expectations, mobilizing resources and empowering scientists would have made a world’s difference. But the President didn’t do any of these things. His strategy was to deflect and deny responsibility by blaming others. In doing so, he squandered the power of his office and fundamentally misunderstood the American public’s ability to work together under the right leadership.
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When I worked in the White House, former President Bill Clinton used to tell us all the time that good policy always makes for good politics, not the other way around. Clinton also understood the American public knew a president could not solve every problem. But they expected him to try, and to use every resource available to meet the challenge.
Trump has served himself poorly by ignoring this political lesson. Had he taken a more aggressive approach, owned the problem and demonstrated that he was doing everything he could, I suspect he would not be in the precarious position he finds himself today. Put another way, if he acted presidential and did the job of president, it might not be such a close race.
