Trump Is an Authoritarian Weakman

Coronavirus would be the perfect opportunity for an autocrat. Trump isn�t
taking it.
Donald Trump

By John F. Harris

03/26/2020 04:30 AM EDT

Altitude is a column by POLITICO founding editor John Harris, offering
weekly perspective on politics in a moment of radical disruption.

Let�s take inventory of what new insights we have learned from the pandemic
about President Donald Trump and his leadership character.

One could hardly miss how this crisis has fortified one of the two primary
pillars of the anti-Trump argument, as advanced by his most ardent
detractors. It has been insufficiently noted, however, the degree to which
the coronavirus response has weakened the other pillar.

The first pillar is that Trump, in the near-unanimous view of the
opposition, is a terrible person whose terribleness finds expression in
terrible policies. He is narcissistic, dismissive of unwelcome facts,
willing to traffic in falsehoods, lacking in empathy, erratic in personal
manner, and, above all, impulsive in judgment. Are you following so far?
Even a Trump defender could comprehend how Trump critics would seize on the
performance of the past two months��We have it totally under control,� he
said on Jan. 22�to add damaging new counts to the indictment they began
compiling four years ago.

It is the second pillar of the anti-Trump case that has wobbled curiously
in recent weeks. This president allegedly is not just a near-term menace
but a long-term one�a leader bent on amassing personal power and
undermining constitutional democracy in ways that would last beyond his
presidency (which, under the worst scenarios, he might even try, Vladimir
Putin-style, to extend illegally if he loses in November.)
Campaigning during coronavirus

The notion of Trump as authoritarian strongman, however, has been cast in
an odd light in this pandemic. Would-be tyrants use crisis to consolidate
power. Trump, by contrast, has been pilloried from many quarters, including
many liberals, for not asserting authority and responsibility more
forcefully to combat Covid-19. Rather than seizing on a genuine emergency,
Trump was slow to issue an emergency declaration, moved gingerly in
employing the Defense Production Act to help overburdened local health
systems, and even now seems eager to emphasize that many subjects�closure
of schools and businesses, obtaining sufficient ventilators�are primarily
problems for state governors to deal with.

Trump�s apparent personal affinity with Putin, and other dictators, has
caused foes to conclude that he has an aesthetic attraction to leaders who
don�t let procedural niceties of democracy or law get in their way. But he
has shown passivity in what by all rights would be a dream scenario for an
authoritarian strongman.

Perhaps the way to think of Trump is as an authoritarian weakman.

�I don�t take any responsibility at all,� Trump said, a line that seems
likely to join a pantheon that includes George W. Bush�s �Brownie, you�re
doing a heck of a job,� and Bill Clinton�s �It depends on what the meaning
of �is� is,� as debacle-defining one-liners.

That was in response to a question about inadequate supplies of coronavirus
testing kits, which many health experts regard as the essence of why the
United States has been flat-footed in containing the spread of disease. But
the spirit has animated other dimensions of Trump�s response, in which he
has been reluctant to make Washington the focal point of pandemic policy.
�The governors,� Trump said at a media briefing on Sunday, �locally, are
going to be in command. We will be following them, and we hope they can do
the job.�
Trump answers question on nationwide coronavirus testing

Quotes like these don�t mean the critique of Trump as aspiring dictator is
in terminal condition. But it is on bed rest with a high fever. He �has
abdicated the role played by U.S. presidents in every previous global
crisis of the past century, which is to step forward to offer remedies,
support other nations and coordinate multilateral responses,� editorialized
the Washington Post. New York Times columnist David Leonhardt criticized
Trump for declining to �mobilize American business� by invoking an
emergency, and said the voluntary initiatives he backs instead �are far
less aggressive than a mandatory national effort would be.�

Of course, even if Trump isn�t grasping for new power, others in his
administration may be. POLITICO�s Betsy Woodruff Swan first reported on the
Justice Department�s plan to seek new authority during emergencies,
including asking judges to detain people without trial. �Over my dead
body,� responded conservative Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah.) �Hell no,� added
liberal Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)

Experience suggests one should not get too fixated on any single image of
Trump�a kaleidoscopic figure at most times, and especially in the midst of
highly fluid circumstances like a global pandemic. Many appraisals of
Trump, from admirers and foes alike, depend in part on how one holds any
particular moment up to the light.

The diverse interpretations of Trump critics tend to fall along a spectrum.
They tend also to return to a couple of deeply rutted debates.

grell wrote:
> Trump Is an

You are begging to have your leftarded face kicked in.