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| Can Our Political Leaders Still Reassure Us? | Can Our Political Leaders Still Reassure Us? |
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| It seems almost churlish to compare a speech by President Donald J. Trump in 2020 to one by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1940. In the canon of reassurance — the model for how a leader might address a nation on edge — Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” address to the House of Commons after the mass evacuation of British forces at Dunkirk during World War II sets an extremely high bar. | It seems almost churlish to compare a speech by President Donald J. Trump in 2020 to one by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1940. In the canon of reassurance — the model for how a leader might address a nation on edge — Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” address to the House of Commons after the mass evacuation of British forces at Dunkirk during World War II sets an extremely high bar. |
| Churchill’s address was rousing, electrifying and memorable, at once a sober account of a failed military operation, a soaring declaration of patriotic resolve and a frank admission that the situation was very serious indeed. “Wars are not won by evacuations,” Churchill said. | Churchill’s address was rousing, electrifying and memorable, at once a sober account of a failed military operation, a soaring declaration of patriotic resolve and a frank admission that the situation was very serious indeed. “Wars are not won by evacuations,” Churchill said. |
| Churchill was a preternaturally gifted writer, orator and student of history. But as Americans watched President Trump’s speech about the coronavirus pandemic from the White House on Wednesday night, with its flat delivery, its failure to acknowledge any government missteps, its lack of empathy for patients needing testing or medical care and its sour undercurrent of score-settling with Europe, it was hard not to imagine how the former prime minister — or Lincoln, or Kennedy, or F.D.R. — might have confronted such an emergency. It was hard not to yearn for words of reassurance. | Churchill was a preternaturally gifted writer, orator and student of history. But as Americans watched President Trump’s speech about the coronavirus pandemic from the White House on Wednesday night, with its flat delivery, its failure to acknowledge any government missteps, its lack of empathy for patients needing testing or medical care and its sour undercurrent of score-settling with Europe, it was hard not to imagine how the former prime minister — or Lincoln, or Kennedy, or F.D.R. — might have confronted such an emergency. It was hard not to yearn for words of reassurance. |
| Even The Wall Street Journal editorial board, generally supportive of Mr. Trump’s policies if not his rhetoric and personal style, scolded the president for his uninspiring performance, for treating the crisis as mostly a political threat to his own power, for deploying his typical tactics of denying and blaming. The president’s greatest opponent now, it said in an editorial, was not former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democrats’ most likely presidential nominee, but the coronavirus. | Even The Wall Street Journal editorial board, generally supportive of Mr. Trump’s policies if not his rhetoric and personal style, scolded the president for his uninspiring performance, for treating the crisis as mostly a political threat to his own power, for deploying his typical tactics of denying and blaming. The president’s greatest opponent now, it said in an editorial, was not former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democrats’ most likely presidential nominee, but the coronavirus. |
| “The best response to that is to acknowledge the delay, explain what happened, and relate when and how the problem will be addressed,” the editorial said. “Above all, leadership in a crisis means telling the public the truth, lest people begin to tune him out or, worse, make him a figure of mockery.” | “The best response to that is to acknowledge the delay, explain what happened, and relate when and how the problem will be addressed,” the editorial said. “Above all, leadership in a crisis means telling the public the truth, lest people begin to tune him out or, worse, make him a figure of mockery.” |
| Or, as Dr. Dena Grayson, a medical researcher and Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Florida in 2016, said on CNN: “You can’t spin death.” | Or, as Dr. Dena Grayson, a medical researcher and Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in Florida in 2016, said on CNN: “You can’t spin death.” |
| The doctor is right; it’s hard to spin death, as much as the president may try to lay the blame for the crisis elsewhere: on Europe, on China, on former President Barack Obama. It may be even harder now to set the tone for a nation, even with a bullhorn as loud as the president’s, when social media provides a platform for such a cacophony of voices and countervoices. But people in a country in trouble look to the president to help explain, to help soothe, to reassure them that although things might be bad, we will eventually be all right. | The doctor is right; it’s hard to spin death, as much as the president may try to lay the blame for the crisis elsewhere: on Europe, on China, on former President Barack Obama. It may be even harder now to set the tone for a nation, even with a bullhorn as loud as the president’s, when social media provides a platform for such a cacophony of voices and countervoices. But people in a country in trouble look to the president to help explain, to help soothe, to reassure them that although things might be bad, we will eventually be all right. |
| Perhaps recognizing that his speech on Wednesday did not have whatever effect he had hoped it would, the president spoke to the nation from the Rose Garden on Friday afternoon, declaring a national emergency and announcing a series of measures designed to bolster the economy and expand testing. He was flanked by a number of officials and business leaders who showered praise upon him. | |
| In times of crisis, when the federal government seems to be lagging or confused in its message, people often look to alternative leaders for reassurance and guidance, as they did with Rudolph W. Giuliani, then mayor of New York, after the 9/11 attacks. (Mr. Giuliani is now Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer.) That was what Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was trying to convey in his speech about the gravity of the coronavirus threat on Thursday. And it was what Mr. Biden meant to do in his address on Thursday — to hold himself up as a reassuring, steady alternative to Mr. Trump, to show that he was competent, sympathetic, forceful and presidential. “I’ll always tell you the truth,” he said. “This is the responsibility of a president.” | |
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| Recent American history has certainly provided enough disasters that required presidents to rise to an occasion: not just the 9/11 attacks but also the 2008 economic crisis, countless gun massacres, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, for starters. | |
| Presidents need to be straightforward and candid from the beginning, said David M. Litt, who worked as a speechwriter in the Obama White House. They need to admit the early shortcomings in their response, lay out what steps they will take to improve, and then provide regular updates. | Presidents need to be straightforward and candid from the beginning, said David M. Litt, who worked as a speechwriter in the Obama White House. They need to admit the early shortcomings in their response, lay out what steps they will take to improve, and then provide regular updates. |
| “The number one thing you have to do is figure out how to address the problem — and to make it clear where you can and can’t solve it,” Mr. Litt said. Dissembling about it — as in Mr. Trump’s assertion, earlier in the crisis, that coronavirus would just “go away,” or his claim that it was just like the flu, or his blatant contradiction of his own experts on how long it would take to come up with a vaccine — is never helpful, Mr. Litt said. | “The number one thing you have to do is figure out how to address the problem — and to make it clear where you can and can’t solve it,” Mr. Litt said. Dissembling about it — as in Mr. Trump’s assertion, earlier in the crisis, that coronavirus would just “go away,” or his claim that it was just like the flu, or his blatant contradiction of his own experts on how long it would take to come up with a vaccine — is never helpful, Mr. Litt said. |
| “You have to be honest about it, that you can’t bring the number of cases down to zero,” he added. “A good response would be where you say that people will suffer and in some cases die — and that’s awful and graphic — but the least you can do is explain the situation.” | “You have to be honest about it, that you can’t bring the number of cases down to zero,” he added. “A good response would be where you say that people will suffer and in some cases die — and that’s awful and graphic — but the least you can do is explain the situation.” |
| That is what the current British prime minister, Boris Johnson, did in a recent news conference. Until recently, he has tended to play down the threat as much as Mr. Trump has; on Thursday, his expression somber and his voice grave, Mr. Johnson said the coronavirus was “the worst public health crisis for a generation.” | That is what the current British prime minister, Boris Johnson, did in a recent news conference. Until recently, he has tended to play down the threat as much as Mr. Trump has; on Thursday, his expression somber and his voice grave, Mr. Johnson said the coronavirus was “the worst public health crisis for a generation.” |
| In Germany earlier this week, Chancellor Angela Merkel was also blunt. “We have to understand that many people will be infected,” she said. “The consensus among experts is that 60 to 70 percent of the population will be infected as long as this remains the situation.” | In Germany earlier this week, Chancellor Angela Merkel was also blunt. “We have to understand that many people will be infected,” she said. “The consensus among experts is that 60 to 70 percent of the population will be infected as long as this remains the situation.” |
| Contrast that with Mr. Trump and his Wednesday address. Rather than discussing the magnitude of the crisis, the president talked about the magnitude of the “nation’s unprecedented response.” Nor did he seem particularly concerned about stepping back from the moment to offer existential words of wisdom or comfort, as President Ronald Reagan did so memorably, for example, in a lyrical speech in 1986, after the space shuttle Challenger exploded. | Contrast that with Mr. Trump and his Wednesday address. Rather than discussing the magnitude of the crisis, the president talked about the magnitude of the “nation’s unprecedented response.” Nor did he seem particularly concerned about stepping back from the moment to offer existential words of wisdom or comfort, as President Ronald Reagan did so memorably, for example, in a lyrical speech in 1986, after the space shuttle Challenger exploded. |
| A nation had watched the space shuttle take off; a nation had watched it split apart, in real time; a nation was in shock. | A nation had watched the space shuttle take off; a nation had watched it split apart, in real time; a nation was in shock. |
| “We will never forget them,” Mr. Reagan said of the astronauts who lost their lives, “nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.” | “We will never forget them,” Mr. Reagan said of the astronauts who lost their lives, “nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.” |
| It always helps to look to Shakespeare, and what he said about power and leadership, at times like these (and indeed, both Churchill and another greater soother and orator, Lincoln, were avid students of Shakespeare). | It always helps to look to Shakespeare, and what he said about power and leadership, at times like these (and indeed, both Churchill and another greater soother and orator, Lincoln, were avid students of Shakespeare). |
| “In every play, Shakespeare has a leader whom he puts under terrible pressure, and then he puts them under more pressure, and ultimately their limitations and weaknesses are revealed and they fail to rise to the occasion,” said James Shapiro, professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and author, most recently, of “Shakespeare in a Divided America.” | “In every play, Shakespeare has a leader whom he puts under terrible pressure, and then he puts them under more pressure, and ultimately their limitations and weaknesses are revealed and they fail to rise to the occasion,” said James Shapiro, professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and author, most recently, of “Shakespeare in a Divided America.” |
| “The very thing that puts you in power prevents you from seeing what’s going to remove you from power,” said Mr. Shapiro, who was preparing for the abrupt end of in-person classes as Columbia shut down over the coronavirus, part of a wave of university closures. “Great leaders are those who can see what’s coming.” | “The very thing that puts you in power prevents you from seeing what’s going to remove you from power,” said Mr. Shapiro, who was preparing for the abrupt end of in-person classes as Columbia shut down over the coronavirus, part of a wave of university closures. “Great leaders are those who can see what’s coming.” |