https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/now-trump-needs-deep-state-fight-coronavirus/605752/
We all knew the moment would come. It could have been over Iran or
North Korea, a hurricane or an earthquake. But it may be the new
coronavirus out of China that tests whether President Donald Trump can
govern in a crisis—and there is ample reason to be uneasily skeptical.
The
U.S. government has the tools, talent, and team to help fight the
coronavirus abroad and minimize its impact at home. But the combination
of Trump’s paranoia toward experienced government officials (who lack
“loyalty” to him), inattention to detail, opinionated rejection of
science and evidence, and isolationist instincts may prove toxic when it
comes to managing a global-health security challenge. To succeed, Trump
will have to trust the kind of government experts he has disdained to
date, set aside his own terrible instincts, lead from the White House,
and work closely with foreign leaders and global institutions—all things
he has failed to do in his first 1,200 days in office.
Trump briefly withdrew from politics after his “birther” campaign
against President Barack Obama was discredited, but his next big public
splash was a virulent, xenophobic, fearmongering outburst over the West
African Ebola epidemic of 2014. Trump’s numerous tweets—calling Obama a
“dope” and “incompetent” for his handling of the epidemic—were both
wrongheaded and consequential: One study found that Trump’s tweets were the single largest factor in panicking the American people in the fall of 2014.
How paranoid and cruel was Trump? He blasted Obama for evacuating an
American missionary back to the United States when that doctor
contracted Ebola while fighting the disease in Africa. Fortunately,
Obama ignored Trump’s protests, and Kent Brantley was successfully
treated in the U.S.; he continues doing good works today.
Some of the world’s leading infectious-disease experts continue to
serve in the administration, led by the incomparable Tony Fauci at the
National Institutes of Health, and the level-headed Anne Schuchat at the
CDC. These two, along with other leaders at key science agencies (and
scores of men and women working for them), have decades of experience
serving under presidents of both parties, and are among the world’s best
at what they do.
