Source: Pixabay

Now that the fact of this pandemic is inescapable, Trump is trying to portray himself as being in control of a federal bureaucracy he is more used to ridiculing.

Presto change-o! Trump pulls a president out of his hat.

Taking a cue from the words of Joe Biden, the most likely candidate to challenge Trump in November’s election, Donald Trump has declared himself a “wartime president” and called on Americans to “sacrifice together…and we will come through together.” It is a declaration that is a little tough to stomach coming from a five-time draft dodger.

But as usual, Trump’s allies back his play. Administration officials proclaim that we will face challenges but we will prevail.

Trump’s dizzying reversal at Tuesday’s press conference included an apparent confession to having lied about Coronavirus all along by now claiming he had “always known this was a real ― this is a pandemic.”

This is a facile analogy, but let’s play along with it: the country was being invaded by an enemy for two months while the wartime president called the invasion a hoax and failed to mobilize the government to fight back. https://t.co/9DARwU61rO

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) March 18, 2020

Republican Governor Larry Hogan admitted on MSNBC that the Trump administration’s early comments on the Coronavirus had been a mistake.

Hogan’s own daily orders to his Maryland constituents to limit social contact were ignored because “nobody was really taking it seriously…every day we don’t take action is causing more damage.”

Americans tend to re-elect incumbent presidents in a time of war. Now that Trump has declared war on a virus, his campaign is trying to steer attention toward his new messaging, highlighting his new efforts to fight this “invisible enemy.”

Even if the country is still suffering in November, voters could decide to give Trump another term if the US seems to be winning this “war” against Covid19.

But if he wants to truly lead us through this crisis, Donald Trump will have to do more than talk.