The truth that becomes more unavoidable with each passing day

What Jay says . . .

Jay Nordlinger

@jaynordlinger

Pity the Trump 'splainers for a moment. Every day, he gives them a lot of 'splaining to do.

Yeah, the past few days have not been kind to the notion that the Very Stable Genius is brimming with leadership skills. 

He sounded resolute as he put forth what he thought were going to be bold initiatives, but reality had other ideas:

President Donald Trump said Monday he had the “ultimate authority” to dictate to states how to reopen their economies, and that he’d craft his plans with advice from a council of top business, medical, and political leaders.

By Wednesday, both claims fell apart. He retreated from ordering governors to reopen, after constitutional scholars and even some conservative Republicans said it was beyond his power. And he backed away from an economic council, announcing he’d hold a marathon series of calls with business leaders instead.

For the president, it’s becoming a pattern.

Trump’s public statements on the coronavirus outbreak show him running into the limits of his power, as well as his ability to bend events, politicians and even the national narrative to his will. While he’s previously used his political standing and bluster to compel cabinet members and fellow Republicans to carry out his wishes, he’s found a virus that’s killed more than 27,000 Americans so far to be undeterred by his usual tactics.

Governors and business leaders, at the same time, are insisting on vastly expanded testing capacity and increased access to medical supplies before they consider relaxing social distancing practices that have crippled the economy and frustrated the president.

The result: Trump’s record on the virus is replete with rapid reversals and claims that had to be walked back when they later proved exaggerated or even false.

He claimed that the outbreak was under control when it was quietly spreading across the country. He pushed an Easter reopening only to be dissuaded by doctors who stuck to the facts. He said any American could obtain tests for the virus when the diagnostics were in scarce supply. He promoted a nationwide website that ended up serving only a few communities and a drug that hasn’t been proven effective against the disease.

The assistance programs are off to a shaky start as well:

“Why don’t you say, ‘It’s gotten off to a tremendous start, but there are some little glitches’ -- which, by the way, have been worked out? It would be so much nicer if you’d do that.” – President Trump, April 6, White House Briefing Room, Washington, D.C.

The president has repeatedly denied any problems with the Paycheck Protection Program, a tentpole of the $2.2 trillion economic stimulus passed by Congress to blunt the fallout from the coronavirus shutdown, calling it a “very successful rollout.”

There’s been reason for cheerleading, with the program likely to have fully obligated its $349 billion initial allocation as soon as Wednesday. But it has also been plagued by glitches at the Small Business Administration’s website as well as bureaucratic and legal wrangling between government agencies and banks.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week asking him to waive a requirement in the law requiring banks to disburse the money within 10 days of approving a loan, saying “initial compliance challenges have tested the mettle of banks nationwide and limited their bandwith to disburse the required capital.”

And one website that has crowd-sourced information about the loans – covidloantracker.com – says that of more than 9,000 small businesses who applied for the government assistance and reported data to the site, just 5% had received money by Wednesday morning.

Businesses are also struggling to access assistance through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which provides small businesses with loans of as much as $2 million. Requests for the funds have far exceeded the $17 billion allocated by Congress, and the National Federation of Independent Business said in a letter sent to congressional leaders on Tuesday that its research found “none of the small business owners who applied for EIDLs have received a loan or an emergency grant.”

“Small businesses are relying on these loans and grants and are exhausting reserves and savings while they await delivery,” the trade group representing small businesses wrote.

Trump faces another potential political liability after the Treasury Department decided to redesign stimulus checks being sent to Americans to include the president’s name. Administration officials are worried the change could further delay processing and distribution of money to individuals who don’t receive tax rebates through direct deposit, the Washington Post reported.
“I do understand it’s not delaying anything and I’m satisfied with that. I don’t imagine it’s a big deal,” the president said Thursday.

His bluster yesterday about invoking the power to adjourn Congress to get recess appointments for an undersecretary of agriculture, two Federal Reserve seats, and a Director of National Intelligence strikes some as ill-advised:

Jonathan Turley, a constitutional lawyer who argued against Trump's impeachment last year, said the power has never been used before "and should not be used now." 

"Senators of both parties should vote to support the congressional control over adjournment. Absent a 'disagreement' there is no presidential power to adjourn under Article II. A pandemic should not be an invitation for pandemonium," he tweeted.

Barb McQuade, a former federal prosecutor and University of Michigan law professor, questioned whether Trump really has the power to dismiss Congress.

“No and no. Trump has no authority over a separate and co-equal branch of government. It is odd that he keeps boasting of authority he lacks, while rejecting responsibility he has," she said. 

One thing the pandemic has made clear that China is not just a rival. It is at least an adversary and maybe ought to be regarded as an enemy, our deep business ties to that nation notwithstanding:

We often ascribe a basic level of humanity to even the cruelest leaders, but People’s Republic of China leader Xi Jinping’s actions have forced us to rethink this assumption. Although the emergence of the novel coronavirus now known as SARS-CoV-2 was probably not due to China’s actions, the emphasis that its authoritarian system places on hiding bad news likely gave the disease a sizable head start infecting the world. But most ominously, China’s obsession with image and Machtpolitik raises serious questions about its lack of moral limits.

At some point the Chinese Communist Party learned of the epidemic and made a decision to hide its existence, hoping it went away. Exposés in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Postand the Chinese mainland’s Caixin show that the information that did flow out of China early in the crisis did so only because of the courage of individual Chinese people in the face of government repression. People in the Wuhan epicenter, however, began to get wise — and scared (here and here) — by the end of December 2019, forcing their government to say something. The authorities gave the impression of a nontransmissible disease already under containment. We know now this was entirely false, likely designed more to ease civil unrest than protect the people.

The mayor of Wuhan even suggested that the central government prevented him from revealing details about the epidemic until January 20. Considering the first public announcements came out of Wuhan on January 1, we can assume that Xi had a sense of the danger prior to that.

Clearly, downplaying the disease wasn’t working and it was time for the Party to get serious. But how serious? Would it provide full cooperation to the international community? Would being seen as the source of this virus hurt its international image? Beyond these, there was a darker dimension: the more Beijing cooperated, the less the disease stood to affect other countries. This includes countries China sees as a threat to its existence, like the United States. Why should China suffer the effects of a pandemic while others stayed safe — and increased their strength relative to China — based on China’s own costly experience?

Now, a longstanding bedrock principle of commonly understood conservatism is that a leader of a Western nation - and in particular a US president - does not appease nations with aims inimical to its own. That went out the window with Trump's stance toward China. But then, nearly everyone, even most Trumpists, understand that he is no conservative.

His track record incudes statements like this:

"China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus," Trump tweeted on January 24, "The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!"

Speaking on Fox News on January 30, Trump said China was "working very hard" to stop the coronavirus outbreak.

"And we are in great shape," he said. "China is not in great shape right now, unfortunately. But they're working very hard. We'll see what happens. But we're working very closely with China and other countries."

And this:

In a series of tweets on February 7, Trump again praised the Chinese President's handling of the crisis.

"Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days. Nothing is easy, but he will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone. Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!"

That same day in a press conference, Trump said he spoke to Xi, who said the country was handling it "really well." 

"I just spoke to President Xi last night, and, you know, we're working on the -- the problem, the virus. It's a -- it's a very tough situation. But I think he's going to handle it. I think he's handled it really well. We're helping wherever we can."
Three days later, on February 10, Trump again praised China on Fox Business saying they had the outbreak under control. 

"I think China is very, you know, professionally run in the sense that they have everything under control," Trump said. "I really believe they are going to have it under control fairly soon. You know in April, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather. And that's a beautiful date to look forward to. But China I can tell you is working very hard." 

And this:

Speaking to reporters on February 23 on the White House South Lawn, Trump was asked if Xi should be doing anything differently in his handling of the crisis.

"No, I think President Xi is working very, very hard. I spoke to him. He's working very hard. I think he's doing a very good job. It's a big problem. But President Xi loves his country. He's working very hard to solve the problem and he will solve the problem. OK?"

In news conferences on February 25 and 26,Trump again praised China for "working very hard" to fight coronavirus. On February 29, he praised measures put in place by China and said similar measures could be put in place in the US to prevent spread.

"We've been in very close contact with China, including myself with President Xi. He very much wanted this to happen," said Trump. "He wanted this to get out and finished and be done. He worked -- he's been working very, very hard, I can tell you that. And they're making a lot of progress in China." 

And speaking of appeasing enemies, this is what North Korea, whose Dear Leader writes beautiful letters, has been up to lately:

North Korea on Sunday fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea, South Korea and Japan said, continuing a streak of weapons launches that suggests leader Kim Jong Un is trying to strengthen domestic support amid worries about a possible coronavirus outbreak in the country. 

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the projectiles flying from the North Korean eastern coastal city of Wonsan into the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on Sunday morning. The projectiles flew about 230 kilometers (143 miles) at a maximum altitude of 30 kilometers (19 miles), the statement said.

The sum total of these developments is not reassuring.