Trump's Leadership Takes You Back to the Land of Oz

Trump's leadership during the Coronavirus pandemic lacks intellect,
courage and heart.

As we watch the President Trump’s daily monotone, lie-filled campaign rally disguised as a Coronavirus press briefing, it is remarkable how his reaction to and the handling of the virus parallels the characters in the classic film The Wizard of Oz. While that story was a fictionalized fantasy, the current situation is serious and deadly with no end in sight. Yet, it is hard to escape the comparisons.

There was the Scarecrow who lacked a brain. Trump has a brain to be sure, but he has not utilized it the way the leader of the free world should. He pretends he is capable of offering medical advice and touting drugs and other therapeutics that have no scientific basis for success. In fact, they are considered dangerous. 

And his brain failed him again when he pushed to “re-open the country” to further death and hardship against the best medical advice by experts and the better judgment of most of the country’s governors.  Most recently he offered the astoundingly stupid suggestion of injesting disinfectants to fight off the virus.#hocopolitics

There was the Lion who lacked courage. This deficiency is manifested by Trump’s declination of responsibility while blaming others, such as Democratic governors who are “complainers” as opposed to Republican governors who are “doing a great job,” the World Health Organization, President Obama, and the media among others.

The lack of courage also shows up while Trump demonstrates an unwillingness or incapability of telling the truth.  His first misstep was to deny the existence of the pandemic and in his true divisive style called it “another Democratic hoax,” even after he was warned about it by his own administration including intel organizations.

Then in an attempt to quiet the nervous stock market, he downplayed the severity of the outbreak. 

 “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” 

"Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.” 

“It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”   

He has consistently lied about the readiness of the country for dealing with the pandemic and the availability of testing and personal protective equipment for the front line medical workers who are toiling to save American lives as they risk their own. Trump has overstated the work his administration has accomplished and congratulates himself almost on a daily basis by falsely claiming the great job he has done. The lies and misinformation spewed from these briefings are breathtaking. 

Finally, there was the Tin Man who lacked a heart. Whenever there has been a tragic moment in Trump’s presidency (Charlottesville, Parkland shooting, wildfires and natural weather disasters especially his disgusting response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico as examples), Trump has shown an incredible lack of empathy towards the victims.

Saying repeatedly that we are doing better than other countries is small consolation to all those families and friends of those who perished from COVID-19.

I cannot recall a single time during the Coronavirus briefings when Trump convincingly and sincerely expressed his compassion for not only the victims of this pandemic but also for the courageous work of the healthcare professionals.

Trump holding notes during his empathy-deficient listening session
following the Parkland mass shooting.

He doesn’t seem to grasp the magnitude of the loss and believes so many more lives would be lost if he did nothing. 

Then what about the over 50,000 lives lost since COVID-19 first surfaced in the U.S. when he was made aware? Think about that. If the average baseball stadium was filled to capacity and included standing room only, every single person in that packed ballpark represents an American death due to COVID-19. That is a lot of people for the president to be patting himself on the back.

As mentioned earlier, he treats these briefings as campaign rallies brimming with self-congratulatory hyperbole, touting his TV ratings, comparing the crowd size at the Mall in D.C. last 4^th of July with the Martin Luther King “I have a dream” speech from 1963, ripping Democrats every chance he can, doing absolutely nothing to unite the country as all other presidents have done in previous crises, and more.

“He has failed abysmally in that and he has also failed just in the notion of what he’s telling people. Saying liberate - free Michigan, Virginia. Encouraging people to come out and trying to turn this health crisis into a political rally for himself,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren on MSNBC.

“That is absolutely the wrong kind of leadership. It is the kind of leadership that puts lives at risk, and it is the kind of leadership that undermines the very strength of this country.”

This lack of intellect, courage and empathy has proven to be dangerous. This is, of course, far more serious than the imagined dream in The Wizard of Oz. Trump reminds me of those characters, though, but based on his leadership or lack thereof, he’s certainly not a wizard.