https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/02/opinions/trump-failings-coronavirus-opinion-bergen/index.html
By Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analysis
Updated 3:30 PM ET, Mon March 2, 2020
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(CNN) — Until now President Donald Trump has been lucky. During his first three years in office there was no major crisis on his watch of the type that has challenged every president in the half century before him.
There was nothing comparable to the Cuban missile crisis (John Kennedy); no Vietnam War (Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon); no hostage crisis in Iran (Jimmy Carter); no invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets (Carter and Ronald Reagan); no invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein (George H. W. Bush); no suicide bombings by al-Qaeda directed at two US embassies and an American warship (Bill Clinton); no 9/11 attacks (George W. Bush), and no global financial crisis (Barack Obama)
The nearest that Trump has come to a crisis is with Iran, which was largely self-created after he pulled out of the Iranian nuclear deal two years ago and stoked tensions with that country.
Now comes the Covid-19 or novel coronavirus, a major crisis that combines elements of Hurricane Katrina—a natural event that could kill a substantial number of Americans-- and also elements of the 2008 great recession, since the economic repercussions of the virus on supply chains as well as on consumer and business confidence are already very troubling.
Some presidents rise to the occasion when a crisis emerges. Kennedy deftly avoided a possible nuclear war with the Soviets during the Cuban missile crisis, while George H. W. Bush assembled a massive international coalition to expel Saddam from Kuwait. And George W. Bush quickly responded to the 9/11 attacks by toppling the Taliban government in Afghanistan and destroying much of al Qaeda. (Two years after 9/11 Bush also made the disastrous decision to invade Iraq). Obama adeptly navigated the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
In the early days, Trump hasn't risen to the occasion of the coronavirus crisis. And there are reasons to worry about whether he can do so, as the crisis underlines eight of his key failings as a leader.
First, Trump doesn't do any homework. As reported in my book, "Trump and his Generals," in early 2017 Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, told Trump's former national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, that Trump never studied an issue: "Trump is a guy who never went to class. Never got the syllabus. Never bought a book. Never took a note. He basically comes in the night before the final exams after partying all night, puts on a pot of coffee, takes your notes, memorizes what he's got to memorize. Walks in at eight o'clock in the morning and gets whatever grade he needs. That's the reason he doesn't like professors. He doesn't like being lectured to."
Related to Trump's first failing is his second: He always believes he knows more than the experts about any given subject. During his presidential campaign, for instance, Trump said he knew more about fighting ISIS than the generals leading the fight, an absurd claim since Trump had avoided military service in Vietnam and his knowledge of ISIS and the Middle East was no deeper than the average newspaper reader..(more at link at top)
