Coronavirus: Donald Trump’s speech was meant to reassure, but it did just the opposite
- ‘He is a reality-show expert. This is a real crisis. The happy ending is not guaranteed,’ communications strategist says
- Televised Oval Office address offered an ineffective remedy in the European travel ban and fell short on other policy recommendations, according to analysts
US President Donald Trump’s coronavirus address from the Oval Office on Wednesday night was meant to project confidence, show leadership in a time of crisis and otherwise reassure an anxious nation and world.
It didn’t work out that way, say health, government policy and crisis management experts, pointing in part to the 1,000-point drop in stock futures even before his 10-minute nationally televised speech was finished.
“You had an uncomfortable president who looked like he didn’t want to be there. He doesn’t want to be the leader that the country, if not free world, wants him to be in a crisis,” said Richard Levick, chief executive of Levick Strategic Communications.
“He is a reality-show expert,” Levick added. “This is a real crisis. The happy ending is not guaranteed. The applause line is not guaranteed. You have to actually lead. He doesn’t like that.”
Public health experts say Trump’s announcement that the US was blocking all incoming visitors from Europe for 30 days will prove largely ineffective given that the virus is already firmly rooted in the US and spreading rapidly.
And his efforts to reassure the public that testing is widely available, medical experts are fully deployed and face masks widely available was not convincing and a case of too little, too late, they added.