Filling The Leadership Void As Trump Pivots On Coronavirus Pandemic

The Washington Post's White House Bureau Chief Phil Rucker pulls no punches in describing Donald "Moron Vector" Trump's abrupt turnaround on the coronavirus pandemic, evidenced in yesterday's briefing:

President Trump for weeks dismissed the danger of the novel coronavirus. He distracted himself by stoking unrelated feuds and nursing grievances. He shared little concrete information about the spreading pandemic, and much of what he did share was false.

Governors and mayors, as well as leaders of businesses large and small, stepped into the leadership vacuum to make difficult decisions affecting their constituents, employees or customers. In the absence of unambiguous guidance from the president for the citizens he was elected to lead, the frustration of governors boiled over.

And then on Monday, nearly eight weeks after the first coronavirus case was reported in the United States, Trump conveyed that he at last recognizes the magnitude of the crisis that is threatening lives across the nation, disrupting the economy and fundamentally upending the daily rhythms of American life.

Regardless, the bumbling was still unabated not long before the briefing:

Trump had whacked a beehive of angst earlier Monday when he convened a conference call with the nation’s governors. He told them that the states should not rely on the federal government to provide respirators, ventilators and other equipment to aid the infected, and that states should work on obtaining their own.

Yes, we will all remember the epigram of this shambolic, reality show "president:"

I don't take responsibility at all.

Meanwhile, Trump's closest, most trusted, and clearly most expert advisers have undergone the same, curiously timed turnaround as Trump, perhaps noting that the stock market is showing no confidence in Trump's bumbling, bluffing attempts to downplay the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic:

For weeks, some of Fox News’s most popular hosts downplayed the threat of the coronavirus, characterizing it as a conspiracy by media organizations and Democrats to undermine President Trump.

Fox News personalities such as Sean Hannity and Laura In­graham accused the news media of whipping up “mass hysteria” and being “panic pushers.” Fox Business host Trish Regan called the alleged media-Democratic alliance “yet another attempt to impeach the president.”

But that was then.

With Trump’s declaration on Friday that the virus constitutes a national emergency, the tone on Fox News has quickly shifted.

On his program on Friday, Hannity — the most watched figure on cable news — lauded the president’s handling of what the host is now, belatedly, referring to as a “crisis.” [snip]

In all, it has been a complicated dance for a network whose hosts are among Trump’s most ardent boosters and defenders — an increasingly challenging position to take as the crisis grew in magnitude. Trump, meanwhile, has long looked to Fox News and its personalities for guidance and approval, a dynamic that may have been pivotal this week after host Tucker Carlson reportedly visited with the president in person to urge him to take the coronavirus seriously. (our emphasis)

You're telling us that frozen food trust fund baby Tucker "Mother*ucker" Carlson may have convinced Trump to change his tune -- not Dr. Anthony Fauci, not the Centers for Disease Control, not the  hospital and medical communities (he refused to meet with hospital leaders begging for help with the pandemic)?  Well, of course, that fits the profile of this epic dolt whose head is so far up his large ass that they're going to have to fit him with a glass belly button so he can continue to watch Fox "News" and get his instructions.

BONUS:  The dolt was also getting "advice" from his callow, pencil- necked son- in- law and writer of catastrophic speeches Prince Jared, that the media was overblowing the crisis.  Someone pop a pacifier in his mouth and send him back to the nursery before we all end up dead.