No credibility, no leader

Great leaders clear pathways to victory in challenging times by uniting their followers. Think, for example, of Winston Churchill, whose brave leadership inspired the fight to save freedom in World War II, or Nelson Mandela, who healed South Africa after decades of enforced racial division.

Donald Trump, positioned by the electorate with the historic challenge of guiding America through the worst public health crisis of a century, is no such leader. He has sown division and anger, spread false narratives and rejected the reasoned advice of experts.

It is his failure of leadership that is largely to blame for the embarrassingly inept response of the United States to COVID-19, which has left the world’s greatest power as the center of the pandemic, lagging the progress other nations have made. His inadequacy in the face of this challenge has swollen the awful death toll across the country, a stain that will forever mark his blighted, corrupt presidency.

It would be foolish to imagine that Mr. Trump will change. Our task, then, is to not let the president distract us from taking upon ourselves a more responsible course.

Most notably, we need to be guided by science, which Mr. Trump so often rejects. Recent days have seen the president and his aides working to silence and subvert the messages of the administration’s own public health officials, notably by trying to tarnish the reputation of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert.

As the virus has surged to record levels, Mr. Trump hasn’t taken a briefing from Dr. Fauci in months. To Dr. Fauci’s warning that “we haven’t even begun to see the end of” the outbreak, the president said, “I think we are in a good place. I disagree with him.”

Really? More than 70,000 new cases every day this week is “a good place” in Donald Trump’s America?

The White House press secretary this week said that “science should not stand in the way” of the president’s insistence on fully opening schools this fall, which Mr. Trump clearly thinks will help his re-election. What kind of a leader would put children’s lives at risk — and those of their teachers — to further a political agenda?

Nor has the White House backed health experts’ push for all Americans to embrace the simple act of wearing a face mask, which the head of the Centers for Disease Control this week said could bring the virus under control within two months. Mr. Trump finally wore a mask in public (once) a few days ago. That doesn’t lessen his blame for politicizing the issue months ago, encouraging his ardent backers to rashly claim that eschewing masks, thus imperiling the lives of others, is a constitutional right.

A new poll reveals that more than 6 in 10 Americans don’t trust what Mr. Trump says about the outbreak. Having squandered his credibility, the president is left unable to lead. He was always unfit for office, but now, in the face of this crisis, we see so clearly that we are tragically on our own.

the issue: as covid-19 rages, President trump downplays science and attacks experts. the stakes: Leaders who lose credibility are rendered unable to lead — a tragedy in this crisis.