Let’s give Trump credit where credit is due

SAN DIEGO >> It’s unbearable when hardcore partisans act like their team can do no wrong while insisting that the other team can do nothing right.

Both political parties play this game, and it grates on those of us in the sensible center who understand that no party has a monopoly on wisdom, efficiency and leadership. And even failed presidencies can succeed at some things.

Both parties — and every elected official — have good moments and bad ones. And we should acknowledge all of it.

With the presidential election less than eight months away, COVID-19 will get a vote.

Americans will soon elect (or re-elect) a commander in chief who will have to shepherd us through what President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders have correctly described as a war.

Where is Franklin D. Roosevelt when we need him? Has anyone seen Harry Truman?

To make the right decisions about who should lead us through our new reality, Americans need clarity. And that requires honesty.

One of the more dishonest elements of our media — and, for that matter, much of our citizenry — is that too many of us stubbornly refuse to give credit where its due.

Sometime last year, long before anyone had heard of the coronavirus, I promised myself I’d be better at that when it comes to Trump.

As a Never Trumper who has called the president every name in the book and who has previously said that I’ll vote for any Democrat over the incumbent, I have nonetheless spent the last several months looking for opportunities to say positive things about the current occupant of the White House.

Candidly, at times, I couldn’t find much.

Then, in the first few days of March, Trump came face to face with the coronavirus. And at first, it seemed, Americans were in for more of the same. We’re doomed, I thought.

The president is a grab bag. He’s good when he stays on message. He’s bad when he can’t stay out of his own way.

Initially, in dealing with the virus, Trump appeared to be woefully outmatched by a shadowy enemy that couldn’t be beaten down with Twitter insults. He frequently said, and did, the wrong thing.

In fact, in those early days,

Trump did only one thing right. At the end of January, the Trump administration restricted entry into the United States from China. That one action likely saved countless lives.

But for the next five weeks, until mid-March, it was amateur hour at the White House. Remember the whole “don’t touch your face” phase of containment? The president joked to reporters as recently as March 4 that he hadn’t touched his face for weeks. “I miss it,” he said.

At a campaign rally on Feb. 28 in South Carolina., Trump accused Democrats of using the coronavirus as “their new hoax.” He suggested it would disappear by summer, when the temperatures rose. He compared it to the common flu, accused the media of hyping the story, and failed to ramp up tests beyond just a couple thousand a day — when South Korea was testing 10 times as many people. And, of course, Trump started referring to it as the “Chinese virus” — a practice that he continues, and defends, to this day. Worst of all, when presented with criticism, he told reporters: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”

Then, suddenly, this week, things changed. Trump found his groove. He found smart people, put them in charge, and stayed out of the way.

His decision to put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of organizing the government’s response seems to have been a good one. The person who was once bragged that he knew more “than the generals” did not dare say he knew more than the doctors and scientists. The Trump administration’s daily briefings are full of information and concrete proposals to help Americans. Help, we are told, is on the way.

Even some of Trump’s Democratic critics — including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Gov. Gavin Newsom — are giving him credit for righting the ship. Even Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. — who is on the left fringe of her own party — commended Trump’s response to the crisis, calling it “incredible” and “the right response in this critical time.”

This is what we really need more of in this country — especially now.

Let’s continue to be vigilant and call out Trump when he does something wrong.

But let’s not be so petty that we can’t praise him when he gets it right.

Ruben Navarrette’s email address is ruben@ rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, “Navarrette Nation,” is available through every podcast app.