Trump’s Fiasco

Once again, White House communications management has been a complete fiasco. In this week – when the president has been in the hospital victim of the pandemic that he so long ignored and mismanaged – obfuscation and mendacity have been the order of the day.

This leads me to believe that, if the president played chess, his favorite piece would be the knight – it can move in eight different directions, all crooked.

One should ask why some leaders and their spokespeople behave this way. On the one hand, they want to come out with a political advantage over their rivals. On the other, ego drives many leaders including Donald Trump and, for him to see himself portrayed as weak in any way is anathema.

Many organizations have a professional communications team that advises its principal as to the best way to manage a crisis. It has experience in developing strategies and media lines that address the problem in a rational, positive manner in order to allow the organization to pivot from problem to main message in an honest and forthright manner.

The current administration has neither the team nor the mandate from President Trump to behave professionally.

To make a long story short – Trump controls all and delegates nothing.

Trump is his own communications director and strategist, instructs his staff without taking their opinions or suggestions into account, and acts impetuously rather than rationally.

True leadership requires empathy and openness to new ideas. It requires discipline and honesty. It requires checking your ego at the door and taking advice from experts. It requires broadening your base and engaging in consensus building.

Trump seeks to reinforce his hold over his base. What he doesn’t seem to realize is that his behavior alienates the independent voter that he may need in order to win reelection next month.

Mismanagement of COVID-19 has become the main issue in the campaign and Trump trails Joe Biden by 10 percent thirty days before the election. He consequently feels that he must project strength at any cost to others in order to depict his rival as weak. 

This is his narrative, and he has no other strategy.

However, when success comes at a high risk to human health and lives, this strategy leaves much to be desired. 

On September 26th Trump hosted senior Republicans on the White House lawn to celebrate his Supreme Court appointee. So far over half a dozen of his guests have come down with COVID-19, including three key senators whose vote on the judiciary committee is vital to the early appointment to the bench of his candidate.

One wonders if these individuals and their families believe that Trump’s political objectives are worth their health or even their lives.

For eight months Trump has treated COVID-19 as a hoax, and the sycophants at FOX News and the Republican Party have supported his policies of ignoring the pandemic or, alternatively, providing dangerous or ridiculous remedies and solutions and insisting that wearing masks is a political statement and an act of weakness. 

His message upon leaving the hospital once again minimized the risks of COVID-19, and his ripping away his mask as he entered the White House and climbed the stairs for his photo op was again the wrong message at the wrong time.

Once again, and against all scientific and medical advice, Trump has missed an opportunity to send the right message to citizens who have lost so many loved ones and are not getting sympathy, empathy, comfort, or intelligent guidance from their president.

This may cost him winning over undecided voters.

Let’s see how they factor this behavior this past weekend into their vote on November 3rd.

Edición: Laura Espejo