The stupid thing about this is his base is going to be oblivious to it--they didn't take it seriously in January and February either so could hardly blame him--and the only thing they'll recognize by late next fall is we somehow survived (/are surviving) this and Trump was the captain our captain that saw us through it. :p

There is a bear in the woods virus in the world:

(https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/short-term-thinking-trump-coronavirus-response-140883)

After months of minimizing the threat to the United States, President Donald Trump jumped feet-first into the coronavirus fight this week with vows of quick fixes to the testing problem, claims about potential cures, and efforts to rope in agencies that had inexplicably been excluded, like FEMA.

The show of action played well in the White House briefing room and with the public, but has had a different impact behind the scenes. Health-agency officials and outside advisers to the administration, speaking on the condition of anonymity, described a chaotic situation in which leaders rushed to address presidential requests that sometimes seem to come on a whim while losing focus on longer-term challenges.

Trump’s drive to announce unfinished initiatives created a “need to make good on half-baked promises,” said one senior official — who, like other Americans, learned about some initiatives only when the president announced them at the White House podium.

For instance, no one in the White House had devised a national strategy for obtaining and distributing the necessary supplies in the likely months-long fight against the pandemic that lies ahead, said three people with knowledge of the planning efforts. Those supply-planning efforts are only now underway.

[...]

Trump has worked to tamp down concerns about insufficient tests and supplies, saying that the flurry of federal, state and local efforts will be sufficient. “If California can get a mask sooner than we can get it for them, through all of the things we're able to do, we'll end up with a big over-supply,” the president said at a press conference on Saturday. “At some point this is going away.”

[...]

Meanwhile, Trump on Saturday was asked about “the plan” to contain coronavirus as the nation enters day 6 of the White House’s 15-day campaign to slow the virus’ spread, and specifically whether additional measures needed to be taken.

The president declined to detail next steps, saying only that leaders would know more next week.

“We’ll have to see what the result is,” Trump said.

Anne Marie Slaughter wrote an op/ed for the NYTimes today that was basically: the one saving grace of a relatively free~ish liberal democracy like the US, compared to top-down authoritarian gov'ts like China, is that, while in the short run they can't clamp down with command-and-control restrictions like total travel bans and lock-downs as well, in the long run experts and local authorities have more space and ability to organize more effective action and completely bypass the top command altogether, and she was giving examples of how agencies and lower level government were taking action without waiting for clear direction that we know isn't going to come, at least in a useful form. (This probably applies to other democracies that are in shambles at the top too.)

It's already been reported how far the gears of gov't try to get away with pretending Trump doesn't exist. But if ever there were a time for that, that time is now. The hoi polloi can snub their noses at elites with pointless gestures and value signaling all they want, but the fact that that's about all they can do and elites get to control things because they're the only ones that understand how to actually operate this thing is what's going to get us through this relatively unscathed less mortally scathed than the alternative if anything can.