Several years ago, former Vice President Dick Cheney, a down-the-line conservative Republican, was asked at a small dinner for his assessment of President Donald Trump. He offered perfunctory praise while cautioning that the test would be when Trump faces his first crisis.

The coronavirus pandemic is Trump's first crisis that was not self-inflicted. He is handling it badly. His administration was ill-prepared. He has misinformed the public about the pandemic, is surrounded by too many second-raters loathe to challenge him and focuses on the political implications for his reelection.

In his various self-inflicted crises, principally impeachment, Trump has gotten away with proffering misinformation and has rallied an obsequious Republican Party to make everything partisan. Blame always rests with someone else.

He's using the same playbook with the coronavirus crisis.

This pandemic is China's fault, Trump suggests. After weeks of denial and dissembling, Trump imposed a travel ban from Europe, but, in a televised address, sought to downplay the severity, avoiding crucial questions like testing and the looming pervasive shutdowns - amid self-congratulatory claims of what a great job he's doing.

I don't think it'll work this time.

The president's Amen chorus will dismiss this as wishful thinking by Never Trumpers - but unlike impeachment, or the pervasive corruption in his administration or his dangerously flawed policies from climate change to North Korea, this has tangible effects now.

As schools and athletic events close, a few of those supporters will remember the president said it was no big deal and was contained.

When a red state voter gets sick, goes to the doctor or hospital and discovers that the tests the president promised were available for anyone aren't actually available, she's less likely to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

When workers who live paycheck-to-paycheck lose wages because they have to stay home, they will be less likely to blame "the fake news media."

As the economy suffers - and the likelihood of a so-called U-shaped downturn increases - Trump will have a harder time blaming Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve.

The administration's lack of preparation has been stunning. The president has sought to cut the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; this year a proposed 16 percent cut. There hasn't been a pandemic expert on the National Security Council focused on health security for two years - when Trump disbanded the pandemic response team.

Economic advisers like Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin or White House advisers Larry Kudlow or Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar don't engender confidence.

Vice President Pence, put in charge of the crisis, has to always worry about the president's disapproval. There remains resistance to transparency; the latest reports are that the White House wants high level meetings on the pandemic to be classified.

The administration's response over the last month has been "astonishing," says John Barry, who wrote the definitive book on the 1918-20 flu pandemic, "The Great Influenza: the Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History." That pandemic killed an estimated 50 million around the world. The problem then was severely exacerbated, Barry says, when government leaders - including U.S. President Woodrow Wilson - downplayed the threat.

It's deja vu, Barry worries, as Trump has misled the public for the past month. "What he is doing is counterproductive," he says, again undercutting the urgency to get ready and take extra precautions.

"Presidents are defined by how quickly they handle crises," says Shirley Warshaw, a presidential scholar at Gettysburg College. She cites President George H.W. Bush, who, when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, responded immediately with a massive force and threw Iraq out. In 2009 President Barack Obama, right after taking office, pushed a big stimulus package bailing out financial firms and the auto industry - and prevented an economic cataclysm.

Historian Michael Beschloss, in his celebrated book on wartime presidents, wrote that Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II, were transparent, keeping the Congress and public informed.

In this crisis, a different sort of war, Donald Trump failed to respond quickly and appears incapable of putting the public interest above his political needs.

Al Hunt is the former executive editor of Bloomberg News. He previously served as reporter, bureau chief and Washington editor for the Wall Street Journal. For almost a quarter century he wrote a column on politics for The Wall Street Journal, then the International New York Times and Bloomberg View. Follow him on Twitter @AlHuntDC.