The utter lack of preparation, arguably the worst failure in presidential leadership in the modern era, continues to this day as the administration fails to come to grips with the virus and plot a way forward. The Sunday shows put on display the desperate attempts by informed experts, the media and governors to find any evidence that the administration has gained a handle on the crisis.

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On ABC’s “This Week,” former Trump homeland security official Tom Bossert tried to shake his former colleagues out of their stupor.

“He’s looking 10 feet, and it seems a lot of our leaders are looking 10 feet in front of their bumper right now and dealing with the daily tactics and distribution issues and all these questions of these daily press briefings,” Bossert said. He practically begged Trump to look ahead, explaining, “We need to start thinking about how to message to people the extreme, extremely difficult and massive mobilization of effort and testing that’s going to come ahead of tomorrow and the next day. All through April, but also all through this summer it’s going to be a very tedious affair that requires very careful planning and very careful execution. We just don’t want people, at the end of April, to think, I’m tired of this, and we’re all going to run back into the streets.”

The president, of course, is unable to think days ahead, let alone months ahead. What we have learned during this horrendous episode is that the federal government does not mobilize itself, especially with a third-rate Cabinet. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper’s appearance on ABC, in which he refused to acknowledge that the military had warning of the pandemic as early as last November and lacked a satisfactory answer to the firing of Capt. Brett Crozier, was reflective of the mediocre talent now tasked with an unprecedented crisis.

The total lack of leadership at the federal level leaves governors of both parties exasperated. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), appearing on CNN, observed that he and every other governor are scrambling for critical equipment that the private sector cannot deliver in time to meet the wave of virus cases that states expect.

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“The president didn’t enact or use the Defense Production Act until just recently,” Pritzker said. “And he used it with GM, right? And with GM, when you talk to GM, they will tell you, great, we’re going to produce ventilators mostly in May and June. That’s great, and we may need them in May and June. I hope we don’t.”

Pritzker blasted the Trump administration for telling states that they are on their own:

Well, the president does not understand the word federal, Federal Emergency Management Agency. We have a state Emergency Management Agency, but, if he were right, why would we ever need a Federal Emergency Management Agency? It’s because individual states can’t possibly do what the federal government can do. We don’t have a Defense Production Act. There’s no way that we could stockpile in anticipation of a pandemic that no one anticipated. And yet the federal government is responsible for doing precisely that. … If they had started in February building ventilators, getting ready for this pandemic, we would not have the problems that we have today, and, frankly, very many fewer people would die.

To recap: There was effectively paralysis at the crucial period beginning as early as last November, and up to the time Trump declared himself a wartime president, to prepare for the virus. The federal government, both in its operation of the federal stockpile and in Trump’s failure to issue a stay-at-home order, is still faltering. And to top it all off, there is no clear guidance as to how we will get to the other side.

That prompted CNN’s Jake Tapper to make an unusual plea directly to Trump. “One of the questions the American people need answered for that to happen responsibly, what’s the plan?” He continued, “Is there a plan for widespread testing of every American so as to isolate the virus, the way other countries have done? When will there be enough tests for that to happen?” Tapper continued on in this vein, pressing Trump to answer basic questions, including whether there is a national plan to “make sure doctors and nurses and health-care professionals finally are able to get the personal protective equipment, or PPE, that they need.”

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No, there are no plans. The states are on their own and, worse, must contend with a vengeful, ignorant and impulsive president. If we are to come through this in any reasonable time frame, it will be despite Trump, not because of him.