Joe Lockhart was White House press secretary from 1998 to 2000 in President Bill Clinton's administration. He co-hosts the podcast "Words Matter." The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

(CNN) Ranking high among the President's powers and responsibilities is the job of communicator in chief. In times of triumph and clear and present dangers, the public looks to the President for cues on how to act, what they should feel and what they should do.

Joe Lockhart

In the aftermath of the Challenger explosion in 1986, people shared grief and were reassured by President Ronald Reagan's address to the nation. George W. Bush grabbing the bullhorn at ground zero in 2001 reminded the country that together we would all get through this tragedy. For Bill Clinton, it was the Oklahoma City bombing response, and for Barack Obama, his powerful speech and song in Charleston, South Carolina, in the aftermath of the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

And yet for every powerful moment, there are as many misses. George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq and in 2005 his quote to the embattled FEMA director after Hurricane Katrina, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," created a political hole that Bush 43 never quite climbed out of. And in the midst of a serious economic crisis in the late 1970's, Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech hit all the wrong notes for rebuilding confidence in America's economy.

The point is that communicating matters. Words and optics make a big difference, not only politically, but in solving whatever crisis faces the country. President Donald Trump faces one of those moments right now with the spread of the coronavirus . To date, he's done almost everything wrong. He has consistently underplayed the potential for a serious public health crisis here at home. Worse, he has made a series of off-the-cuff remarks on a complicated scientific problem that has undermined the work being done both at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Compounding the problem is his apparent emphasis -- too often -- on the economy and the stock market instead of the public health issues. Is there anyone who really doubts by now that for Trump his own political fortunes, which are tied to economic and market performance, take precedence over protecting the health of all Americans? But that approach has failed spectacularly because the markets are looking for the same thing the public wants and needs -- reassurance that there is a plan in place to deal with the potential pandemic.

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