Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention informed President Donald Trump that coronavirus was spreading within the United States between people who had no history of international travel. He immediately went on television and claimed that the number of cases in the U.S. would be “close to zero” in “a couple of days.”

That would turn out to be untrue, but he perhaps believed he could will that outcome into existence by saying it into a microphone. The president has long believed in the teachings of Norman Vincent Peale’s midcentury self-help gospel, The Power of Positive Thinking, which promised to turn believers into achievers. Depressingly, his faith has been lavishly rewarded.

Trump sees his presidency as a story of things that happen to Donald Trump—turncoats betraying him, enemies being identified and crushed, the masses showering him with adoration, powerful men weeping at his strength. He sees the threat of a pandemic in much the same way: as something that could have disastrous consequences for him personally. (He may not even understand that widespread deaths would be “bad” for him; he seems mainly concerned about reassuring the markets.)

This is why his response to the potential for a public health crisis revolves around messaging. As soon as Vice President Mike Pence became the administration’s figurehead in its response to the coronavirus threat, his first act was, in the words of The Washington Post, to “seize control of all federal communications on the virus, requiring Cabinet officials and government experts to get clearance from his office before making public remarks, according to two senior administration officials.”

Trump believes coronavirus is a thing that happens on TV, and that he can control what the TV says. Throughout his administration, his biggest eruptions of anger have tended to come when he believes someone who should be loyal to him has caused the TV to cover him negatively. If he can get everyone on the same page about how effective the response to coronavirus has been, all will be well.