American presidencies rise and fall in times of great crisis. It’s been true as long as we’ve had a country.

In the darkest days of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln implored Americans to ensure that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Eventually, that government prevailed.

In his first inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told Americans that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” The country went on to emerge from the Great Depression and fight and win a world war.

In the days after 9/11, President George W. Bush transformed from the not-so-sharp “son of George Bush” to a leader ready to meet his moment. In the still-burning rubble of the World Trade Center, first responders told him they couldn’t hear him over the bullhorn he was using. He told them, “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. … And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” The country, on its knees in grief, rose up because of the president’s words. Just because of his words.

And during the coronavirus crisis of 2020, as the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, President Donald J. Trump has said these words for the ages: