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I give Trump about a week to do a 180-degree pivot away from virus denial, and toward martial law. He’s always wanted to be a full-on dictator. The virus gives him his opening. As clueless as he is, this will soon dawn on him.

Dozens of laws on the books allow a president to declare a national emergency and claim extraordinary powers. If ever there were a national emergency, this is one. A benign, competent president would use these emergency powers constructively. That does not describe Trump.

Some of those powers are legitimate, and needed. A Korean War–era law authorizes the president to use emergency powers to expand production of drugs and medical supplies.

In this emergency, it will be necessary to ban nonessential travel, commandeer health facilities, create virtual substitutes for many schools, order quarantines, and a great deal more compulsory commands that will add up to a national strategy that is either coherent, or just massively disruptive and chaotic.

Trump’s role model, ironically enough, is China. The recent WHO report lavishly praises China for its decisive (and autocratic) quarantine policies, facilitated by the fact that China was already a dictatorship. The deep state in action!

With Trump, you get the worst of both worlds—the dictatorial swagger without the competence. As incompetent as he is, he will take credit for the public-health bureaucracy he has savaged.

The epidemic is payback for cascading policy failures. Many sick people don’t seek medical help because they lack health insurance. The coronavirus is especially insidious in that respect because its early symptoms resemble cold or flu. And 40 percent of people in the service sector don’t have paid sick days, so they go to work sick.

America’s long-term failure of health policy is now compounded by Trump’s general incompetence and perverse attack on the public-health system. We will all pay the price.

One must hope that Trump pays a dear price in November. Unless Chief Justice John Roberts, who detests Trump, is more of a shill for Trump than he appears, even martial law won’t cancel the election.