The Post reports: “President Trump unveiled Thursday broad guidelines for states to follow as they begin reopening amid the persistent coronavirus pandemic while leaving the specific plans to the governors.” It set out generic criteria that multiple states have already issued for assessing how to reopen for business. There is no deadline — not even a phony one — and no sign the federal government is to perform the important role of funding and administering a testing and tracing program. This is the ultimate nothing-burger.

Trump told the governors during a conference call earlier Thursday to “call your own shots,” a superfluous admonition. While governors in the pact of northeastern states and in the West Coast alliance all acknowledge that testing is a critical part of any return to work (as did Trump’s own advisers, former advisers, foreign leaders and epidemiologists), Trump tried to muddy the waters (“There are some states where I think you can do with a lot less testing than other people are suggesting. . . . Some are big believers in the testing. Some believe a little less”). No doubt, this is an effort to avoid more questions as to why he is not doing anything to alleviate this critical function.

No wonder Trump’s approval numbers are dropping while those of Congress and governors are soaring. In the latest Gallup poll, Trump’s overall approval rating dropped six points, the “sharpest drop Gallup has recorded for the Trump presidency so far.” In another danger sign for his reelection prospects, “Thirty percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S., marking a 12-point drop since the prior reading in early March. A monthly drop this large has only been recorded twice in the past two decades.” By contrast, Congress’s approval is higher than it has been in more than a decade (albeit at a modest 30 percent).

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This is not hard to figure out. Trump insults, blames others (e.g., World Health Organization, Democrats, China) and issues decrees as if he is invested with absolute power — even though he does not do much of anything. Insisting his name is on government checks is no substitute for actually constructing stimulus packages (he is a bystander in negotiations) or making full use of the Defense Production Act (either to acquire and distribute ventilators or testing kits).

Voters increasingly understand that Trump was delinquent in his response. A Pew Research Center poll finds, “Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) say Trump was too slow to take major steps to address the threat to the United States when cases of the disease were first reported in other countries.” Unlike Trump, they are far more concerned with lifting stay-at-home rules too quickly rather than too slowly.

Despite, or maybe because of, his manic performances at news conferences, voters finally seem to be grasping the reality of the covid-19 threat, understand our current predicament is, in part, a result of Trump’s slothful response and denial and look to those capable of action — Congress and governors — to bring us through the crisis.

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