In each of these cases, Trump reacted to an imaginary crisis by dialing up an over-the-top response — threatening to close the border with Mexico and to blow up NAFTA, imposing sanctions on Iran and tariffs on China, and hinting at a preemptive military strike on North Korea. Then, after having thrown a theatrical temper tantrum, he predictably backed down: Trump negotiated a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that differed from NAFTA chiefly in the name; he embraced Kim Jong Un at a series of summits; he reached a trade agreement in which China promised to buy more U.S. agricultural goods without fundamentally changing its trading practices; he killed Iran’s most prominent general but declined to escalate after Iran’s symbolic retaliation against U.S. bases in Iraq; and he simply stopped talking about the caravans altogether. It was all very “Art of the Deal.”

The one exception — the one crisis largely out of Trump’s control — was Hurricane Maria, which ravaged Puerto Rico in September 2017. The administration’s response was horribly botched. Aid was delayed and power was out for months, causing some 3,000 deaths. Trump’s response was to deny the deaths, attack the mayor of San Juan, accuse Puerto Ricans of being lazy and toss paper towels at hurricane survivors as if they were seals getting fish from a trainer. It was pathetic and shameful but did not cost Trump politically because Puerto Rico is far from the mainland.

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The novel coronavirus is the first major crisis that Trump confronts that he did not create and whose impact he cannot escape with his usual bluster and bravado. Which is not to say he’s not trying. His performance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Friday was vintage Trump — which is to say that it was incoherent, delusional and frightening.

The president showed up wearing a red hat emblazoned with his new campaign slogan (“Keep America Great”) even though he was governing, not campaigning. He got impeached for failing to discern a difference between politics and policy, and he seems to have learned nothing from the experience.

Trump seemed more interested in protecting his own image than in protecting the country. He bragged that “in this big vast land of ours” there were only 240 cases of coronavirus. Of course, the figure was so low only because of the scandalous failure to make tests available. But Trump appears to want to keep the total of confirmed cases down at any cost. He expressed his desire to keep infected passengers imprisoned on a cruise ship off California because if they land, “our numbers are going to go up.” Trump is like a homicide detective, obsessed with keeping his “clearance” rate high, claiming that a murder victim with five gunshot wounds died by suicide.

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Trump’s comments predictably included pathetic self-praise (“Every one of these doctors said, how do you know so much about this? Maybe I have a natural ability”) and inappropriate attacks on political adversaries (he called the Democratic governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, a “snake”). In perhaps the most bizarre moment, he suggested that the tests for coronavirus are as “perfect” as his call with the president of Ukraine. By now everyone around Trump knows they have to lavish him with Dear Leader-like praise, and the CDC director, Robert R. Redfield, obliged, telling Trump, “I want to thank you for your decisive leadership in helping us put public health first. … That’s the most important thing I want to say, sir.”

If Trump had any ability to think more than one news cycle ahead, he would realize that his Pollyannaish optimism today could come back to haunt him tomorrow if the coronavirus turns out to be as bad as many experts predict. He would be far smarter to give realistic assessments today and then claim credit if the epidemic isn’t as bad as feared.

But Trump only knows how to act one way, and so he is dragging out his usual bag of tricks in a situation where his juvenile antics are even more inappropriate and alarming than usual. He has yet to figure out that the coronavirus is an enemy that cannot be intimidated with a demeaning nickname or wished away with happy talk. Trump has finally met a no-kidding crisis, and his performance so far has been execrable.