WASHINGTON, DC—In the White House Rose Garden Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump was asked if he was at fault for the slow availability of testing for the COVID-19 coronavirus. His response could serve as the slogan for his administration.

“I don’t take responsibility at all.”

President Harry Truman famously had a sign on his desk that said, “The buck stops here.” Gen. Dwight Eisenhower prepared a statement in the event D-Day failed, saying “If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.” Past presidents considered it a point of pride, and a principle of leadership, to accept responsibility for what happens under their command.

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That’s not Trump. He assigns blame, and he accepts — demands — credit. Impeachment, the government shutdown, stock market performance, in virtually every respect it’s always been the case. And it is the case with the coronavirus, right through the weird press conference in which he declared a national emergency Friday.

For the delays in testing, he essentially blamed the Obama administration, saying the system he’d inherited wasn’t equipped for the level of testing needed. For the lack of an agreement on emergency relief measures that were being voted on Friday in congress, he blamed the Democrats for “not giving enough.” In response to a question about why he had shut down the pandemic office in the National Security Council that had been set up by Obama, he blamed the reporter for asking a “nasty question,” then denied he’d done it: “I don’t know anything about it,” he said. In his address to the nation less than 48 hours ago from the Oval Office, he’d blamed China and Europe for the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S.

Credit, he was willing to accept. He heaped praise on himself for the wisdom of restricting travel from China and Europe. And then a series of his appointees came to the microphone to congratulate him for his leadership and foresight in allowing the measures they were announcing. Measures, in many cases, he was publicly saying days or weeks ago were unnecessary.

“This day should be an inspiration to every American. Because thanks to your leadership, we’ve not only created an all-of-government response, we’ve created an all-of-America response,” Vice-President Mike Pence said to Trump, emphasizing the president’s leadership rather than any information that might help the general public understand what that leadership had brought about. “Throughout this process Mr. President, you’ve put the health of America first.”

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A note about that all-of-America response: Pence was most directly talking about the corporate leaders who stood beside and around him. They were there to talk about what their companies were doing to pitch in during this time of crisis, an apparent branding opportunity. Google was helping develop a website to establish a testing protocol; Walmart and CVS were making parts of their parking lots available for testing; Roche diagnostics was creating the testing kits — of which Trump said 5 million would be available within a month. “I don’t think we’re going to need that many,” Trump added.

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The leaders of each of these companies got to come to the podium in turn and say a few words advertising their corporate contribution. In David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest the years bear the names of corporations; in Donald Trump’s America, this national emergency was brought to you by Signet Health, the nation’s largest provider of house calls.

Many of those leaders shook hands with the president afterwards, hardly models of the social distancing public health experts recommend.

Canada came up, too: Trump said he and Trudeau had talked on the phone yesterday. “We didn’t discuss the border,” he said. “At the time his wife had not been diagnosed yet. She’s a lovely lady, wonderful lady, great lady,” Trump said of Sophie Grégoire Trudeau’s infection with the coronavirus. “I was a little surprised. We did discuss it prior to. She’s going to be fine, but he thought she was most likely not going to have the virus. She does. But we didn’t discuss the border.”

All of that overshadowed the purported — and welcome — purpose of the press conference: to announce the state of emergency and the $50 billion in funding: to put hospitals on disaster footing and relax rules to allow them to free up beds, change admissions requirements, and license out of state doctors quickly. To give powers to the Health and Human Services Department to modify insurance regulations. To unveil the introduction of rapid testing deployment, soon to be available to Americans in drive-through stations across the country. And to announce a new website to help people determine if they needed a test, and help them get one performed.

This was the type of public-health announcement many would have welcomed in the Oval Office address Wednesday night, when instead Trump stuck mostly to blame for the “foreign virus,” and announced economic measures meant to address the plunging stock market.

In any event, late in coming as it may be, and as clouded in branding for both Trump and corporate partners, the state of emergency announcement may have accomplished what Trump’s previous address could not. As it was happening, the stock market rallied, rising almost 10 per cent on major indexes and regaining most of yesterday’s historic losses.

Part of what was needed to alleviate the fears of investors was always the same as what was needed to address the concerns of ordinary people: a concrete approach to actually helping manage the disease. Soon, everyone will know if this administration can follow through. It is supposed to launch a new website Sunday and mass deploy tests by next week. Soon everyone will see if the “large number” of respirators Trump claimed to have ordered is enough; if the hospital preparation measures he announced are effective; and if they arrive on time.

That these come a day after sports leagues, Broadway theatres and concert promoters and state and local governments acted independently of Trump’s administration to shut down much of society. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Anthony Fauci said it’s impossible to know at this point how effective those measures will be in heading off a dreaded high peak in the infection and fatality rate.

Perhaps together, the closures and emergency measures will help make the crisis less severe. If they do, you can be certain Trump will take credit — he already has. But if it turns out to be too little, too late, he’s already said he accepts no responsibility.