From the right: Trump’s Now a ‘Wartime’ Prez

President Trump had none of his usual “bombast” in his “somber, measured speech” Wednesday about the coronavirus outbreak, in which he suspended travel from Europe and took other “significant” steps, ­observes RealClearPolitics’ Philip Wegmann. That marks a real pivot to “a ‘wartime’ footing,” with Trump himself “a wartime president.” Just a couple of weeks ago, he tweeted that the virus was “very much under control in the USA.” Until now, he has faced mostly “man-made challenges,” with political “opposition that could be belittled and battled against.” He can’t do the same with a virus: “Pathogens are unlike partisans” — and his “response will define his presidency.”

Health beat: Travel Ban ‘Makes Sense’

Travel bans can “retard the advance of pandemics,” notes James Carafano at FoxNews.com, so Trump’s decision to ban most European travelers for 30 days is a “prudent” move. “Simply put, it is hard to empty the bathtub while the water’s running.” While “we’re voluntarily disrupting our day-to-day lives to contain the disease” and “drain the tub,” it makes “no sense to risk importing more contagion from abroad.” America’s ­restrictions against travel from China “significantly delayed the arrival of the disease here,” letting us weather “the bulk of the flu season without a serious outbreak.” European nations, by contrast, “imposed no travel bans” against China travelers and “wound up importing a lot of sick people.” Now, “Italy, with its significant migrant Chinese population, has been hit particularly hard.”

2020 Watch: How Don Can Beat Joe

President Trump, who will probably face Joe Biden in November, “starts behind” in the race, with low poll numbers and a high disapproval rating. He can change that — but only, Henry Olsen argues at The Washington Post, if he “tackles Biden’s biggest weakness: himself.” While “Trump is not one to pull punches against his adversaries,” his attacks on Hunter Biden over the Burisma scandal may “backfire.” Instead, Trump should hold “as many public events as possible,” emphasizing that Biden isn’t “up to the demands of a campaign,” let alone the presidency. If he does that, he will be “focusing on the campaign’s core question: Who is fit to do the job?” Democrats think they have dodged a bullet by picking Biden over Bernie Sanders, but Trump can make them “rue that decision.”

Foreign desk: Filipino’s Extended Presidency

Foes of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte — who has faced “blistering criticism of his autocratic tendencies” yet boasts record popularity — shouldn’t assume he will “quietly leave office” when his term ends in two years, even though his country bans re-elections, warns Sheila Coronel at Foreign Affairs. Instead, Duterte is “making every effort to consolidate his base” and “handpick a successor so he can continue to exert influence and exercise power” when he is out. He has moved, for example, to “muzzle” critics, including the Catholic Church, and to give himself “a near monopoly” on power. Though “fickle” Filipinos may turn on him when he is gone, for now, he has tapped into the public’s eagerness to “trade rights and freedoms” for a sense of “safety and stability.” That’s “a reality with which his critics will have to reckon.”

Iconoclast: Coronavirus? Bring It On!

At The Washington Examiner, Utah small-business owner Daryl Austin reports that his “young family of six isn’t dreading” coronavirus at all. Rather, they all “just want to get it over with.” They are tired of reading overblown headlines that read like “jump-scare scenes in a horror film.” The New York Times reports that the death rate from coronavirus is just 0.4 percent, except for in China’s Hubei province, where the disease originated. NPR notes that “more than 80 percent of coronavirus infections are pretty mild” and “no more severe than the common cold.” Austin is most “flabbergasted by the way so many overreact to a virus that kills so few.” But if coronavirus is going to hit his family, he hopes “it happens sooner rather than later,” so they can get it over with.

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board