Trump has personalized other elements of the crisis, though, leading to charges he is filtering the government’s response through a personal political lens.
For instance, he has turned some state requests for equipment into personal political battles.
After Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, went public with her frustrations over the lack of medical supplies coming from the federal government, Trump castigated her for “ineptitude.” Yet Trump has been receptive to personal overtures from Republican allies like Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who made a direct phone call to the president to ask for medical equipment.
“They have to treat us well,” Trump said about state officials in a late March Fox News interview. “They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.’”
Trump also doles out well wishes to his political allies in quarantine or who have contracted Covid-19, but omits or cuts down his political opponents in similar situations.
One example came when Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, the only senator to vote to convict Trump on an impeachment count, tested negative for the coronavirus following potential exposure. In response, Trump sarcastically tweeted: “This is really great news! I am so happy I can barely speak.”
Romney had gone into isolation after Republican Sen. Rand Paul, a Trump friend, tested positive. Unlike Romney, however, Paul received regular, personalized well-wishes from the president.
More broadly, Trump uses his daily center-stage performance from the White House podium as a chance to register his personalized grievances — no one mentions his TV ratings, some governors aren’t grateful enough for his efforts, the media doesn’t give him enough credit.
When asked last Monday why there is a delay in coronavirus test results, Trump shot back at the reporter: “You should say, ‘congratulations, great job,’ instead of being so horrid in the way you ask a question.”
And repeatedly, Trump’s argument is that he takes things more personally, and cares more, than anyone. “Nobody’s more worried than me for the whole country,” he said in late March during a Fox News call-in interview.
It’s a pattern that Trump’s opponents have pounced on.
“This is not personal,” said Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in a late March CNN interview. “It has nothing to do with you, Donald Trump. Nothing to do with you. Do your job, stop personalizing everything.”
Source: politico.com
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