The president is again shifting the burden and potential repercussions of his decisions, onto those whom he is enlisting in the coronavirus fight.
for relatively small groups of protesters who have called for state and local governments to lift public shutdowns. This week, Trump toyed with disbanding the White House’s coronavirus task force, before announcing it will remain intact with a shift in focus toward safely reopening the country.
“My sense is they are moving pretty dramatically away from the concerns of the medical community over the loss of life and they have decided the top priority has to be saving the American economy,” said Peter Wehner, who served as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He said he does not recall Bush calling the general public “warriors” during his administration’s “war on terror” after the 9/11 attacks.
White House aides defended the president’s rhetoric by suggesting he was calling on the public to abide by some social distancing safeguards even as businesses reopen. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday that Trump considers the public warriors “because they’ve stayed home . . . because they’ve social-distanced.
“Now it’s time to open it up. And you know what? The people of our country are warriors, and I’m looking at it,” Trump said. “Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open, and we have to get it open soon.”Jennifer Mercieca, an associate professor at Texas A&M University who specializes in presidential communications, said Trump’s rhetoric falls short because “it’s empty framing in that he doesn’t tell us what the plan is.
She pointed to Trump rebuking Sophia Thomas, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, who said during the Oval Office photo op Wednesday that hospitals were having onlyTrump — who has bristled at criticism that his administration has failed to help deliver enough medical supplies — shot back: “Sporadic for you, but not sporadic for a lot of other people.”Such displays undermine Trump’s “winning-the-war frame,” Mercieca said.
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