Is Trump dangerously strong or perilously weak?

Damon Linker

The Week April 20, 2020

"How disorienting is political reality in the Trump era? So disorienting that people who devote their lives to observing and analyzing politics can't even agree on whether President Trump is inches away from abolishing democracy and turning himself into a dictator — or if, instead, he's a pitifully weak president who regularly demonstrates his impotence.

This elemental confusion has reached a crescendo during the coronavirus crisis of the last six weeks. Faced with a genuine emergency, Trump has responded by holding daily press briefings in which he rails against journalists, spreads propaganda and disinformation, and demonizes scapegoats. He's also proclaimed that his office gives him the power to do anything he wants and that he could summarily adjourn Congress and use his recess appointment power to bypass the Senate's role in confirming judges. And then there's the most bizarre and irresponsible example of all: the president using Twitter to foment civil unrest against state governments attempting to combat a pandemic.

Yet over this very same six weeks, numerous governors have taken the lead in imposing public-health measures to fight COVID-19 and in laying the groundwork for the gradual loosening of social restrictions. Compared to the decisive actions of Govs. Andrew Cuomo in New York, Phil Murphy in New Jersey, Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, and others, the Trump administration has been inept and ineffectual, with the president himself constantly displaying his characteristic impetuousness and inconstancy. The result has been slowness and sloppiness at the federal level that contrasts sharply with displays of nimbleness and competence in states and localities.

So which is it? Is Trump a would-be authoritarian or an enfeebled executive? Dangerously strong or perilously weak?"

moar:

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-dangerously-strong-perilously-weak-094552472.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANVdOaEfeUFw_fGQ0hBauQbpuaB5sDfnlrd3a9b6fzEqaeCqt2v2k0p66Kb9Iyphbo0dmV_33yfV_5qLbgJpxhYKOvFLXp1sKo5fxgS6etZ5sVRj2YpXolQTzC0kNQumkoLjE51JRMelYhg1HCSLt4_2pC4_TTdNIo6yhOj4GgqU

tiny url please

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