by Meridith McGraw
Over the past week, as President Donald Trump’s top officials came to the lectern to give their updates, they first gave thanks.
“Let me start by thanking you, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, for your decisive leadership,” offered Attorney General William Barr.
“Thank you, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President for your tireless leadership,” proclaimed Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.
“Today's announcement is just the latest in a long line of bold, decisive actions the president has taken to protect Americans from the coronavirus spreading across our borders,” remarked Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
And as they talked, they peppered their remarks with frequent reminders of who they served — “at the president’s direction,” “with the president’s leadership” — as their boss stood watching.
At the White House podium over the past few weeks, each member of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force has been cognizant of two messages: one for millions of Americans; another for the man just a few feet away. Even the health experts — many of them not political appointees — have made sure to deliver some praise to the president to help the medicine go down as they dish out some of the more dire predictions about the growing pandemic.
Critics have noted that aides have been premature at times to lavish compliments on the president as they continue to fight the virus. They compared the constant thank-yous to Trump’s televised Cabinet meetings, during which Trump went around the room and had each senior official praise him.
“It undermines the credibility of the experts. … What people need are the facts. They don’t need experts spending time fluffing up the commander in chief,” David Lapan, a former Pentagon spokesperson and vice president of communications at Bipartisan Policy Center said.
The effusiveness has even caught on among late-night comedians. “The Daily Show” relabeled the task force “The Coronavirus Thank Force” in a video that compiled each member’s hyperbolic praise.
For Trump, it’s a management style that goes back decades.
“He never told us to do it, but we picked it up,” said Barbara Res, a former Trump Organization executive vice president who worked for him for 16 years. “Delivering any kind of bad news to him involved some kind of buildup. You’d have to first say what a great decision he’d made on another project and how well everything was going, and by the way … ”
“People picked up really quickly that he needed to be flattered,” she added.
For those who know the president, public praise and flattery are a valuable political currency. Trump has been noticeably more gracious toward several Democratic governors during the coronavirus outbreak, often citing their praise of his current leadership.
The president on Sunday noted that state governors were “very, very complimentary” on a recent nationwide coronavirus call.
“I watched, over the last few days, Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo, I watched Gavin Newsom,” Trump said, referencing the Democratic governors in New York and California, two of the hardest-hit states. “I watched both of them. And they’ve been, you know, very complimentary.”
It’s a dynamic, the president warned during an interview on Fox News on Tuesday, governors must be aware of.
“It’s a two-way street,” Trump said. “They have to treat us well, also. They can’t say, ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.’”
Unable to hear the roaring cheers at his campaign rallies due to coronavirus cancellations, the president has turned to his daily news briefings to get national attention and hear congratulatory remarks, sometimes at the expense of delivering accurate statements about the disease. The president is hyperaware of TV ratings, which are compiled weekly for him in the White House, and viewership of the briefings during the daytime hours have seen a notable spike as Americans anxiously watch from home.
Administration officials say it’s an opportunity for experts from the task force to answer questions, but it also gives the president a national platform to assure the public and offer himself a pat on the back.
“Many doctors, I’ve read many, many doctors, can’t believe the great job that I’ve done,” Trump said, without offering specifics, even as health professionals have publicly warned of severe equipment shortages.
“Europe was just designated as the hot spot right now, and we closed that border a while ago. So that was lucky or through talent or through luck. Call it whatever you want,” Trump said, referring to his decision to cut off most travel from Europe and China to the United States.
Like many of Trump’s rhetorical quirks — hyperbole, casual bragging — his desire to be lavished with praise is something that is often inconsequential. But in a moment of crisis, Trump’s critics say it distracts from important messaging efforts.
“Pre-crisis, that stuff is mildly annoying but it’s not harmful,” Lapan, the ex-Pentagon spokesman, said. “In the midst of a pandemic, it’s potentially harmful. We want facts, we want clear information from experts; we don’t need to spend time mixing the message by praising the president.”
Nancy Cook contributed to this report.
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