Dan Balz: Trump's Oval Office speech undermined the president's own credibility

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-oval-office-speech-undermined-the-presidents-own-credibility/2020/03/12/ad4eeb7e-6471-11ea-acca-80c22bbee96f_story.html

By Dan Balz
March 12, 2020 at 11:35 a.m. EDT

In times of national crisis, people look to the president for direction, reassurance and confidence. President Trump’s Oval Office speech on Wednesday night did precisely the opposite.

From the misstatements to the omissions to his own labored demeanor, the president sent a message that shook financial markets, disrupted relations with European allies, confused his many viewers and undermined the most precious commodity of any president, his credibility.

With the stock markets plunging into bear territory, the health-care system struggling to keep pace with the spreading virus and Americans wondering what next, Trump is dealing unsteadily with the greatest crisis of his presidency. The pandemic is both a physical and fiscal threat to the well-being of millions of Americans. It also has become a political threat to the president’s hopes for a second term in office.

Historians will eventually assess the president’s prime-time effort to calm a scared and nervous nation that is taking unprecedented steps to deal with a pandemic known as the coronavirus. In the moment and in the immediate aftermath of the speech, the judgments were as harsh as at any time in Trump’s presidency.

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[edhopper]

1. what credibility?

[Stevegberg]

5. I had the same thought

[duforsure]

2. Absolutely!

And he's trying to use this for personal profit by manipulating travel restrictions, and stimulus he'll benefit personally from. Wonder how much stock he has on any manufacturers of the vaccine or test kits. Follow the money and they'll find out he does, maybe using others to do it for him, like his brother or sister, or his kids. He has a history of doing just that.

[tman]

3. He never had any.

[Stuart G]

4. Trump proved last night that he has no credibility. NONE, ZERO, NADA....