John Harwood:Trump's evident character flaws leave him unable to meet the historic moment

Trump's evident character flaws leave him unable to meet the historic moment

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Analysis by John Harwood, CNN Updated 8:40 AM ET, Sun June 7, 2020



(CNN)"In a president, character is everything," wrote the renowned speechwriter Peggy Noonan. And therein lies President Donald Trump's inability to meet this American moment.

Noonan referred, in an essay commemorating her old boss Ronald Reagan, to the human qualities behind successful leadership in the White House. Empathy, courage, vision, decency, candor -- these traits have yielded the presidential moments that resonate through history.

The evident absence of those qualities in Trump leaves him uniquely ill-equipped to handle the intertwined challenges of a public health pandemic, economic collapse and racial conflict that the nation now faces. The results have inflamed enmity, division and hardship across the nation.

Consider some of the signature events that helped define chief executives over the last century. They etch an unflattering contrast with today's incumbent.

After Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt girded Americans for the struggle ahead by leveling with them: "It will not only be a long war, it will be a hard war." Trump has misled Americans about many aspects of the current crisis -- downplaying the coronavirus threat, exaggerating chances for rapid economic recovery, distorting the nature of protests by describing participants as "arsonists, looters, criminals and anarchists wanting to destroy ... our country."

Harry Truman demonstrated presidential accountability by avowing "The buck stops here." Trump dodges the buck, insisting in the White House Rose Garden that, "I don't take responsibility at all" for coronavirus failures............................



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President Donald Trump returns to the White House after visiting outside St. John's Church, Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. Part of the church was set on fire during protests on Sunday night.