Why Does Trump Think the American People Would Panic? Probably Because He Would

Some things in your life you never forget, even when they happened when you were very young. One that I will never forget occurred on October 22, 1962, when I was twelve years old.

The news that day suggested that something of great significance was unfolding and President John F. Kennedy would address the nation in the early evening. After dinner, my family sat down on the living room couch and turned on our black and white television. Kennedy appeared at 7:00 p.m., looking serious but acting calm. He delivered some frightening news.

The Soviet Union, he announced, had secretly installed offensive, mid-ranged nuclear missiles in Cuba, ninety miles from the United States. All of the country except for the far Pacific Northwest was now under a Soviet nuclear umbrella. As a twelve-year old, living in the “duck and cover” era, this was frightening. Kennedy made no effort to diminish the threat, and laid out seven specific steps he was taking, the first being the most famous — the “quarantine” of Cuba of any shipping carrying offensive weapons.

But the third was downright scary, for adults and children. The president stated that any Soviet missile launched from Cuba against any target in the western hemisphere would be answered with “a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.” In short, it would mean nuclear war.

But Kennedy closed his speech by reminding us who we were as Americans. He calmly stated, “The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are — but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world. The cost of freedom is always high — but Americans have always paid it.”

I have always remembered the reference to “our character and courage as a nation.” My parents were of the “Greatest Generation,” the ones who had stiffened and defeated what Winston Churchill called a “monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.” As we sat there afterwards, they were worried, I could see that. But, somehow their attitude reflected that very “character and courage” Kennedy had evoked. Their calm affected me, and I went to bed that evening and slept soundly. A few days later, it was over. The Soviets backed down, and we all felt we had won.

When I studied international relations in adulthood, I went over the numerous nuances of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and learned how our victory certainly had limits. The Castro regime survived, although the Soviet missiles were withdrawn. We withdrew some of our own missiles from Turkey. But however one tallied the score, the lesson I took away was our “character and courage as a nation.” It served me well when I deployed an Army unit to Desert Storm, where I saw “character and courage” up close.

Which brings me to President Trump’s failure to level with the American people about the coronavirus, and his admitted efforts to downplay the dangers for fear it would panic us, an attitude recently documented by famous journalist Bob Woodward. Of course what Trump was really concerned about was a panic in the stock market. But even in that his fear was mis-placed. During the missile crisis the market lost about 7% of its value, losses that quickly recovered after the Soviets famously “blinked.” But as for the American people, they did not and do not panic — as long as you level with them.

President Kennedy understood that quality of our national character. He had demonstrated it himself when his PT boat was sunk during World War II. He saved his crew because he stayed calm, addressed the immediate circumstance, prevented panic, and saved his men.

Trump has no such experience to draw on. The panics that he has always faced were not of life or death, but of his own financial ruin. He understands fear, and evokes and creates it on occasion to fit his own purposes, but he has no comprehension of “character and courage,” which may explain why he simply can’t understand those who rest in Arlington and Aisne-Meuse cemeteries. Moreover, Trump does not understand character and courage because for him they are absent qualities.

When he was first briefed on the threat of the Coronavirus in January 2020, had Trump leveled with the American people and told them they would have to wash their hands, wear a mask, and socially distance while the scientific community worked on a medical treatment, and had he practiced that himself rather than politicizing it, Americans would have listened. Certainly some would have resisted, somebody always does, but the large majority of Americans would have responded positively. Moreover, the result would have been good for Trump. But he missed his chance.

Kennedy had been in England, where his father served as the ambassador, in the lead-up to World War II. He wrote a book about it, detailing the clear dangers of ignoring clear threats. He knew well the British national response when Churchill told his people, “I have never promised anything but blood, tears, toil, and sweat.” They got tough, they sacrificed, and with American help they won. Kennedy had relevant experiences and insights. He had been to war. He had lived through what he called a “long twilight struggle.” He had witnessed those “dark days and darker nights when England stood alone.” Unfortunately Donald Trump has no such experiences or recollections. Nor has he done anything to suggest he shares the nation’s “character and courage.” The nation has suffered accordingly.