[Nan3cy]

Trump could have and should have done many things differently.   But I am confident that he could not order a nationwide lock down then or now.   And if you question that remember when Trump said that he could order all the states to open up? And the governors  (correctly) said - ah, no, you can’t.  

I believe the only way constitutionally he could’ve done that was to declare martial law. And that would’ve gone over real well

This is true, and Trump should not have called for a nationwide shutdown.  In addition to the Constitutional issues with that, I’m not sure it even made epidemiological sense, especially early on.

That, however, doesn’t absolve Trump.  For starters, his conflicting comments and showdowns with governors were counterproductive and made things more confusing.  Moreover, there is more to leadership than sitting on a throne and giving edicts you expect others to follow.  The President has a lot more influence than authority when it comes to local public health. And issuing clear guidelines for states to apply would have done a lot of good, especially if he would have leveraged the CDC, which is (or  at least was) well trusted by state and local authorities.

BC

Issuing clear guidelines and modeling good behavior - consistently - would have helped.

[Nan3cy]

Trump could have and should have done many things differently.   But I am confident that he could not order a nationwide lock down then or now.   And if you question that remember when Trump said that he could order all the states to open up? And the governors  (correctly) said - ah, no, you can’t.  

I believe the only way constitutionally he could’ve done that was to declare martial law. And that would’ve gone over real well

This is true, and Trump should not have called for a nationwide shutdown.  In addition to the Constitutional issues with that, I’m not sure it even made epidemiological sense, especially early on.

That, however, doesn’t absolve Trump.  For starters, his conflicting comments and showdowns with governors were counterproductive and made things more confusing.  Moreover, there is more to leadership than sitting on a throne and giving edicts you expect others to follow.  The President has a lot more influence than authority when it comes to local public health. And issuing clear guidelines for states to apply would have done a lot of good, especially if he would have leveraged the CDC, which is (or  at least was) well trusted by state and local authorities.

BC

Issuing clear guidelines and modeling good behavior - consistently - would have helped.