Dereliction of directives: Don’t mask the problem Mr President

Masks are once again a hot topic. Don’t worry: Their latest star turn doesn’t involve some new culture war clash over how much protection masks provide, when they should be worn or whether, as some of the more excitable social-distancing opponents charge, they are a form of government tyranny. Rather, it seems masks are finally getting some respect at the White House. On Monday, the White House Management Office issued a memo requiring all of the staff to wear masks while inside the West Wing except when working at their own desks. Visitors will need to cover their faces as well. The increased precautions came after two White House aides tested positive for the coronavirus last week: one of President Trump’s personal valets and Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller. Both had spent significant time inside the cramped, crowded West Wing. Both are now in quarantine — as is Miller’s husband, Stephen Miller, who is one of the president’s closest advisers.

Also over the weekend, three key members of the coronavirus task force — including pandemic heartthrob Dr Anthony Fauci — went into self-isolation after having been, as Trump breezily put it, “in the general proximity” of an infected staff member. Separately, two members of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff decided to self-quarantine after possible exposure. One, Gen Joseph Lengyel, the head of the National Guard Bureau, initially had tested positive for the coronavirus on his way to a meeting with the president on Saturday. General Lengyel’s second and third tests came back negative. Pence, perversely, is not quarantining — though Trump has said he’ll be keeping his distance from the vice president. Further precautions were unnecessary, the White House said, because Pence has so far tested negative for the virus. No matter. The pandemic has breached the White House perimeter, and nerves are starting to fray. “It is scary to go to work,” Kevin Hassett, a White House economic adviser, told “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

Monday’s mask directive, of course, will not apply to the president or vice president. After all, the primary purpose of a non-medical mask isn’t to protect the wearer but rather those around him or her, not exactly a top priority for Trump. Still, it was a notable reversal — and surely a painful concession — by a president who has long made clear his anti-mask bias.

In early April, while announcing the recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that masks be worn in public spaces, Trump made clear he would not be taking his own administration’s advice. “Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens — I don’t know,” he said. “Somehow, I don’t see it for myself.”

Aides have said that Trump’s resistance stems in part from not wanting to look ridiculous. From a health standpoint, this is ridiculous. But it comports perfectly with the warped logic of Trumpian machismo: Masks are for the weak — read: losers — and he is all about strength. The president’s apologists are happy to peddle this line. “What Trump is really doing is projecting American strength and health at a time when strong leadership is needed,” The Federalist proclaimed. Noting the importance of “optics,” the article contended that a single photo of a mask-clad Trump “would signal that the United States is so powerless against this invisible enemy sprung from China that even its president must cower behind a mask.”

But in fact Trump is increasingly desperate to project strong leadership because he has so utterly failed to provide strong leadership. Polls show that a majority of Americans disapprove of the president’s unsteady handling of the pandemic. And even as his administration pushes to reopen the economy, its internal data indicate that the worst pain is yet to come. As social-distancing restrictions are lifted, the daily death toll in the United States is projected to climb to around 3,000 by June 1.

To distract from this grim reality, Trump is going full carnival barker, minimising the public health risks and all but declaring victory. “In every generation, through every challenge and hardship and danger, America has risen to the task,” he proclaimed on Monday. “We have met the moment and we have prevailed.” Not yet, we haven’t. Not even close.

Trump is peddling a fantasy world where he has wrestled the invisible enemy into submission and America is now poised to “transition to greatness” — a perplexing phrase he promised we are “going to hear a lot” in the coming weeks. In his candy-coated dream, there is no room for anything so unlovely as masks, which serve as a jarring reminder that all is not well and is unlikely to be anytime soon.

So it was that until this week, Trump’s mask aversion extended well beyond his person, echoing throughout the White House. Top aides generally eschewed them, as did those who attended meetings with the president or appeared at his daily public briefings. Certainly, Pence internalised the message, doing public appearances barefaced even after causing a minor scandal by declining to mask up during his visit to the Mayo Clinic last month, explicitly violating the hospital’s policy. Pence apologised for the infraction, before settling back into masklessness.

Now seems a good time to note that the Republican governor of Iowa is currently in a “modified quarantine” after doing public appearances with the vice president on Friday during his visit to the state.

At his Monday briefing, Trump was asked: “How can you assure Americans that it’s safe to go to their workplaces when the most secure workplace in the country, the White House, cannot contain the spread of the coronavirus that has infected some of your own staff?”

The president rejected the question’s premise, claiming that the quick response to “one person” testing positive just shows how well the system is working. (It was unclear which of the two infected aides he does not consider a person.) He said of the virus, “I think it’s very well contained, actually.”

It isn’t, actually. Not inside the White House, much less in the country at large. Trump knows this, and his growing panic to pretend otherwise cannot mask the truth.