MS NOW hosts Chris Hayes and Nicolle Wallace pointed out that President Donald Trump’s claims about his war on Iran are not dissimilar to a previous crisis he had to manage.
Hayes, 47, noted on Wednesday night after the president’s address to the nation that Trump’s crisis-management approach to his largely unpopular war in the Middle East sounded much like his approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So much of this has reminded me of COVID, because it was a similar dynamic. There was a genuine, high-stakes, life-or-death issue, and his salesman patter to try to get out of it,” Hayes said. “And there was a moment tonight where that COVID analogy was almost literal. I just want to play that for you—something he said about COVID back in 2020 and something he said tonight about the Strait."
“A lot of movement and a lot of progress has been made on a vaccine,” Trump said in the clip from 2020. “But I think what happens is it’s going to go away. This is going to go away.”
The clip was followed by a moment from the president’s speech on Wednesday.
“In any event, when this conflict is over, the Strait [of Hormuz} will open up naturally,” the president said, referring to the blocked Gulf shipping lane. “It will just open up naturally. They’re going to want to be able to sell oil because that’s all they have to try and rebuild.”
“Just naturally, don’t worry about it, it’s just going to happen,” Hayes said, mimicking Trump.
“What they have in common is they’re two situations that are out of his control,” Wallace, a former White House communications director under President George W. Bush, replied.
“Now, President Obama, President Clinton, President Bush—all presidents deal with things that are out of their control. And the American public doesn’t actually judge a politician for the things that are out of their control," she continued.
“They judge a politician based on their candor in a moment when things are out of their control, and they judge a politician based on their handling of the facts as they exist,” Wallace added. “And COVID is a perfect example.”
“Donald Trump was trying to will COVID into being something that fit his, at the time, re-election ambitions. This is something that he is very much trying to will into a midterm political calendar.”
The president’s primetime address on the war on Wednesday did little to dissuade the American public from their hesitancy about the 32-day conflict.
Trump, 79, did not give a clear date when the war he started would be over, but said the U.S. was “nearing completion” of its “core objectives” in the region.
Since the conflict began on Feb. 28, 13 American service members have been killed, and more than 200 have been wounded, according to U.S. military officials.
Gas prices have risen substantially at home, with the average price per gallon breaking $4 for the first time in four years.
