How did you explain why our infection rate is high?
Trump could have recognized the seriousness of the virus: not gone to Tulsa, not talked about disinfectant, encouraged people to wear masks, not make dumb comments like of the cruise ship, "I don't need to have our numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault," or that April temperatures would make the virus "go away." In short, respect science, choose his words carefully, and support his own administration's cautions and recommendations. Instead he created a divide with respect to the virus where one woman could joke that she wouldn't wear a mask because she didn't "want to look like a democrat." (Btw, does anyone know if there has been a political divide with respect to the virus in other countries?)
Of course none of this would have made our rate zero. No one is suggesting that.
Speaking cynically, this was a great political opportunity for Trump. Maybe he couldn't speak like FDR during the depression or Churchill during the blitz, but he could have taken a cue from Giuliani post 9/11. Trump doesn't have "the right stuff," he's not "a wartime consigliere," -- pick your cultural allusion.