Leadership in Crisis: Trump vs FDR
By: Bob Matthews
Tags: Co Vid, Leadership, Crisis, Fdr, Trump

Leadership in Crisis: Trump vs FDR

Franklin Roosevelt was elected to confront a global crisis. Donald Trump was in office when a global crisis broke out. Of the many differences in style and substance between them, two areas are especially instructive to us today.

Roosevelt was elected after Herbert Hoover failed to successfully curtail the Great Depression. Roosevelt had many leadership skills that Hoover did not. Most notably Roosevelt was an excellent communicator. Upon taking office he was instantly able to become the helpful face of government and, in so doing, frame government as agency of relief and solutions.

FDR calmly but clearly described the great problems that faced the nation. He translated systemic dislocation to the personal pain of individuals and families. He predicted that things would get worse before they got better. He empathized with the suffering. He was firm in his convictions that prosperity could be regained, and his optimism beamed through to nation beleaguered by over a decade of Depression.

FDR was a great communicator because he told the truth, in simple terms, while people could see him acting vigorously. For every problem he described, Roosevelt proposed solutions. While FDR and his government made mistakes, their plans were more often right than wrong.

By contrast, Donald Trump is a great communicator to his base which seems rather permanently limited to about 40% of the US population.

Trump’s communication skills were honed during his lifelong effort to achieve celebrity status. Self-promotion is more acceptable in New York and there is a well-trod path to notoriety: Appear in certain newspaper columns, show up at charity events where TV cameras will be present, hang out with famous people and publicize everything you do. Exaggeration is required and lying is fine.

Trump did all that successfully and eventually NBC, also based in New York, tapped him for The Apprentice. TV taught Trump how to take a basic premise, add drama, unpredictability and intrigue and attract an audience, ultimately for thirteen seasons.

Trump’s first political communication skill is to capture as much “eye time” from as many Americans as possible. He then entertains his base who are enthralled by his burlesque, rollicking style. Trump routinely defies normal social conventions, enacts grade school bullying tactics, tantrums like a child for whatever he wants, flirts with violence and generally plays a bad boy role to the hilt. For those excited by racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance or misogyny, Trump offers a smorgasbord of delights.

The problem with Trump’s communication is that, unlike Roosevelt, the size of his audience is bound by his antics. The majority do not find Trump’s modus operandi attractive and they have grown to hate him because he is so offensive. A leader who, in a time of crisis, misstates facts thousands of times, acts like a child, demonstrates bad judgment at critical moments becomes frightening, not popular.

Since the pandemic deprived Trump of his beloved rallies, he commandeered the coronavirus news conferences and expanded them to almost two hours of attention seeking. He grandstands, rambles, insults journalists who ask simple questions and steps in front of the real stars — Doctors Fauci and Birx — who are stars because they know what they are talking about.

Trump is an embarrassment because, like a child, he cannot tell the difference between what he wishes were true and the truth. Trump’s prior learnings were that the truth is whatever he can get people to watch or believe. These lessons do not serve him well when he is up against a force of nature like a viral pandemic.

Trump’s opponents now have tape of him messing up at every step of this pandemic crisis. There, in his own words and images, are his failures to comprehend, plan, lead or act are on display.

There is a second major difference between Trump and FDR. Throughout the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis, President Trump has demonstrated again and again that he doesn’t understand how the federal government — the government he leads — should serve and protect the nation.

For Roosevelt, it was obvious that the federal government needed to save the nation from the Great Depression and again to win World War II. FDR also demonstrated that he knew how our government could save our nation.

When facing the crisis of his times, Trump just doesn’t get it. As has been pointed out by nearly everyone, inadequate medical supplies are our gravest national challenge during this pandemic. Absent a strong federal coordinating role, states wind up competing against each other for the same materials. This wastes precious time, drives up costs and sickens or kills patients and medical providers.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked, US heavy industry had been stunted by twelve years of the Great Depression. Intending war German and Japanese leaders had ramped up their industrial and military production ten years prior. For America to catch up from behind and then ultimately win, we needed to rapidly achieve optimal productivity.

The biggest challenge was the great number of priorities. America and the Allies were behind on everything: bombers, navy ships, fighter planes, tanks, artillery, transport ships, trucks and munitions, to name just a few.

These all required steel which was in short supply. Had the normal free market capitalist business practices applied, builders of ships, tanks, bombers, fighters, etc. would have been competing against each other to get steel. Steel producers could have cleaned up by forcing the various munitions manufacturers into bidding for a limited supply. Valuable time, focus and attention would have been wasted, the price of all military supplies would have grown exorbitantly, and America would have had fewer ships, planes and other material in the fight. We could easily have lost World War II.

Roosevelt saw all of this and commissioned a vast, governmental logistics effort. A fair price for steel was determined, the US bought virtually all the steel and then determined which steel went to which weapons production line. Since there was no purpose in telling a steel plant how much and what type of steel it needed to produce if it couldn’t get ore, coke or coal, so the same logistics experts also allocated those resources straight from the mines.

And it wasn’t just steel. All sorts of commodities like cotton, wool and rubber were in short supply. Government directed logistics assured that the US soldiers in Europe had winter coats when needed.

This coordination and control of the US economy were not a normal function of government. It is clear, however, that they were definitive in winning the war. The pure genius of Roosevelt’s logistics efforts was as much responsible for America’s war victories as the military effort itself. Roosevelt saw what needed to get done and made sure that it happened.

There is plenty of tape showing that President Trump was very late to recognize the COVID-19 threat. Even after the threat became belatedly clear to Trump, the same experts trumpeted that the US did not have enough PPE, ventilators, hospital beds, drugs, COVID tests or other essential medical resources.

Trump’s first act was to convene groups of CEOs from large corporations and punt the problem to them. Then Trump proposed that it is the states’ problem to solve their supply and logistical challenges, not the federal government’s problem. Republican and Democratic governors and public health experts begged Trump to have the federal government coordinate the production, procurement and distribution of medical equipment.

It was not until March 18, 2020 that Trump invoked his right to use the Defense Production Act, the law that allows the US government to organize production of material. Even at that late date Trump refused to use the powers in the Act, he just announced that he had the right to do so.

When asked why, Trump reported that to have the federal government step in would be to turn America into Venezuela. This comment revealed that our President has a serious problem with reality testing.

We now seem to have enough vents, but America is very far short of tests for COVID. The same logic applies. Had Trump acted, we could have had enough tests and a lot faster. As it is people will go back to work and some will get sick and some will die because we cannot find and monitor the pockets of COVID spread.

There is no doubt that doctors and patients have died because Trump failed to do what FDR did so effectively. Franklin Roosevelt met the challenges of his time as well as one could have hoped. Donald Trump failed to meet the challenges of our time and many will pay the price, and for a long time.