Trump’s Attempt at an Un-Trumpian Image

“I’m being nice today,” President Donald Trump said last Friday, at a ceremony to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the former congressman and Olympic athlete Jim Ryun. And Trump has been nice—nice is a very relative term in this case—at least since last week, when he unexpectedly revived the fabled tradition of regular White House briefings on the coronavirus pandemic.

You probably remember those briefings from back in the day, exactly 37 years ago (), I mean, a few months ago. Recall the early sun-dappled sessions in the White House Rose Garden: The briefings were full of hope and promises, presenting the country with a vision of coast-to-coast drive-through testing sites offering real-time results;