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The Contemporary Presidency : Two Presidents, Two Crises: Bush Wrestles with 9/11, Trump Fumbles COVID‐19
Author(s) -
Mayer Jeremy D.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/psq.12674
Subject(s) - presidency , presidential system , bureaucracy , political science , crisis management , covid-19 , crisis response , george (robot) , public administration , political economy , law , politics , sociology , history , public relations , medicine , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , art history
This article compares the response of Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump to the two largest crises since the Cuban missile affair: 9/11 and the COVID‐19 pandemic. In examining how each president handled the early warnings, crisis communication, decision making, bureaucratic management, and the public response, we find a mixed picture. Employing these five criteria, it seems at this juncture that while the Bush response ultimately had some successes and some troubling long‐term consequences, the Trump crisis response is destined, in the absence of some dramatic change in events, to be ranked as among the worst in presidential history. Keywords: Trump, Bush, Covid‐19, 9/11, presidents, presidency, crisis management