(CNN)Military hospital ships will chug toward hard-hit areas. The government can now use a 1950s law to mandate factories produce medical equipment (though not, apparently, right away). The country, by all appearances, is back at war — with President Donald Trump, at least by his own description, as the man in charge.
«I view it as — in a sense — of wartime president,» Trump said Wednesday as every American was again urged to remain in place and cases of coronavirus spread to all 50 states. «I mean, that’s what we’re fighting. Very tough situation here.»
As far as crisis-era clarion calls, it wasn’t exactly Franklin Roosevelt’s «fear itself» or Abraham Lincoln’s «four score and seven years ago.» But it was the most definitive signal yet that Trump now views the crisis at hand as a once-in-a-generation battle — a reality that people around him have been trying to convey for weeks.
Even before Wednesday, some of Trump’s allies had ramped up the wartime rhetoric in an attempt to bolster the President’s standing after a poorly received Oval Office address to the nation and persistent questions about his ability to handle the crisis.
Trump himself, who enjoys the militaristic trappings of the presidency, has told aides over the past week that he wants to project a more commanding air as he’s confined to the White House and unable to speak at campaign rallies.
In battling coronavirus, Trump embraces his ‘wartime’ presidency.
The announcements Trump made Wednesday, which came amid concerns that his administration’s slow response to the crisis would lead to shortages in medical equipment and hospital beds, bore the markings of war-eras past.
The Defense Production Act, which was originally used to regulate steel and mining during the Korean War, could be used to increase production of badly needed ventilators, masks and protective equipment «just in case we need it,» Trump said.
