So, what is it that Trump should have done differently?

[downbeatplumb]

Hey, Prof?  Trump has been pretty selective about when states have authority and when he has authority.  He's said, on more than one occasion, that he has the authority to make decisions about this virus, about the quarantine and about opening the country back up.  Observe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1MdGfv-W9E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIBlaMkTMzQ

I'm sure if I did more than just a 2 minute youtube search, I'd find plenty more hits like that.  The point is, yes, Trump has said he absolutely has the authority to make decisions that you keep saying the states are supposed to make.  But he didn't.  He let the states shut down instead of doing things from a federal level because, from the very start, his actions indicate that he's been more worried about the stock market than he has this pandemic.  He told people to go to work sick because he didn't want to reduce productivity.  He downplayed the seriousness of this disease in his press briefings after he saw stock prices drop as a consequence of it.  He resisted ordering a nationwide shutdown because he wanted people to keep spending and keep producing.  He is really eager to open everything back up while his business advisors are all telling him how much money they're losing with the shutdown.  And, yes, after insisting he doesn't have the authority to shutdown states, he's also claiming he does have the authority to open them back up.  

Republican philosophy for decades has claimed that government would run better if we ran it like a business and, naturally, that would mean we would have a businessman as president and we should do better, right?  Well, they got what they want: a businessman is president.  Unfortunately, when you're president of a modern nation, not all problems are economic.  If you listen to economic advisors instead of scientific or medical advisors, you aren't going to be able to get through this.

To be fair to the republican philosophy they only have a very very bad business man as president. A half competent one may have done a better job. But you know...Trump.