Coronavirus test: What makes a good leader in times of crisis?

"I alone can fix it,” Donald Trump famously asserted at the 2016 Republican National Convention, referring to “the system.”

The arena erupted in cheers. Today, amid a national crisis, the script has flipped. In key ways President Trump has deferred to governors, and hesitated to use the powers at his disposal – both formal and informal.

The moment is laden with irony. Since taking office, Mr. Trump’s critics have called him a wannabe autocrat as he blew through norms and pushed the boundaries of the Constitution’s checks and balances.

Now, at a time when a president might be expected to use executive authority to the max, these same critics want him to be more autocratic. Call for a national lockdown, some say. Order the production and acquisition of medical supplies, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pleaded to the president, as the state faces a surge of coronavirus cases.

But the answer isn’t so simple.

Taking centralized control of pandemic response is “an invitation to concentrate not just the power of the White House, but also increase the likelihood of abuses and inefficiencies,” says Jonathan Turley, a constitutional scholar at The George Washington University Law School.