Trump vs Covid-19: Creating calm and confidence or| chaos, confusion

In The Prince, his guidebook for political leaders, the Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli made a distinction between the two forces that determine a leader's success and the state he leads.

On the one hand, there is "fortune", the unpredictability of fate - or the ways in which chance, opportunity, and pure luck often influence the course of life. Like when we say that a leader was dealt a bad hand and there was nothing he could do about it.

On the other hand, and as opposed to fortune, Machiavelli placed the idea of "virtue" or "prowess", referring to the skills and abilities that leaders possess and use to exert control over their circumstances, that allow them to confront their bad fortune and do something about the hand they were dealt with. Natural disasters and deadly epidemics, as well as being on the wrong turn of the business cycle, would be the kind of misfortunes that present a huge challenge to any political leader. And going by the initial response of US President Donald Trump to the Covid-19 outbreak and its global spread, including now in the United States, it's clear he saw it as a big threat to his political fortunes.