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What makes a leader? I think is a combination of courage, empathy, knowledge, a mastery of facts, the ability to listen to others and process information, and the ability to take effective action based on facts.

In response to John Forman’s column, he could not be more wrong in praising the president. The president has shown no leadership in this pandemic.

Here are the facts:

The Obama administration briefed the incoming Trump administration with a national security council 69-page handbook on fighting pandemics — which it promptly shelved.

On Jan. 22, President Trump was asked if he was worried about the pandemic, and he said “No, not at all”

He played down the crisis for over two months saying it was like the seasonal flu, even though health experts had briefed him that this virus was much more contagious and 10 times more deadly.

He claimed at a rally that the Democrats were hyping the pandemic and that it was a hoax.

He said the need for ventilators was being exaggerated.

He did not order the production of testing kits and as recently as a couple of weeks ago said that anyone who wanted a test could get one. That was not true then, and it is not true now.

On different occasions over the past few weeks, President Trump has said that the virus was “under control,” that the number of cases would soon “go down, not up,” and that the virus might magically “disappear,” it would be a “miracle,” and that it would “vanish by April” when the weather got warmer. All wrong.

A week ago, President Trump said he was wanting to lift social distancing for Easter just when the number of cases will peak.

He has dragged his feet in invoking the Defense Production Act to require industries to convert factories to make ventilators or other needed equipment.

He has refused to issue a nationwide stay-at-home order. This means some states whose governors are acting irresponsibly will experience a huge spike in cases just as others are flattening their numbers (i.e. Florida vacationers bringing the virus back to Minnesota possibly creating a new crisis here)

I could go on. Trump will try to get us to forget the way he downplayed and fiddled, misled and lied, all the while people became ill and died. I get that, that’s who he is. He will never take responsibility. He will blame Democrats, governors or anyone else he can. Whatever happened to the buck stops here?

I just don’t understand how anyone of any political persuasion can ignore the facts, facts that we all heard with our own ears and saw with our own eyes, especially when so many lives are at stake. He has done “a great job reacting to COVID 19.” Huh? This virus is killing people, while this president plays politics.

Ted Hinnenkamp

Albert Lea