Division appears to be Trump’s only coronavirus plan

Follow Us This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a battle plan of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda Trump has no coronavirus plan, while the country splits apart. Putin and MBS aren't doing so great either. Air travel will be far more annoying. Stagflation is the risk nobody sees coming. Overshadowed. Photographer: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images Lack of Planning on Trump's Part Is an Emergency on Our Part "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy" is an idea that makes sense when applied to war, but the guy who said it first wasn't necessarily opposed to plans per se. The people running America's war on Covid-19 seem to have taken the idea too much to heart. Even at this late date, it's not obvious President Donald Trump has a long-term plan for either fighting the virus or pulling the economy from the brink of a depression, writes Jonathan Bernstein. In a Fox News interview yesterday, he simply repeated old talking points, while gauzily suggesting everything would take care of itself. Maybe Napoleon could get away with saying, "I have never had a plan of operations." Trump cannot. (And Napoleon's approach didn't work out so great for him in the long run.) In that same interview, Trump bumped up his estimate of coronavirus deaths to 100,000. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly forecasts a surge in cases in the next month, with the daily death rate doubling. Yet Trump keeps pushing states to reopen, though most don't meet guidelines his own administration issued just weeks ago. So you have Texas throwing its doors open even as cases are still peaking, while California keeps hunkering down, exacerbating our red state-blue state divide, writes Noah Feldman. It's a huge, risky experiment in public health policy; hopefully the states will at least keep good records, writes Faye Flam. Trump is widening these divisions, encouraging rebellions against blue-state leaders and turning coronavirus safety into a political football, with deadly consequences. In this, he has much in common with the presidents historians consider America's worst, writes Francis Wilkinson. Such non-luminaries as James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson paved the way for the Civil War and the ugly Jim Crow era. Trump's Fox interview was held in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln, where it seems his reputation will forever remain. One area where Trump has no problem leading is in destroying regulations that keep the environment clean. As Michael Bloomberg and Gina McCarthy write, making air dirtier would cost American lives even if there weren't a deadly respiratory illness gripping the country. Now it's especially dangerous. But it's long been one of Trump's plans. Given he doesn't seem to have many, it's understandable he might cling to this one. Sponsored Content by Masterworks With $65B/yr in sales, it's no wonder that so many high-profile CEOs and founders invest in art. With big data, only one company is positioned to capitalize using a revolutionary fractional ownership concept that lets you buy and sell shares just like stocks. Act fast and skip the 25,000+ waitlist.   Leadership Vacuum Extends to Moscow and Riyadh As we've said, Trump isn't the only world leader failing to lead in this pandemic. Vladimir Putin, for example, has essentially checked out of Russia's coronavirus response, which has been largely lacking, writes Clara Ferreira Marques. Putin's bungling of the twin disasters of the pandemic and an oil-price collapse threaten his plans to cling to power indefinitely. At least Putin is somewhat in control of his own destiny. Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in contrast, needs U.S. support merely to remain in his palace, notes Bobby Ghosh. Unfortunately for him, he has alienated all his old friends in Washington, leaving him vulnerable to being bullied by Trump into abandoning his oil-price war. Sad! Some leaders do seem to learn from their mistakes, though. Boris Johnson's U.K., for example, seems to be on the right track after significant early stumbles, writes Therese Raphael. Airlines Face Rough Skies and Other Cliches At least we can still turn to Warren Buffett for guidance in these troubled times. The Oracle of Omaha finally broke his extended coronavirus silence on Saturday, and his encomium to American resilience was inspiring, writes Tara Lachapelle. Moved to tears in a different way were airlines, upon learning Buffett had dumped all his investments in them. It's hard to blame him; air travel is about to get much worse and more annoying, if you can possibly imagine, writes Chris Bryant. It will be hard for airlines to recoup profits when they're constantly cleaning planes, flying less often and leaving seats empty. At least they can take some comfort in getting a sweet bailout deal from the U.S. government, writes Timothy Massad. Unlike the financial-crisis bank rescues, Uncle Sam will barely recoup anything from this investment, most of the spoils of which will go to shareholders. Choose Your Misadventure: Deflation or Stagflation One of the hallmarks of a depression is deflation, or persistent price declines. The price of oil, which briefly went negative last month, may be a canary in this particular coal mine. The pandemic may semi-permanently damage demand for crude, while production capacity remains high, writes Julian Lee. Prices could take decades to recover fully. But the real black swan here could be inflation, writes John Authers. Nobody expects it, which is a strong argument for it being the real risk. It would be the demon spawn of all the money being pumped into the economy around the world, this time with little appetite for austerity to ameliorate its impact. Add retreating globalization and broken supply chains, et voila: stagflation. Of course, the Fed could always sit on interest rates, but that creates different problems. Telltale Charts Even people who want economies to reopen are still anxious about leaving their houses, writes Ben Schott. J. Crew had preexisting conditions, but it won't be the last apparel retailer to go bankrupt, as the segment will be slowest to recover from Covid-19, writes Andrea Felsted. Further Reading All those protection-light loans are turning out to be a bad idea now, giving investors little say over what happens next as risky borrowers struggle. — Brian Chappatta Strapped state and local governments could try to wring more money out of their residents, leading to tax revolts of the kind we saw in the Depression. — Stephen Mihm Trump wants the Navy to destroy Iranian ships, but the service has clear rules of engagement designed to avoid disasters. — James Stavridis In many ways, a video-meeting paradigm is preferable. — Sarah Green Carmichael There's a puzzle inside this latest puzzle column. — Scott Duke Kominers ICYMI Scientists created an antibody that defeats the new coronavirus in the lab. Elon Musk put two homes up for sale. The super-rich will be your lenders now. Kickers Scientists find a malaria-blocking microbe. This may be the end of the open-plan office. Area man feeds remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship. We should all be preppers. 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