Meet Donald Trump, the incredibly shrinking president – USA TODAY

The Editorial Board, USA TODAY Published 6:59 p.m. ET Aug. 13, 2020 | Updated 7:36 p.m. ET Aug. 13, 2020

Our View: Fatal response to coronavirus, unkept campaign promises, and mountain of lies and falsehoods show what a small man he really is.

Youre readingOur View,one of two perspectives in Todays Debate.

For the Opposing View, read President Trump is helping middle-class Americans.

It seem eons ago now though only a few years that Donald Trump capitalized on the soaring stature of the Oval Office to shatterequilibriums with his brand of edicts and outrage.He would roil public discourse for weeks with his claimsthat he wonthe popular vote in 2016 because millions voted illegally, enjoyed the largest inaugural crowd in history, waswiretapped by President Barack Obama, saw moral equivalency between white supremacists and those who oppose them, and threatened"fire and fury" against North Korea.

It was all false, phony or came to nothing.But the point was his towering ability back then to shockpeople.

And today? Not so much.

When a massive explosionvaporized the center of Beirut last week, Trump thatsame day declared it an "attack ... a bomb of some kind" with a level of certainty that should have sent ripples of concern through foreign governments.As it was, fewpaid any attention. His comment barely registered as news, and evidence quickly surfaced that the blast was almost certainly a terrible accident.

And there have been other pronouncements recently that, all things being equal, should have generated quite a stir. Except they didn't.

President Donald Trump at a news conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Aug. 7, 2020.(Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

The president promisedJuly19 that within two weeks, he'd produce a long-awaited plan for overhauling the nation's health care system. Days later, he committed to unveiling a strategy for defeating coronavirus "that'sgoing to be very, very powerful."And recently, Trump said that if reelected,he'dstrike a deal with Iran in four weeks.

All have been met with a collective shrug, probably because Americans sensed they would come to nothing. There hasbeen nohealth care plan and no grand COVID-19 strategy, even asU.S. deaths due to the coronavirus surpass165,000. And does anyone really believe Trump will reach an agreement with an Iranian regimethat refuseseven to speak with him?

So what hashappened? Trump's ability to shock and awehas gotten smaller.He's the incredibly shrinking president.

Even his dramatic declaration last weekend that he would "save American jobs and provide relief to the American workers" with a series of executive actionshasn't movedthe dial on his low approval ratings.

And that's because it's allsmoke and mirrors.

The promise toprovide enhancedunemployment benefits with money pulled out of anemergency relief fund (during a major hurricane season) may not be legal. Sen.Ben Sasse, R-Neb.,called it "unconstitutional slop."

The $400 in additional weekly payments would work only ifcash-strapped states kick in 25% and would only last about six weeks. In addition, apayroll tax holiday Trump is promising is really a deferral of taxes that will have to be paid back. And his commitment to blockevictionsamounts to little more than a recommendation to landlords.

The reality is that the public has grownweary of a president whose words mean very little. It probably began with all of the unkept campaign promises 4% annual economic growth, repeal and replaceObamacare, investin infrastructure and builda wall paid for by Mexico.

Certainly a growing mountain of lies and falsehoods haven't helped.The Washington Post estimates now more than 20,000.

But what mighthave finally tipped Trump toward triviality is the grotesque way he dismissed (and continues to dismiss)a deadly pandemic as something that will simply disappear, even as it ravages America.

Our View was written by editorial writer Gregg Zoroyaon behalf of the USA TODAY Editorial Board.

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Meet Donald Trump, the incredibly shrinking president - USA TODAY