Thursday evening, President Donald Trump wore a metaphorical mask and said the right things about when and how America's governors should relax social distancing restrictions to safely restart their economies.
The feds were issuing broad guidelines, he said, but "governors will be empowered to tailor an approach that meets the diverse circumstances of their own states ... .
"If they need to remain closed, we will allow them to do that ... We are also encouraging states to work together to harmonize their regional efforts."
Happily surprised by the eruption of maturity, we wrote, "Cross fingers that this is an unsteady president's final answer."
Before noon on Friday, Trump and his thumbs had ripped off the mask to reveal the man we always knew was underneath: the raging, juvenile, divisive partisan with Twitter Tourette's.
"LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" he wrote. "LIBERATE VIRGINIA!" "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!", he said, clearly siding with protesters who've broken social distancing restrictions to put themselves and their neighbors at risk. It is no mistake he chose three swing states with Democratic governors who have gone out of their way to work with regional partners.
For good measure, he took shots at a fourth Democrat, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, for having the gall to ensure that his state, what not long ago was Trump's state, had the hospital and ventilator capacity it might need to handle a coronavirus surge predicted by federal models.
And so the nation's supposed leader reverts again to being its loudest whiner, its blame-shifting, chaos-causing, whirlwind-reaping rabble-rouser.
None of this is the least bit surprising. Just as when the dog, who has gone to obedience school and put on an "I'm sorry" face many times, makes on the carpet again. If it wouldn't violate social distancing rules, we'd roll up today's Daily News and hit him on the nose again.
