Former presidential speechwriters have delivered a withering assessment of the rare Oval Office address used by Donald Trump to announce emergency measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
Writers for Mr Trump's two most recent predecessors responded with concern and scathing criticism to Wednesday night’s televised speech, which had been intended to reassure Americans about the rapid spread of Covid-19.
“My careful rhetorical analysis is that he's gonna get us all killed,” tweeted David Litt, who worked for Barack Obama when he was president.
David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W Bush, said Mr Trump’s Oval Office address "was the worst action yet in a string of bad actions".
"He offered no guidance or policy on how to prevent the spread of the disease inside the United States," he wrote in The Atlantic, and "no explanation of what went wrong with the US testing system, nor any assurance of when testing would become more widely available".
"More people will get sick because of his presidency than if somebody else were in charge," Mr Frum added.
In his second Oval Office address in three years, Mr Trump at last acknowledged the severity of the disease - which he has repeatedly suggested is no worse than common flu - as he announced a European travel ban and urged people to avoid large events.
But the speech appeared to have done little to put the nation at ease, instead rattling stock markets and causing confusion as the president was forced to later clarify mistakes in his address.
He also faced criticism for his nationalistic description of the disease which has taken hold across the world as a “foreign virus”, and for blaming the European Union and China for the pandemic.
“This is very much out of the known Trump playbook. He is someone who struggles to admit he is wrong or has ever made a mistake,” said CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza. “What's clear here is that Trump (and his broader administration) have made mistakes.”
Other commentators said Mr Trump’s speech showed he “does not comprehend the most basic facts” about the pandemic.
“Trump’s speech had no mention of the central problem in the American response to the coronavirus, which is the lack of a functioning testing regime,” wrote New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait, who noted the president offered “no guidance” on what people should do if they show symptoms.
Mr Litt’s assessment was even more sobering.
“A lot of Americans are going to die because the popular vote winner doesn’t become president,” he said, in reference to the manner of Mr Trump’s 2016 election victory over Hillary Clinton.
