总统唐纳德·特朗普已经习惯于将自己与英国传奇首相温斯顿·丘吉尔相提并论，以此来为自己为何有意将美国的威胁降到最低辩护冠状病毒在今年早些时候的公开场合，尽管他私下承认危险是严重的。
”他说话总是很平静。特朗普说:“他说我们必须表现出冷静。”他将自己淡化病毒的企图比作丘吉尔在二战期间纳粹对伦敦的持续轰炸“闪电战”中的领导作用。
但是，尽管丘吉尔鼓励人们下定决心，但总统这种可疑的比较错误地描述了他对英国人民悲惨处境的直言不讳。
历史学家乔恩·米查姆(Jon Meacham)写了一本关于两位战时领导人之间友谊的书《富兰克林和温斯顿》(Franklin and Winston)，他反驳了总统的说法，引用了一句更准确地体现丘吉尔当时语气的话。
“英国人民可以面对任何不幸，只要他们相信那些掌管他们事务的人没有欺骗他们，或者没有住在傻瓜的天堂里，”米查姆引用了丘吉尔的话俗话说。
温斯顿·丘吉尔、富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福和约瑟夫·斯大林在雅尔塔会议上，1945年2月。
总统在唤起英国口号“保持冷静，继续前进”时做了另一个有问题的比较，试图证明他对记者鲍勃·伍德沃德的说法是正确的，即他淡化了这场流行病，以免“制造恐慌”。
“正如英国政府在二战面前建议英国人民的那样，‘保持冷静，继续前进。我就是这么做的，”特朗普周四表示。
但现实是，英国政府实际上从未使用过这个口号。
虽然“保持冷静”的设计是作为一系列未来战争海报的一部分于1939年创作的，但政府最终从未发布过。
直到21世纪初，当一份满是灰尘的海报原型被发现时，口号才进入更广泛的公众意识，并最终获得了如今在t恤和咖啡杯上无处不在的地位。
温斯顿·丘吉尔发表演讲，1945年7月。
总统试图解释他淡化病毒的方法，这种病毒现在已经夺去了近20万美国人的生命。与此同时，他面临着因即将出版的《愤怒》(Rage)一书而对著名的伍德沃德(Woodward)发表的关于特朗普总统任期的评论所带来的后果。
“写这本书的那个疯子，”他说，“嗯，特朗普知道一点点。他们想让我出来尖叫，人们快死了，我们也快死了。不，不。我们只是用正确的方式做了这件事，”特朗普告诉数千名肩并肩挤在密歇根州弗里兰飞机库的观众，周四晚上要听总统讲话。许多观众没有戴面具。
特朗普在2月7日的一次录音采访中私下向伍德沃德承认，冠状病毒是“致命的东西”，而且“比你剧烈的流感还要致命”，尽管他继续公开告诉美国人民，这种病毒“就像流感一样”，“非常可控”。
这不是白宫第一次试图将总统与丘吉尔相提并论。早在6月份，白宫新闻秘书凯丽·麦克纳尼(Kayleigh McEnany)将总统在圣约翰圣公会教堂前有争议的拍照机会与丘吉尔调查二战中的轰炸损失进行了比较。
麦克纳尼说:“一直以来，我们看到世界各地的总统和领导人都有领导的时刻和非常强大的象征，对一个国家来说，在任何给定的时间看到这些都很重要，以显示出韧性和决心的信息。”“像丘吉尔一样，我们看到他在检查轰炸造成的破坏。它向英国人民发出了强有力的领导信息。”
但与丘吉尔在战争期间检查伦敦街道爆炸破坏(他在那里冒着极大的个人风险)相反，特朗普穿过拉斐特广场站在一座教堂前，这座教堂在抗议活动中被部分烧毁，随后执法部门强行驱逐了大部分和平抗议者。
丘吉尔并不是唯一一个将自己与周四相比来证明自己的二战著名领导人。
他引用美国最受尊敬的战时总统之一富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福的话说:“我们唯一要害怕的就是——害怕自己。”。
Trump defends downplaying virus by invoking Churchill but gets the history wrong
PresidentDonald Trumphas taken to comparing himself to legendary British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to defend why he intentionally minimized the threat of thecoronavirusin public earlier this year even as he privately acknowledged that the danger was grave.
“He always spoke with calmness. He said we have to show calmness,” Trump said, likening his attempts to play down the virus to Churchill’s leadership amid the Nazis’ sustained bombing "blitz" against London during World War II.
But the president’s dubious comparison mischaracterized his blunt frankness about the dire situation with the British people, even as Churchill encouraged resolve.
Historian Jon Meacham, who authored the book “Franklin and Winston” about the friendship between the two wartime leaders, countered the president’s assertion by offering up a quote that more accurately embodied Churchill’s tone at the time.
“The British people can face any misfortune w/ fortitude & buoyancy as long as they are convinced that those in charge of their affairs are not deceiving them, or are not dwelling in a fool’s paradise,”Meacham quoted Churchillas saying.
The president made another problematic comparison in evoking the British slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On” in trying to justify his claim to journalist Bob Woodward that he downplayed the pandemic so as not "create panic."
“As the British government advised the British people in the face of World War II, ‘Keep calm and Carry On. That's what I did,” Trump said Thursday.
But the reality is that the British government never actually used the slogan.
While the ‘Keep Calm’ design was created 1939 as part of a series of prospective posters in the event of war, the government ultimately never issued it.
It wasn’t until the turn of the 21st century, when a dusty copy of the prototype poster was discovered that the slogan moved into the wider public consciousness and eventually gained the ubiquitous status it enjoys today on tee-shirts and coffee mugs.
Winston Churchill delivers a speech, July, 1945.
The president’s attempt to explain his approach to downplaying the virus, which has now claimed nearly 200 thousand American lives, came as he faces fallout from comments he made to renowned to Woodward for his forthcoming book, “Rage,” about the Trump presidency.
“This whack job that wrote the book, he said, well, Trump knew a little bit. They wanted me to come out and scream, people are dying, we’re dying. No, no. We did it just the right way,” Trump told an audience of thousands who packed shoulder-to-shoulder into an airplane hangar in Freeland, Michigan, to hear the president Thursday night. Many in the audience were not wearing masks.
Trump privately acknowledged to Woodward on Feb. 7, in a recorded interview, that the coronavirus was “deadly stuff” and “more deadly than even your strenuous flus,” even as he continued to publicly tell the American people that the virus was “like the flu” and “very much under control.”
It’s not the first time the White House has tried to compare the president to Churchill. Back in June, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany compared the president’s controversial photo opportunity in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church to Churchill surveying bombing damage in World War II.
“Through all of time, we have seen presidents and leaders across the world who have had leadership moments and very powerful symbols that were important for a nation to see at any given time to show a message of resilience and determination,” McEnany said. "Like Churchill, we saw him inspecting the bombing damage. It sent a powerful message of leadership to the British people.”
But in contrast to Churchill’s inspection of bombing damage on the streets of London amid war -- where he put himself at great personal risk -- Trump’s walk across Lafayette Square to stand in front of a church that had been partially burned amid protests followed the forcible removal by law enforcement of mostly peaceful protesters.
And Churchill wasn't the only famous Second World War leader Trump compared himself to Thursday to make his case.
"The only thing we have to fear is -- fear itself," he said, quoting one of America's most highly-regarded wartime presidents -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
