Donald Trump is getting some curious words of praise over the past couple of days.

Why? Because he is showing the appropriate emotional response to a worldwide tragedy. Imagine that. The president of the United States is being saluted by the media and even from his critics for taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously.

Is he being “damned with faint praise”? I suppose so.

I will give Trump a quiet golf clap for acting finally the way he should have been acting all along. His “briefing” on Tuesday night contained all the appropriate body language from Trump, not to mention the sight of his emergency response team actually demonstrating appropriate “social distancing” as they watched and listened to Trump say whatever he was saying.

All of this is good, as far as it goes. I remain reluctant to heap the praise on Trump because I also remain committed to the notion that he should have swung into action long ago. Say, perhaps in January and/or February when the coronavirus first presented itself. He didn’t. He dawdled and delayed. He disparaged the threat and denigrated those in the media who were issuing dire warnings.

I can’t get the image of Trump standing in front of us telling us that the 15 cases diagnosed early would disappear as if by some miracle or by magic. It’ll take a whole lot of a more serious-sounding and looking Donald Trump to erase that memory … if you get my drift.

None of this change of modus operandi, to be sure, is a game changer. It most assuredly won’t persuade me to endorse Donald Trump’s re-election when the time comes for Americans to cast their ballots.

Critics of this blog and supporters of the president just will have to accept that your friendly blogger only will say what needs to be said: It’s about damn time!