I cannot get past Donald Trump’s declaration that he would forgo a health agency’s recommendation to wear a mask while interacting with other human beings.

Think of this. Trump wants to be considered a “wartime president” as the nation fights the coronavirus pandemic. Then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that Americans should wear masks. Trump’s response? He said the CDC recommendation is “voluntary,” so he won’t follow the agency’s advice.

If he wants us to think of him as a wartime president, shouldn’t he act like one? To my way of thinking, that would entail a president setting the example that others would follow. Yep, that means wearing a mask in public.

Think, too, of how such a gesture might play to critics such as myself. I am, as you know, an avid — and at times admittedly angry — critic of Donald Trump. The sight of Trump wearing a mask while interacting with others would send a positive message to me. It wouldn’t entice me to vote for Trump this November, but it would draw praise from this blog.

My wife and I are following the CDC advice. Given that the president works for us — and that we do not work for him — it makes sense to me that our “employee,” the president, ought to be follow the lead of his “bosses.” I trust you get my drift.

Trump made some lame and phony excuse for not wearing a mask. He said something about the “image” of a president wearing a mask in the Oval Office while greeting another head of state. Well, as former VP Joe Biden once said of the enactment of the Affordable Care Act … big fu**ing deal.

Why not make visitors to the Oval Office wear a mask, too? If Trump is going to declare himself to be a wartime president, then he ought to take charge and act like someone willing to sacrifice in a time of war. And he could demand that others make the same sacrifice.

That’s what real leaders do.