Hi, this is Noot. Because of the coronavirus, I am currently staying at home in Rome,

where my wife serves as the United States ambassador to the Holy See. She's leading the embassy

in dealing with all the different changes being brought about by the pandemic. To bring you this

episode this week, I'm recording from my home, so you may notice a difference in audio quality.

On this episode of Noot's World, President Trump has faced the COVID-19 national emergency,

unlike any President has faced a crisis in modern American history, but responding to the COVID

crisis with deregulation and decentralization. Rather than centralizing power in Washington,

he has relied on state and local governments to make decisions regarding social confinement,

business closures, testing and treatment, and private enterprise to manufacture

urgently needed medical supplies and equipment. President Trump has emphasized that the

intensity of the epidemic varies widely and is best met by state and local judgments.

The COVID-19 crisis and government response will only lead to important lessons and policy

improvements. My guest today wrote about this subject in the Wall Street Journal. In an article

entitled, Trump rewrites the book on emergencies. I'm really pleased to welcome my guest,

close friend and former boss Chris DeMuth, the distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute.

He was president of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

from 1986 to 2008 and was known as President Reagan's deregulations are.

Chris, how surprised are you at the way that President Trump has consciously avoided centralizing

and federalizing the response? Since the Reagan days in the early 1980s, I have observed

that the administrative state in Washington has grown inexorably and it has grown in part by

taking over responsibilities that were formerly state responsibilities and it has grown because

Congress has increasingly delegated what are in fact law-making powers from the legislature

...