Latest things first; pulling out of World Health Organization (WHO) and cessation of WHO funding at a time when the number of patients and deaths were the highest in the US than any other country; evading the international video conference for fundraising on Coronavirus Vaccine and being absent from the WHO assembly on Coronavirus speak volumes about the psyche, mindset, and approach of Mr. Trump. Leading from the front is an epitome of utopia - no example found in this world? Leaders of New Zealand and Vietnam were aliens who set the examples of leading from the front since the onset of the pandemic and announced triumphantly they had mitigated the contagion and no further patients existed in their country anymore by June. Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand was everywhere during the pandemic, on top of the situation, addressing the nation, answering the journalists in the press conference, meeting the patients in the hospital, consoling the doctors, paramedics, and patients, etc.
Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic situation has created chaos and anarchy in the US society. A coherent and unified nationalistic approach was needed at this time. However, it seems as if the United States is engrossed in its own internal problems, conflicts, and paradoxes. The sights and sounds we have been watching on International News Channels from the United States in the past few months are horrendous. The people fighting and looting over government support during COVID-19, unemployment ratio, panic buying and looting in the superstores, too prolonged street protests over Floyd’s murder by a police officer are symbolic of general public unrest in the US Society. It seems as if the fault lines are developing in a sinister manner and the volcano might erupt anytime! There seems no urgency in Trump Administration to address these issues in a mature, systematic, and calculated manner. His demeanor, expressions, or overtures are far from that of a leadership role! The psychological concavity of Mr. Trump is clearly evident by his public posture, actions, and philosophy (though I wonder if he has had any philosophy at all!). The United States as we see today is at the lowest of its international prestige, not only in the international perspective but also at the domestic front.
An observation from Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, a vice president of the German Marshall Fund and director of its Berlin office is quite relevant to mention here; “People are stunned about the effect of incapable leadership, or of polarizing leadership, of not being able to unify and get the forces aligned so you can address the problem [of the coronavirus],” “And that, of course, results in a nosedive in how you view [the United States]. What you‟re seeing is a collapse of the soft power of America.”
On the international chessboard, the moves of the so-called Sole Super Power are quite confused and incomprehensible. America's first agenda of Mr. Trump appears to be a U-turn from the decades’ long convention by Democratic and Republican presidents. Coalitions and multilateral associations are no more the priority of the Trump administration. Hence the leadership role of the USA has been blemished. The belated handling of the Afghan issue, escaping from the Paris climate agreement, preferential treatment of India in South Asia to weigh it against its contender China, mishandling of the Iran issue in the Middle East which was almost amicably settled down by the Obama Administration are some of the debacles on account of Trump Administration. America's first agenda has enraged the counter-block of China and Russia to gain muscles and their influence seems to be increasing without any doubt. Dragging 34,500 US troops from Germany after a long drawn stand-off with German Chancellor, Angela Merkel is tantamount to adding fire to the fuel for his administration. All that in the election year - Mr. Trump has carried this mess throughout his election campaign. God knows what will be his fate in the post-November scenario.
Some analysts or government officials while defending Mr. Trump proclaimed that the United States is getting more introverted to focus on its internal issues which had been left unaddressed by preceding administrations. “If you look at the world, it is an alliance of liberty coming around to face the existential threat of our time, which is the totalitarian dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Stephen K. Bannon, who served as chief strategist in the White House early in the Trump administration and has long been a proponent of a nationalistic foreign policy. “The axis and the allies here are very well defined.” Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo while addressing the Heritage Foundation Club last October stated that “We‟ve accepted that we can‟t be all things to everywhere, all the time; no nation has the capacity to deliver that. And that means not that you abandon the field but that you calibrate your resources to effectively address the relative risks. . . . I am confident that the next administrations will come into the office and they‟ll see these issues the same way because they‟re right.” Before that President Trump also pronounced his philosophy in his address to the UN General Assembly annual session in 2019 by saying that, „if you want peace, love your nation. Wise leaders always put the good of their own people and their own country first. The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots. The future belongs to sovereign and independent nations.”
Nevertheless, looking at the circumstantial evidence on the state of affairs in the US, the situation on the ground doesn’t coincide with the statements of the Trump Administration or their defenders. This was very well summarized by a concise but comprehensive comment by a carrier diplomat, Nicholas Burns, that
“President Trump is acting as no administration acted since 1920‟s – those presidents were engaged with the world, President Trump is not. He is almost at war with the world.”