The Trump administration says the United States is "leading the world" in its response to the pandemic, but it doesn't appear to be going in the direction the world wants to follow.
Across Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, the attitude towards the way the US is managing the coronavirus crisis is equally negative and ranges from horror to ridicule to sympathy, writes "The Guardian".
His messages, especially those about injecting disinfectants, are attracting attention across the planet.
"For more than two centuries, the US has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hate, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger," wrote Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole. "But there is one emotion that has never been directed at the US before: pity."
"The Guardian" writes that "in countries known for chronic problems with governance", they are surprised that the US seems to have joined their ranks.
Britanski list reports the message that Esmir Milavić, an editor at Television N1, sent to viewers this Sunday: "The White House is completely dysfunctional and does not speak with one voice."
“The vice president does not wear a mask, the president does; some staff members wear it, some don't. Everyone behaves as they want. As time goes by, the White House is starting to look more and more like the Balkans," said Milavić.
As the number of victims of covid-19 in the US rises, Trump's claims of global leadership seem unconvincing. He told Republicans last Sunday that he had a series of phone calls with Angela Merkel, Shinzo Abe and other world leaders he did not name, claiming that "a lot of them, almost all of them, I would say all of them" believe the US is the frontrunner.
None of the leaders he mentioned said anything to confirm this, according to "The Guardian". He adds that at every turning point of the crisis, European leaders were taken aback by the fact that Trump did not consult with them - when, for example, he suspended travel to the US from Europe on March 12 without warning Brussels.
A week later, politicians in Berlin accused Trump of being "unfriendly" for offering "large sums of money" to lure a German vaccine company to move its research arm to the US.
And Trump's sudden decision last month to cut funding to the World Health Organization caused shockwaves. The European Union's foreign minister, Josep Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister, tweeted: "There is no reason to justify this move at a time when their efforts are needed more than ever to help contain and mitigate the coronavirus pandemic."
A poll in France last Sunday found Merkel to be the most trusted world leader by far. Only two percent believe that Trump is leading the world in the right direction. Only Boris Johnson and Xi Jinping inspire less confidence.
A survey conducted this week by the British Foreign Policy Group showed that 28 percent of Britons believe that the US is behaving responsibly on the world stage, which is a drop of 13 percentage points compared to January, with conservative voters losing their trust the most.
Dacian Colos, the former Romanian prime minister who now heads the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, expressed the position of Europe in general this Sunday, when the latest statistics on casualties in the US were released.
"Post-truth communication techniques used by right-wing populist movements simply do not work in the fight against covid-19. And we see that populism costs lives", he told "The Guardian".
"The Guardian" recalls that the "America First" response followed by the Trump administration has alienated close allies around the world.
For Canada, the tipping point was the White House's order in April to halt shipments of much-needed N95 respirators to Canadian hospitals.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has previously spoken out several times in support of Trump, said the decision was like letting your family member "starve" during a crisis.
“When the cards are revealed, you see who your friends are. And I think the last few days it's become very clear who our friends are," Ford said.
After Trump's comments about bleach, the columnist of the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera", Bepe Severnini, said in a TV interview: "Trying to understand how Trump thinks is more difficult than finding a vaccine for the coronavirus." First he decided on isolation, and then he encouraged protests against the isolation he promoted. It's like a Mel Brooks movie”.
In several states, local health authorities have felt compelled to issue statements to refute the "health advice" coming from the White House regarding drinking disinfectant and taking hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that has been found to be ineffective against Covid-19 and can be deadly.
The Nigerian government has issued a warning that "there is no firm evidence that chloroquine is effective in preventing or treating coronavirus infection" after two people were hospitalized after overdosing on the drug in Lagos.
However, that was not enough to prevent a fivefold increase in the price of the drug, which is also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
And Trump's decision not to participate in the global initiative to find a vaccine was met with numerous condemnations.
"If there is a world leader who can be accused of mismanaging the crisis, it is Donald Trump, whose initial ignoring of covid-19 may have cost thousands of American lives," wrote an editorial in the conservative newspaper "Estado de Sao Paulo" last month.
The commentary states that Trump decided to take Covid seriously only after "the facts backed him into a corner", and expresses shock at his decision to cut funding to the WHO.
"Even by the standards of his behavior, the level of insolence is astonishing for an office holder who, until just a few years ago, was considered a model of leadership for the democratic world," the editorial said.
Nowhere has America's response to the pandemic been criticized more than in China, which is not surprising given that Trump has persistently singled out its culpability for failing to contain the epidemic in its early stages. The pandemic has become the center stage of the struggle for global leadership between an established superpower and a rising challenger.
"The Guardian" states that there is a palpable sense of relief among Chinese state commentators because the US president's outbursts have somewhat diverted anger from Beijing.
"Only by encouraging Americans to hate China can they ensure that the public overlooks the fact that the Trump team's hands are stained with American blood," the English-language Global Times newspaper said in an editorial late last month.
Editor Hu Sijin announced on Twitter: “The American system was once attractive to many Chinese.
But through the pandemic, the Chinese have seen the US government's inability to control the epidemic, its disregard for life, and outright lies. Little is left of the political halo of Washington".
Because it did not fully cooperate with the WHO and because of rough diplomacy, China did not make many friends, although it sent medical aid around the world, writes "The Guardian".
However, the German weekly "Spiegel" claims that Trump, without anyone's help, managed to spare Beijing the worst global consequences of his failures.
"For a short while, it seemed as if the coronavirus epidemic would take China back several light years," the magazine's editorial said.
"But now it is the president of the USA who has to explain to the world day after day why his country cannot contain the pandemic".
For the WHO, a tenth of the previous sum?
Trump said yesterday that his administration is considering a number of proposals on the World Trade Organization, including the one according to which Washington would pay ten percent of the previous amount. In a post on Twitter, he emphasized that a final decision has not yet been made and that US funding for the global health agency remains frozen.
Trump suspended US funding to the WHO on April 14, accusing the UN agency of promoting Chinese "disinformation" about the coronavirus outbreak and saying his administration would launch an audit of the WHO. WHO officials have rejected the allegations, and China maintains that it is transparent and open.
Fox News reported late Friday, citing a draft letter, that the Trump administration plans to resume partial funding to the WHO, matching China's contribution.
The US was the largest donor to the WHO. If they pay as much as China, it will amount to about a tenth of the previous sum of about 400 million dollars a year, reported Reuters.
Super rocket against rivals
Unveiling the flag of the new space force, Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday that the US is developing a "fantastic" missile to outmatch military rivals including Russia and China.
"We have no choice, we have to do it with the opponents we have. We have what I call a fantastic rocket and one night I heard that it is 17 times faster than what they currently have," the president said.
"That's right," said Defense Secretary Mark Esper, standing to Trump's right.
The Russian president has announced a supersonic nuclear missile that can travel at least five times the speed of sound.
The US tested its own supersonic missile last year, but Trump appeared to allude to the new technology on Friday. His rhetoric and withdrawal from key agreements raised fears of a new nuclear arms race. A report released this week detailed the US's accelerated spending on nuclear weapons.
His desire to build a new and cosmic arm of the US military attracted widespread criticism and satire.
Netflix will soon air the comedy “Space Force” starring Steve Carell and John Malkovich.
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