The President of the United States (US) is considered the Leader of the Free World. It is a portfolio that not only carries significant power but influence in shaping events around the world. The world, including democratic societies and citizens in authoritarian ones, sees the U.S as the bastion of democracy and beacon of hope.
Thus, it is not unexpected that the holder of the office is ever cognisant of his global role and moral responsibility to govern and act in a befitting manner. This traditional expectation does not ignore that countries and international organisations would have disagreements with the president depending on priorities and policies. However, there is a general feeling that in our lifetime, the US has never seen a president like Donald Trump.
In the effort to win it apparently matters not to President Trump that making unfounded accusations the presidential election will be rigged is tantamount to undermining the country’s democracy. In the 2016 presidential cycle he claimed if he did not win, that meant the election was rigged, even as he called on Russia’s support to undermine his challenger, Secretary Hillary Clinton. In the 2020 cycle, it is déjà vu. The effort by states to ensure voting with a greater reliance on mail in ballots, given the COVID-19 pandemic, has attracted the president’s ire.
President Trump is making a robust case that the 2020 election will be rigged. This allegation comes even as mail-in voting is normal in some states and reportedly fraud is rare. Further, the Postmaster General- who is a friend of the president and was appointed by him-has attracted condemnation from the judiciary, Republican and Democratic for making it difficult to facilitate timely mail-in voting, and the President and First Lady have themselves voted by mail. The irony could not be starker!
Aside from the voting hullabaloo, the global challenges in dealing with the coronavirus and climate change sees a President undercutting and undermining efforts at scientific solutions. To Trump, climate change is “an expensive hoax”, “mythical”, or “non-existent”. The consequence of his perception has resulted in the US withdrawing from the United Nations (UN) Paris Agreement on Climate Change. This has implications for the world uniting to combat a scourge that is proving inimical to the environment and man’s life.
And as the COVID-19 pandemic rages, the President thought it wise to withdraw the US from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on accusation thar the agency is under China’s control. It was later revealed he knew of the virus and what the world would be up against since January. Also revealed in his conversation with China’s President Xi Jinping when the virus broke out, is that he made a verbal agreement not to be forthcoming with the American people. The explanation he gave to investigative journalist, Bob Woodrow, for downplaying the virus was that he did not want to create “panic.”
Opting not to create “panic” (i.e. leveling with the people) he led by false assurance, repeatedly saying the virus will “disappear.” The consequence of the false narrative sees the US having recorded a quarter of the world’s infection though its population size is only four percent. According to scientists, had America acted earlier, lives could have been saved and the spread contained. Even as scientists, including the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are urging citizens to wear masks and avoid social gatherings, President Trump continues to flout these precautions. He mocks those wearing masks and sees his campaign rallies as protests against those states urging avoidance of public gatherings.
The US is presently not that lighthouse; that beacon of hope, the world can look to. Walking away from the UN and WHO it co-founded and questioning an electoral system it promoted as the bastion of democracy hurt more than harm its image and leadership. Though it is the prerogative of Americans to elect their president, it has not prevented the serious-minded in the global community from expressing reservation about Trump’s politics. Those who have not yet drawn their conclusion are asking, “What is it with Mr. Trump?”
