From the moment Donald Trump first trod the world stage as President, it was clear he had no desire to unite or lead the global world order.
Attending his first major multi-national summit in Hamburg in 2017, the President was left isolated on the issue of climate change and failed to seize the initiative on the matter of North Korean missiles.
After all, his interests, loudly and repeatedly declared, were to put America first.
Throughout this pandemic, the vacuum of America's global leadership has been painfully apparent for the rest of the world.
Once a beacon of best-practice in every field imaginable, the United States has become a cautionary tale.
Now, having tossed aside the mantle of global leadership at the start of his presidency, Trump has brushed off some of his most pressing domestic responsibilities as well.
Trump administration hid CDC guidelines for re-opening
Over the past few weeks, America's top disease investigators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been working tirelessly on an important document.
Titled Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework, it was designed to help faith leaders, business owners, schools and local officials with the delicate task of safely easing lockdown restrictions.
It was supposed to be published last Friday.
But according to the Associated Press, the document has been shelved, with scientists told the guidance "would never see the light of day".
The White House coronavirus taskforce did craft its own guidelines for lifting restrictions.
But they've been largely ignored, drowned out by Trump's push for states to get their economies moving as soon as possible.
And the constitutional responsibility for much of the pandemic response, whether it's keeping hospitals going or closing schools, does fall on the state Governors.
But a cohesive, comprehensive national strategy on re-opening has been largely absent.
In Australia, the Morrison Government's efforts to coordinate Australia's response may have faced a few problems, but at least there was an attempt at a cooperative approach from the start.
Early on, Trump washed his hands entirely of any responsibility over the lack of testing made available by his federal agencies, later describing his role as a "supplier of last resort" for states in need.
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island and Massachusetts have been forced to form a consortium to achieve the buying power needed to secure crucial medical equipment.
They'll also share information regarding vendors "found to be irresponsible", based on past orders.
Which sound very much like tasks that would normally be picked up by the Federal Government, especially during a national crisis.
The Coronavirus taskforce is dead
If America was just a television show beamed from the White House every day, you'd be forgiven for thinking the war against coronavirus had already been won.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The all-important "curve" of infections in the US does appear to be flat, or declining slightly.
But if you take the success of New York's lockdown measures out of the equation, the rest of the US is going in the wrong direction, with more than 20,000 new infections every day.
It is at this time, with daily death rates still breaking records, that the White House has decided to wind up its coronavirus taskforce.
Sure, the President backflipped the next day, saying "I had no idea how popular the taskforce is until actually yesterday".
The White House CoronaVirus Task Force, headed by Vice President Mike Pence, has done a fantastic job of bringing together vast highly complex resources that have set a high standard for others to follow in the future. Ventilators, which were few & in bad shape, are now being....
....produced in the thousands, and we have many to spare. We are helping other countries which are desperate for them. Likewise, after having been left little, we are now doing more testing than all other countries combined, and with superior tests. Face masks & shields,....
But the taskforce has clearly morphed into something
entirely different from its originally stated purpose, which was
battling coronavirus.
Its focus is now Opening Up America Again, which evidently is already happening.
To put it another way: The taskforce is dead. Long live the taskforce.
In truth, its role had been greatly diminished for weeks.
The
daily press briefings were stopped suddenly after the President
suggested injecting disinfectant as a possible treatment for COVID-19.
They've been replaced by a series of rambling, self-congratulatory press "events" that resemble award ceremonies.
Trump
holds court, thanking his guests (from nurses to business leaders) for
everything they've done and receiving praise from them in kind.
Even Fox News, the President's most reliable mouthpiece, hasn't run the events in full.
Trump campaign strikes a celebratory note
Having
passed off responsibility for the biggest crisis facing America in
generations, the Trump administration has now turned its attention to
more familiar battlegrounds.
The President confirmed he was pushing ahead with attempts to abolish health care
for millions of poor Americans, despite resistance from his
Attorney-General, who privately warned the height of a pandemic might
not be the best time to proceed.
The administration has also dropped its criminal case against Trump's first national security advisor, Michael Flynn, who had previously pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat.
Perhaps
the clearest signal the White House has moved on from the health crisis
is a rousing new election ad for Trump, which fell just a beat short of
claiming "Mission Accomplished".
Pictures of nurses saluting the camera and American fighter jets roaring
over the New York city skyline, are punctuated by big silver letters on
a black screen: This November. The Greatest Comeback Story. Is Written.
It's a great ad, likely to convince millions of Americans that the worst is over.
It almost certainly isn't.
Economic rebound looks shaky as Americans continue to die
With more than 30 states now easing isolation restrictions, scientists have nearly doubled their projections regarding the likely death toll.
They now believe 134,000 people could succumb to the virus by August.
Many of them will be the nation's most vulnerable: the elderly and the poor.
But the economic shock is now manifesting in worrying ways too.
One in five American mothers say their young children are not getting enough to eat, according to a survey by the Brookings institution.
That's three times the number recorded at the height of the Great Recession.
And there are signs tensions over the extended lockdowns are boiling over too.
A security guard was murdered in Michigan, reportedly for trying to enforce a requirement for customers to wear a face mask inside a shop.
According to several polls in recent weeks, most Americans are scared about the prospect of leaving their homes while the health crisis is ongoing.
One this week suggested two-thirds of Americans would feel uncomfortable going to a retail clothing store and 78 per cent wouldn't want to eat out in a restaurant.
That means it's very unlikely the economy is going to come roaring back as Trump hopes.
Trump was asked this week if America just has to accept the idea that by reopening there will be more deaths.
"Hopefully that won't be the case, John, but it could very well be the case," he replied.
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