When Donald Trump was sworn in as President three years ago, he pledged to give the nation pride and strength. "We will bring back our jobs,” Trump said in his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2017. "We will bring back our wealth.” He even spoke of freeing the Earth from the "miseries of disease.” He said, "A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights, and heal our divisions.”
Now the coronavirus has plunged the country into the greatest crisis since the Great Depression. That period began with the crash of the New York Stock Exchange in the fall of 1929 and is still etched into the collective consciousness. The pandemic is affecting every nation on the planet, but nowhere in the Western world has it brought to light shortcomings as relentlessly as it has in the United States. At the end of February, the American president claimed that his government was in complete control of the situation. But now the number of infected is approaching the 500,000-mark. Hospitals in New York, Detroit and New Orleans are barely able to cope with the onslaught of sick people.
And unlike in previous global crises, the U.S. is failing as a global leader. The country is currently too concerned with itself. Trump, as is so often the case, is trying to save himself by attacking the international organization that is supposed to coordinate the global fight against the crisis: the World Health Organization (WHO). He has threatened to defund the WHO because, he claims, it "blew it.”
During his inaugural speech in January 2017, Trump also said: "America will start winning again, winning like never before.” Now the U.S. has become the problem child in the global battle against the virus. While China and South Korea have stopped the spread of the contagion for the time being and parts of Europe are trying to slowly return to normality, the U.S. is setting one negative record after the other. No other country has as many infections, and the White House itself is predicting up to 240,000 deaths by fall. A study by the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis estimates that 47 million Americans will have lost their jobs by June.