#BTEditorial – Has Trump reached his road to Damascus?

We are convinced that historians are going to have so much to write about the year 2020 that it is likely to be the source of much marvel and reflection for years to come.

Today has been dubbed the “October surprise” by political pundits in the United States of America (USA) where voters have already started casting their ballots to choose the next president of the world superpower.

To be candid, the USA has failed to display many of the qualities of its world leadership in recent times. In fact, American politics has been anything but inspiring to Western democratic norms, as we have painfully watched over the past three years and was brutally displayed at the first Presidential Debate this week.

Ian Tyrrell wrote of American exceptionalism: “It doesn’t just mean that the US is unique. Countries, like people, are all different and unique, even if many share some underlying characteristics. Exceptionalism requires something far more: a belief that the U.S. follows a path of history different from the laws or norms that govern other countries. That’s the essence of American exceptionalism: The US is not just a bigger and more powerful country — but an exception. It is the bearer of freedom and liberty, and morally superior to something called Europe.”

While many political leaders have loathed the US and its history of global dominance, an equally significant number has also admired the mighty Americans and their determination to succeed while maintaining the country’s moral superiority in a world littered with tyrants and despots. Today, so many have lamented the apparent fall from grace of this world leader. Her armies are still dominant, her commitment to innovation, commercial and scientific advancements are still venerated. But something has gone terribly wrong.

The news today that US President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and the couple’s closest aide, Hope Hicks, have all contracted the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), has been a sobering development and a staggering reality check for the man who described the illness as a political hoax.

More than 200 000 American citizens have lost their lives to the illness, while more than 7 million have been infected. One could easily critique that, for a country with the kind of resources at its disposal, America’s performance in combating the disease has been abysmal. The lack of countrywide leadership in simple things such as the wearing of masks, social distancing, sanitising and avoiding crowded indoor spaces, has become so polarising that its citizenry is confused and apathetic. When the US president should have been providing national and international leadership on the pandemic, he was condemning people who wore face coverings as weak; that staying at home and closing some businesses while health authorities tried to get a handle on the spread of COVID-19, was infringing on Americans’ rights. He made “free the states” a rallying cry for his devotees. And, unfortunately, despite all the evidence to the contrary, his millions of followers were parroting his claims and arguments.

Well, October 2, 2020 will not easily be forgotten. It was the day the COVID-19 hoax became a reality for Mr Trump. And like those political leaders who followed his flawed approach to the disease, such as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Trump has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and is reportedly suffering from “mild symptoms”. For Mr Trump’s sake, we hope that his illness remains mild and that he recovers in time to tell Americans of his experience and apologise for downplaying the seriousness of the highly contagious virus and its impact on households and families. We hope that the American president’s diagnosis provides that cathartic moment for him to be forthright with the American people; and that he would rescind his decision to leave the World Health Organisation (WHO) and rejoin the global multilateral movement to rid the world of COVID-19, ensuring that it finds no safe harbour in any corner of the world.