WASHINGTON – As U.S. health care workers scrounged for life-saving medical equipment last week to protect frontline staff against coronavirus, President Donald Trump made a jarring claim: the U.S. would soon have an over-supply of ventilators – enough to distribute across the globe to other needy countries.
“We’re going to be distributing them – the extras – around the world,” the president said on April 1 during a White House press briefing. He listed Italy, France and Spain as likely destinations for America’s sudden bounty as the pandemic ravages the planet.
What Trump didn’t mention: Earlier that same morning, the Trump administration was preparing to receive a Russian military cargo plane – loaded with 60 tons of masks, ventilators and other items – to distribute to besieged American doctors and nurses.
“The plane is en route,” the Russian foreign ministry tweeted on the morning of April 1, posted along with a video of the packed aircraft. With the hashtag #RussiaHelps, the Kremlin said the supplies would “save the lives of American citizens.”
The Russian government tweet was a crafty propaganda coup – one that highlighted the stark disconnect between Trump’s promises of American super-preparedness and generosity, and his administration’s obvious scramble to secure supplies from abroad.
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Experts say that it is an uncomfortable and humbling spot for the U.S. to find itself in – the world’s richest and most powerful country, one that plays a huge outsize role in global security issues and international affairs, suddenly turned supplicant.
“The optics of it are that we are failing as a national government to have a plan and have a mechanism for managing markets,” said J. Stephen Morrison, a global health expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
But Morrison said the situation also shines a fresh spotlight on a decline in U.S. global leadership that has been years in the making. Championing his “America First” policies, Trump has derided multilateral institutions, withdrawn from international accords and treaties, and attempted to slash funding for U.S. foreign aid.
“The United States has been moving off the stage of being a traditional leader in foreign assistance and in global health,” Morrison said.
Still, that hasn’t stopped Trump administration officials from appearing to play politics at a time of national crisis and portraying the U.S. as a coronavirus white knight.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/facing-crisis-rivals-pearl-harbor-090029550.html