The British writer for The Independent, Patrick Cupburn, believes that American hegemony in the world is fading not because of the weakness of the military or economic power of the United States, but because of Trump's leadership failure in the Corona crisis.
Coburn explains that the crisis of the Suez Canal in 1956 and the crisis of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in the 1980s, which toppled the two superpowers in the world at the time, would be less of an impact than the impact of the Corona pandemic crisis on America's position as the world's superpower.
He added that the Corona crisis has a much greater impact because everyone on this planet is a potential victim and feels threatened, and that the Trump administration has demonstrated in the face of this huge crisis a failure to drive responsibly, and that this will cause an extraordinary destruction of America’s image worldwide.
America versus China
He pointed out that the decline of the United States is seen as a counterpart to the rise of China, which succeeded in eliminating the Corona epidemic within it and started extending a helping hand to other countries such as Italy, Belgium, African countries and even America itself.
He said that such exercise for China in soft power may have a limited impact when the epidemic stops, but the message is that Beijing can provide necessary aid and expertise at critical moments for others, and that America cannot do this, and this has an impact on people's perception that will not be erased overnight .
The writer also pointed to the weak impact of America's huge military power - 800 military bases worldwide and military spending of about 750 billion dollars - given that this force did not enable Washington to win wars in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
True regression
He also pointed to the Trump administration's showing of America's control of the global financial system and its success in waging economic wars on other countries, to say that America's military and economic powers have nothing to do with the true decline of the United States.
Then the writer comes to say that the decline of America, which was highlighted by the Corona epidemic, is due to Trump himself as a result and a reason, as it caused the countries of the world to distance themselves from Washington and not want to emulate them.
He said that Trump has increased polarization inside America, which is already a polarized country, and that he is superior in exploiting and amplifying this polarization and making naive solutions to delusional crises such as building the famous wall to prevent irregular migration through Mexico, and this is an important factor in America's weakness that will continue and worsen as long as Trump is in power.
He pointed out that Trump's current increase in popularity may be due to the fact that the fearful public prefers to hear the happy news rather than the bad news, but that when the epidemic becomes more widespread, the false optimism of Trump and his failure to truly address the crisis will be exposed.