Trump's stunning abdication of leadership comes as pandemic worsens

President Donald Trump had predicted in almost every campaign rally that the media would stop talking about the coronavirus pandemic the day after the election. But as it turns out, no one is ignoring the worsening tragedy more than the President himself.
Instead of taking charge as the country plunges deeper into the worst domestic crisis since World War II, Trump has disappeared inside the White House, saying nothing on camera since he baselessly claimed a week ago that the election was being stolen from him by President-elect Joe Biden.
He's spending time with advisers, not strategizing on how to tame the out-of-control health emergency but seeking a path to win an election already declared lost. He's also found time to purge the top leadership of the Pentagon, and with few appointments on his public schedule appears to spend his days watching news coverage and tweeting misinformation about voter fraud.

In essence, Trump, his family and his advisers are spending all their energy desperately trying to save a job -- the presidency -- that he appears to have no intention of doing in any meaningful sense.
It's an especially staggering and surreal failure of leadership, given the Covid-19 crisis and the subsequent economic turmoil, even for a President who downplayed and lied about the true nature of the pandemic and repeatedly predicted the virus would just go away.

Before the election, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had signaled the way ahead by claiming on CNN's "State of the Union" that the pandemic could not be controlled.
Now that the election is done, the Trump White House seems to care even less than it did before.