Trump 'penned political suicide note' at every Covid press conference, former Australian PM says [View all]

[Matilda]

"If Donald Trump had handled the pandemic half-decently he would have won the election,” Howard said.

"He was headed towards a victory until the pandemic hit. It was his mishandling of that because, in the end, the public, when threatened, want their leaders to defend them against the threat.”

Howard said competent public health responses had increased the popularity of political leaders across Australia.

“That’s why Scott Morrison has very high approvals, Gladys Berejiklian has, our friend [Mark McGowan] in Western Australia has, and even our friend in Victoria [Daniel Andrews] is surviving – he’s more than surviving, politically, he is quite perpendicular at the present time,” the former Liberal leader said. “Now part of that is a perception that difficult as it all was, and so forth, he got the show through.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/17/trump-penned-political-suicide-note-at-every-covid-press-conference-former-australian-pm-says

I don't believe I've ever agreed with John Howard on anything at all, but he's right on this. It was mind-boggling to see - from the denials that the pandemic existed, to claims it would "just go away", to the complete inaction, from personal responsibility through to the care of the public. Everything Trump has done on COVID has been wrong.

I still wonder why, with repeated outbreaks occurring all over the world, other governments don't look at how it was handled in New Zealand and Australia. Our leaders moved fast and hard; it's not over yet, we can't kid ourselves, but we're doing pretty well, considering everything that's happened.

And interestingly, three of our state Premiers are Labor and two are conservative, so their actions have been non-partisan, and they can all take credit for what they've managed to do.