Donald Trump has scarcely seemed more erratic than in the past few days. He has lacked the coherent, consistent leadership needed in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Instead, he has left local and regional politicians to fight each other in a Hobbesian bidding war for everything from respirators to bailout money. He has undermined his medical experts. Late on Tuesday, he carried through on a threat to suspend funding to the World Health Organization.

The president has spent much of the crisis eschewing blame, including accusing the WHO of “severely mismanaging” the pandemic and of being craven towards China. Whatever the substance of his arguments, he appears more interested in deflecting criticism than in taking charge of the crisis.

The White House announced a plan this week to unite executives and thought leaders to find ways out of the crisis. But he has scuppered others’ attempts to do so at both local and international levels. When a coalition of governors in seven northeastern states and another in three West Coast states announced they would co-operate to fight the virus, and develop a plan for reopening business, Mr Trump claimed only he had the authority to open or close state economies.