WHO flopped as well. They were in sync and for a while whatever Trump said seemed to be driving their position (i.e. the opposite of Trump). When Trump's admin expressed concern (Oct 2019) WHO and CDC said "nothing to worry about".
What changed was the 2020 US presidential election. 2017 through 2019 had been very good years for both US and European economies. Most of Asia too. US as a supplier of energy products to the world broke the OPEC+Russia lock on oil. It also cut seriously into their revenue. Especially Russia. No coincidence Putin's "reunification" of Eastern Europe ground to a standstill - he lost both revenue and leverage over W. Europe when US took over as the main supplier. OPEC too saw significant drops, which (along with the Trump admins reaction to genocide in Syria) helped "calm" many bloody conflicts.
Sounds good? Not when you're the power machine and an outsider has crimpled your game. Trump had to go and no means were to drastic. It wasn't just domestic interests - follow the money - Russia and OPEC had a lot to gain by getting rid of the Trump admin's energy and defense policies. The NATO countries that have, for decades, paid little to nothing were being pressured to start pulling some of the weight financially. Same message was sent o the UN - which had relied on the US as the "enforcement" of it's security policies since it's creation - costs covered by the generous US taxpayers. The message under the Trump banner was "pay up suckers" and not popular. And of course, China wasn't too happy with the status quo in 2019 either (despite the massive economic benefit the strong economy in the US was driving for China, incentives to invest in US capacity was looking to threaten their dominance in the future).
Peace and prosperity are not good if you're trying to defeat the incumbent. If you looked at things at the start of 2020, Trump was a lock. Not a chance to unseat The Outsider. US voters don't vote against a strong economy. Not gonna happen, wouldn't be prudent. What to do? Well....
WHO flopped as well. They were in sync and for a while whatever Trump said seemed to be driving their position (i.e. the opposite of Trump). When Trump's admin expressed concern (Oct 2019) WHO and CDC said "nothing to worry about".
What changed was the 2020 US presidential election. 2017 through 2019 had been very good years for both US and European economies. Most of Asia too. US as a supplier of energy products to the world broke the OPEC+Russia lock on oil. It also cut seriously into their revenue. Especially Russia. No coincidence Putin's "reunification" of Eastern Europe ground to a standstill - he lost both revenue and leverage over W. Europe when US took over as the main supplier. OPEC too saw significant drops, which (along with the Trump admins reaction to genocide in Syria) helped "calm" many bloody conflicts.
Sounds good? Not when you're the power machine and an outsider has crimpled your game. Trump had to go and no means were to drastic. It wasn't just domestic interests - follow the money - Russia and OPEC had a lot to gain by getting rid of the Trump admin's energy and defense policies. The NATO countries that have, for decades, paid little to nothing were being pressured to start pulling some of the weight financially. Same message was sent o the UN - which had relied on the US as the "enforcement" of it's security policies since it's creation - costs covered by the generous US taxpayers. The message under the Trump banner was "pay up suckers" and not popular. And of course, China wasn't too happy with the status quo in 2019 either (despite the massive economic benefit the strong economy in the US was driving for China, incentives to invest in US capacity was looking to threaten their dominance in the future).
Peace and prosperity are not good if you're trying to defeat the incumbent. If you looked at things at the start of 2020, Trump was a lock. Not a chance to unseat The Outsider. US voters don't vote against a strong economy. Not gonna happen, wouldn't be prudent. What to do? Well....