Illustration: Luo Xuan/GT

During a big crisis, like the raging novel coronavirus pandemic the world is now facing, a country calls for strong and no-nonsense leadership. But apparently, Donald Trump is not that leader. 

By defying rules of common sense, law and science, and norms of governance distilled by all of Trump's predecessors, the current US government is fond of going to extremes, as if all of America, other countries and the universe is at its disposal.

The administration is stubbornly fixated on drumming the US capital market since the very beginning. After boosting up the US stock indexes to unprecedented highs, the equities price has gone off the precipice, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging 10,000 points in just three weeks from its historical high, erasing the so-called "Trump bump." 

Weeks ago, the World Health Organization said the coronavirus transmits mainly through human droplets and close contacts with the infected virus carriers. It has been pinpointing the relentlessness of the encroaching disease, summoning loudly for attention from all the countries and regions to take it seriously. 

Scientists and epidemiologists have warned that this virus is invisible, highly contagious and peculiarly lethal for elderly and the vulnerable with underlying conditions. It is not a seasonal influenza or a public health "hoax," which is what the White House had claimed for weeks to the ears of vast Americans. 

Even the outright distress and the steadily growing death tolls that the virus caused in China, South Korea, Iran and Italy, the administration had failed to wake up from its denial, which should have been agitated and well-prepared for the virus' ugly assault. 

Due to Trump administration's lethargic and poor prevention measures in the past one month and half, the coronavirus pandemic now flares up across the US from its east and west coasts. 

The administration has slackened in taking precautionary measures, and in a glaring dereliction of duty, the US' Center for Disease Control and Prevention has flawed in supervising its labs to make an adequate number of proficient coronavirus test kits, which has helped inflame the virus infections throughout the nation. 

Now, the US is facing a great pathogen peril and the world's top economy and most powerful state must act, decisively and quickly. For the sake of the health of hundreds of millions of Americans, the country ought to phase in stricter quarantine laws by locking down all non-essential social and economic activities, testing all the suspected close contacts of the confirmed patients, and hunkering down for a month. 

Also, stadiums, gyms and public schools could be used to erect makeshift clinics to avoid the country's hospital system from being overwhelmed by a torrent of infections, which is happening in Italy. 

As Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida closed to ward off the virus' assault, all the bars, cafes, eateries, barbers, kiosks and retailers on American streets, and the airlines, buses, trains and metros need to be shut down temporarily. 

And, to relieve the shortage of crucial medical supplies, some of the US' largest companies could be ordered to immediately shift to the production of badly-needed face masks, protective gowns, eye goggles, respirators and medicine. 

Administrative chaos in the US government is becoming evident before the eyes of the world each day. For some time, governors, city mayors and county magistrates were demanding the White House for emergent help and leadership, and there was no reply. 

Trump is deviating from addressing the pathogen head on, by tweeting it is a "Chinese virus." At a time when the world calls for solidarity and partnership to deal with the virus, Trump's leadership espouses tribal divergence and racial discord. 

The divisive role being played by the administration is the least thing this world needs. 

The author is an editor with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn