Opinion | Why Trump failed the country with his handling of the coronavirus

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Editor's Note: David Axelrod is a CNN political commentator and host of "The Ax Files," was a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and chief strategist on Obama's presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. The views expressed in this comment are his.

(CNN) - Seeing President Donald Trump struggle with this epic crisis reminds me of the old fable about the scorpion and the frog.

You will recall that the scorpion asks the frog to help him cross a river, only to bite the frog when they are halfway there.

When the frightened frog asks why the scorpion would pay its kindness so cruelly and kill them both, the scorpion shrugs. "Is my nature".

Trump could have made this incomparable and agonizing trial for our country an occasion for personal triumph, if only he were able to get the personal out of this. But that is not its nature.

This moment of extraordinary pain and crisis requires stability and sobriety; empathy for the pain and widespread suffering of others; absolute transparency; willingness to listen and learn; and rigorous and disciplined attention to detail. None of these qualities is within your nature.

• Look: This was the change in Trump's position on the management of the coronavirus

Many governors across the United States have improved their popularity simply by doing their job during this deadly coronavirus outbreak. Even in a polarized nation, it could have been the same for Trump if, from the beginning, he had expounded on the nature of the threat to the country, followed the advice of experts and defended the painful and decisive steps necessary to save lives.

But that is not its nature.

Instead, the president spent six weeks dismissing the threat and offering false assurances as public health experts frantically warned of what was to come.

Trump apparently feared that an acknowledgment of the virus's severity and the draconian steps necessary to protect Americans could affect the stock market and the economy, which he hoped would be the springboard for his reelection. Then he insisted on an alternative story.

In late January, the president issued what we now know was a porous ban on travel from China, claiming that this would protect the nation from invasion by what he later dubbed the "Chinese virus."

The United States would not exceed 15 cases, he said in February, even when some public health experts warned of a possible pandemic. "Miraculously," he suggested with a wave, the virus could disappear with a change in the weather.

• Opinion | Trump to the United States for managing the coronavirus: don't blame me

When covid-19 had begun its deadly march across the country, Trump was accusing Democrats and the media of politicizing the disease in what would amount to a coronavirus "hoax" to harm it.

While some governors mobilized against the threat, the president sent the opposite signal to the federal and national bureaucracy, delaying the necessary steps, which cost the country valuable time to stick to the battle and deepen the crisis.

From the day he finally recalibrated, appearing on the podium of the White House meeting room in March to declare war on covid-19, the president has spent most of his reporting time turning uneven and belated response from his administration (which rated it 10 out of 10) instead of giving the American people the sober and accurate assessment they need.

He has denied making derogatory statements about the virus that the entire world heard and has refused to acknowledge that he and his administration have fallen short.

Truth and responsibility are not its nature.

Americans of all stripes are bound by a common calamity, hungry for a unifying leader who overcomes partisanship. But that is not the nature of Trump. He has suggested that the governors, who are desperately asking the federal government for more testing supplies, were acting out of political motivation.

Trump is who he has been since the beginning of his long career in the public eye: a super-narcissistic and brazen self-promoter, unwilling to accept responsibility or truth and unable to think of anyone but himself.

If he had been more in this historic moment, he would have done a lot to strengthen his brand and his prospects for re-election, not to mention the comfort of his wounded country.

But it is not surprising that he could not.

It just isn't their nature.

coronavirus