Former President Barack Obama has delivered a blistering attack on Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it "an absolute chaotic disaster".

Obama's remarks came in a leaked call as the former president exhorted members of his administration to rally behind presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The comments were perhaps the most scathing criticism Obama has yet delivered of his successor in the White House.

Trump responded with a flurry of social media posts and retweets on Sunday, accusing Obama and his aides of engaging in a criminal effort to undermine his presidency.

For many, the return of Obama to the fray was a deeply reassuring moment.

During the pandemic crisis in the USA, Trump has dominated the airwaves. Very few other politicians have managed to get any attention. Until now. But having already served two terms, Obama is barred from standing again.

It has, however, led many to revisit Obama's record - and to find it eerily prescientAble to predict things or know them in advance. Both prescient and scientist come from the Latin "scire" (to know)..

In 2014, the former president spoke about the threat of "an airborne disease that is deadly". He warned of almost exactly the disaster that has now unfolded six years later. The video of that speech has now gone viral.

It was not Obama's only moment of foresight.

In the same year, he said that climate change "will mean more extreme and frequent storms, more flooding and rising seas that submerge Pacific islands".

His speeches on development would often build up from a single fact, that the "best indicator of whether a nation will succeed is how it treats its women".

Political historians point out that his approach is pragmaticDealing with things sensibly and realistically, in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations. in both substance and style. Obama places his emphasis on results, not on conflict. Trump, on the other hand, loves a fight.

It prompts the question whether, in a battle between a calm pragmatist like Obama and an angry populistThe term comes from the People's Party, which operated in the USA in the 1890s. Now, it is often used to refer to any movement that makes a distinction between the "people" and the corrupt "establishment". like Trump, the calmer voice can ever win?

Take Pete Buttigieg, who ran in the Democratic Primary this year, hoping to take on Trump. He seemed to model himself on Obama. Even his voice was uncannilyIn a strange or mysterious way, especially one that is unsettling. Sigmund Freud said that uncanny things unsettle us because they remind us of all the disturbing things that we have become used to in our everyday lives. similar at times. He lost badly.

It's just a matter of time, say some. This current crisis and the failures of populism have triggered a longing for politicians who can bring people together, rather than stoke division. Biden says he wants to honour Obama's legacy as a unifier, even if his style is different. The appetite for an Obama is still there - we're just waiting for someone with the charisma and brains to repeat the trick.

Young American voters, in particular, seem to have rejected compromise, backing the radical Bernie Sanders in the recent Democratic race for a presidential candidate. This may be because they noticed how polarising Obama himself was. Many people refused even to accept his legitimacy as presidentThroughout Obama's presidency and afterwards, certain opponents (collectively known as the "birther movement") questioned his religion, birthplace, and citizenship. The movement falsely asserted that Obama was ineligible to be US president because he was not a natural-born citizen of the US, as required by Article Two of the constitution.. Anyone who talks as good a game as Obama did about unity will have to talk an even better one about how to achieve it.