Editor's note: Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

It's no exaggeration to say that America is divided over Trump's presidency, with his foes claiming that he's one of the worst presidents ever while his supporters insist that he's one of the best.

The mainstream media has consistently pushed the narrative that he's the former, with the latest high-profile piece to this effect being Washington Post journalist Max Boot's one about how "The worst president keeps getting worse." The title is self-explanatory but some of the points that he brings up deserve some further discussion.

The gist of his argument is that even this self-professed critic of Trump, who just three months ago declared him to be the worst president ever in a piece that he hyperlinks to in his introduction, underestimated exactly how bad this presidency is.

Since April 5, Boot believes that everything became much worse because of what he regards as Trump's epic mishandling of COVID-19 and the ongoing unrest in the country's main cities that was triggered by George Floyd's death in late May during his arrest by the Minneapolis police.

America's coronavirus cases and related deaths have surged, socio-cultural divisions within the country over race and history (the latter of which is most pertinent to the Civil War era and Confederate monuments) have widened to unprecedented levels, and perceived corruption after the commutation of Roger Stone's sentence has never been so explicit.

Boot blames Trump for all of this, which isn't surprising for a Washington Post journalist whose outlet has always criticized his presidency, and predicts that everything will get even worse.

While he makes some intriguing points, Trump's supporters have countered these attacks in the past by arguing that the president felt compelled to gradually reopen the country for pragmatic reasons even though cases are still surging (which cynics blame on the large-scale protests and not Trump rallies), there's nothing wrong with defending historical memory both good and bad against radical ideological attempts to rewrite it, and that Stone was one of the Russiagate witch hunt's many innocent victims.

Out of these three main issues – COVID-19, the increasingly violent protest movement, and corruption – the country's handling (or mishandling depending on one's views) of the coronavirus seems to be the defining event of Trump's presidency given how many lives continue to be lost in this process. It's therefore understandable that it'll serve as the point of reference in arguing whether Trump is really one of the worst or best presidents in American history. In reality, however, this is the wrong issue on which to judge his legacy.

The loss of life, especially that which was considered by some to have been lost unnecessarily due to irresponsible government policies, will always provoke emotional reactions that naturally override rational ones by virtue of human psychology. Each life is precious and it's incredibly frustrating if one thinks that even a single innocent person died because of government neglect, let alone over 130,000 in a metric that's larger than the loss of American lives during World War I.

Still, it must objectively be noted that America's federal system has still largely been respected by Trump during the pandemic. In fact, the guidelines that his administration published a few months back explicitly state that it's up to the individual states to determine the pace at which they'll reopen. Furthermore, there's a scandal over New York state's treatment of nursing home patients, several thousand of whom critics claim died because of Governor Cuomo's directive to send coronavirus patients to these facilities. Trump can't be blamed for that.

There are many other examples that can be made in defense of the Trump administration's handling of this epidemiological crisis, however delayed and at times apparently bungled, but it can only be speculated how a Democrat president would have responded to this totally unexpected situation. It's easy to blame everything on Trump but more difficult for private individuals to take personal responsibility for not exercising the utmost caution when they've always had every right to do so since Trump never took that right away.

Boot's blaming of Trump for America's ever-worsening COVID-19 crisis might be a sincere expression of his personal views, but it nevertheless comes off as a partisan hack job intended to manipulate voters' perceptions ahead of the November election considering how understandably emotive this issue is. Trump's legacy will inevitably be determined by his administration's handling of this pandemic even though it's not really fair to judge him on this when there are many more issues that he unquestionably takes full responsibility for instead.

So to the question of whether he's one of the worst or best presidents ever, it's up to each person to decide for themselves, but they shouldn't let the COVID-19 crisis influence their views.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)