Piers Morgan is right about Trump’s shambolic leadership – but where was he six months ago?

It has been obvious from the start that the US president would be a disastrous leader. If he had faced more scrutiny, his march to the top could have been stopped

It’s over: Donald Trump has un-followed Piers Morgan on Twitter. The cosiest connection in social media history was severed after the Good Morning Britain host attacked the president’s “bats***” disinfectant theory.

And now, the former best chums are trading online jibes. Morgan corrected Trump’s spelling of the Nobel Prize, telling the president: “it’s Nobel not Noble”.

Trump later sub-tweeted Morgan, writing: “Noble is defined as, ‘having or showing fine personal qualities or high moral principles and ideals.’ Does sarcasm ever work?”

I doubt Morgan is shedding many tears. Although he often took pride in the fact he was one of just 40-odd people the Potus followed on Twitter, the development is ideal for Morgan’s coronavirus brand as the leader of the opposition.

From the moment the pandemic hit the UK, the breakfast host has doggedly held the government to account over its catastrophic handling of the coronavirus crisis.

While most mainstream broadcasters have been servile and lost, Morgan has been fiery and focused. When a string of hapless Tory ministers appeared on his show, he didn’t so much grill as eviscerate them.

It’s been a good reminder that, when he is backing a righteous cause, Morgan is a potent force for good.

He was, after all, a rare voice of morality and caution during the war on terror. As Mirror editor, he brought the heroic John Pilger back in from the cold, and produced a front-page splash declaring: “The war against terrorism is a fraud.”

And sure, he did publish those questionable Iraqi torture photos, but that can’t detract from the fact that his anti-war stance, a rare one in the mainstream media, has been absolutely vindicated.

When he joined CNN, he courageously took on the US gun lobby. After viewing figures dipped and he lost the gig, Morgan said his “very polarising” stance on guns was probably to blame.

Having lost two big jobs over principled campaigning journalism, he changed tune. When Trump decided to run for the White House, Morgan, who met Trump on Celebrity Apprentice, told us we were silly to worry about it.

He wrote that: “I’ve spent a lot of time around Trump and he is quite moderate” and insisted the president-in-waiting was “cool, calm and collected”.

Even once Trump took office and showed how hopelessly wrong those descriptions were, Morgan refused to hold his hands up. He said protests against Trump were “pathetic”, “intolerant” and fuelled by “endless hysteria”. He called us “snowflakes” and insisted that Trump’s judgement is “spot on”.

For this, he was rewarded with two sit down interviews with the president, but he blew both opportunities. In the first, he presented him with an Arsenal shirt, in the next one he gave him a hat. David Frost must have turned in his grave.

As an unofficial member of Team Trump, Morgan transformed from a journalist who took brave moral stances to one that mocked people who took a moral stance. He spent hours on Twitter unimaginatively trolling feminists, vegans and progressives.

As well as enabling Trump, Morgan also played a part in Boris Johnson’s elevation to high office. In his best-selling diary books, he penned flattering snippets about the Tory, helping to build the “cult of Boris” that allowed this chancer to rise to the top of the tree.

In 2007, Morgan asked in GQ magazine whether Johnson was “a prime minister in waiting”, and although he criticised some aspects of Johnson in that article, he proudly voted for him at last year’s general election.

So yes, Morgan’s backlash against the very weak response to coronavirus from two poor crisis leaders is welcome. But it can’t undo the damage he’s already done by failing to properly acknowledge their weaknesses earlier in their political careers.

It was always obvious that Johnson and Trump would be disastrous leaders. If they had faced more scrutiny and less sycophancy, their march to the top could have been stopped.

It’s thought that thousands have died unnecessarily because of Boris and Trump’s poor leadership. Long may Morgan hold them to account. He’s got a lot to make up for.