The US President claimed he had won the election, that he looked forward to working with them for years to come, that the Paris Agreement had been a nefarious plot to destroy the American economy, and that he deserved the credit for for the vaccines US companies will soon be bringing to the market. Then, in a move that topped all that had gone before, he ducked out of the White House for a round of golf while his peers participated in an event on "Pandemic Preparedness" and the rising tide of COVID-19 cases sweeping across Europe, the Americas, India, Japan, the Middle East, Africa, and parts of south-east Asia.

What must old hands such as Angela Merkel, new arrivals such as the Japanese Prime Minister, and pragmatic realists such as Putin and Xi Jinping have been thinking? Given many had already congratulated Joe Biden on his now 306 to 232 electoral college vote victory the leitmotif must surely have been "dead man walking".

There is certainly a growing sense of that within the GOP as more key Republicans speak out against President Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud and the desperate actions of his legal team: "Elections have consequences and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn't happen," former Republican governor of New Jersey, and Trump ally, Chris Christie said. "The conduct of the President's legal team has become a national embarrassment... [if the courts are not finding any cases in their favour] it must mean the evidence doesn't exist".

That was the view of Pennsylvania District Court Judge Matthew Brann who said a case brought to throw out millions of legal votes was a "Frankenstein's monster of strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations unsupported by evidence".

While the embryonic Biden administration is refusing to let itself be be hamstrung by Republican intransigence, incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain said the lack of access to agencies, briefings, and office space could hamper the roll out of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021. Mr Biden's team has resorted to crowd funding to get around the lack of support from the GSA, the agency responsible for the transition from one administration to the next.

The biggest loser, after the American people, from the petulant and self-indulgent way in which the President has responded to his defeat is POTUS himself. He could, for example, have used the G20 to bid a dignified farewell to his peers on the global stage. Instead President Trump spread more lies and conspiracies, claimed credit for the achievements of others, and boasted about US military and economic power. According to one source: "His was the anomalous speech. Everyone else talked about global matters of life and death".

President Trump has not only diminished US prestige in a way never seen before, he has also undermined his own not inconsiderable legacy. This includes maintaining peace on the Korean peninsula, reducing tensions in the Middle East, and bringing the bulk of US troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq. He also deserves credit for his part in the US economic recovery, getting NATO allies to meet their financial obligations, and standing up to China.

All of this is now at risk of being overlooked due to the chaotic way in which he is leaving the world's most powerful office.