Washington, May 10 (RHC)-- Former U.S. President Barack Obama has launched a scathing attack on Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it an "absolute chaotic disaster."

In a leaked web call Friday night with former members of his administration, first obtained by Yahoo News, Obama urges former staffers to join him in rallying behind Joe Biden as he prepares to take on Trump in the November presidential election.

"What we're fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy -- that has become a stronger impulse in American life," Obama said.

"It's part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty.  It would have been bad even with the best of governments.  It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset - of 'what's in it for me' and 'to heck with everybody else' -- when that mindset is operationalised in our government."