The White House issues its own set of recommendations which are relatively consistent with the CDC recommendations but not identical.
The CDC has an advantage, its only "mandate" is to recommend the best "safety" guidelines as they relate specifically to health and not to overall public policy as a whole. This leads to some obvious conflicts on issues like opening the economy and opening up schools.
I think Trump did a good job navigating the competing economic, social, and health issues related to the pandemic. In fact, one of the complaints about Trump is that he was not authoritarian enough and failed to mandate things he had no Constitutional power to do... Remember in contrast, Biden declared he would mandate wearing masks until he found out the President did not have that authority and retracted his statement.
Some decisions with hindsight could have been improved like locking down our airports and quarantining everyone returning to the US for weeks starting back in December, when the virus first broke out in China. But even when he did do it, he was lambasted by the media for being xenophobic.
But a President is not a King and so many of the criticisms are that Trump left to much in the hands of governors... but a close read of the Constitution makes health a "state issue" which is why health insurance is handled through the various State Insurance Commissions... Trump did provide enormous logistical support to governors such that even my super liberal state governor praised Trump for the Federal support provided.
I did not understand the "extreme damage" Trump has done to American institutions and democracy.
Frankly, I feel he has respected the Constitution by appointing Constitutional judges and allowing states far more power than his predecessors which is consistent with Article X of the Constitution. Where he has pushed the envelope in the area of executive orders, he has accepted the Courts rulings including restraining orders.
He has also preserved the Constitution's design that establishes "three equal branches of government" much more so than Obama did, when he said "I have a phone and pen and know how to use them" inferring he would ignore Congress. I suspect your opinion of Trump is more influenced by feelings about him then anything he has done per se... But if you have a specific case where you think he has done extreme damage to our democracy, then make your case...
How democracy has been harmed? Now I do think if the Democrats "sweep" this election, they are threatening to do extreme harm of a nature not seen since Harry Reid implemented the "nuclear option" that Democrats have come to regret with regard to judicial appointments.
