By Ryan Chou
Source: Samuel Corum/Getty Images
On August 2nd, 2016, President Trump tweeted, “President Obama will go down as perhaps the worst president in the history of the United States!” But it’s not Obama who will go down as the worst president in American history — it’s Donald Trump. You can argue that the economy is strong under Trump, or at least it was before COVID-19, and maybe that his peace deals in the Middle East make him a strong leader. However, the fact remains that Donald Trump’s culmination of narcissistic, manipulative, psychopathic decisions have not only severely damaged the foundation of American democracy, but have given him the dishonorable distinction of being the weakest, most pathetic American president.
What happened in the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, will go down in history with Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and other tragic times as the end product of what Trump has truly done to America. The pro-Trump raid that desecrated a sacred symbol of democracy into an embarassment of the world — and the ensuing Trump sycophants, such as Dinesh D’Souza, defending the invasion by comparing it to the incomparable Black Lives Matter protests or claiming that it was justified, rocked the country. This is the result of a lunatic, rotten President spreading misinformation, lies, and manipulating millions of people into believing that everyone against him were traitors and morons.
Admittedly, I was supportive of Trump in 2017. But as time went on, I began to lose my faith in him. There wasn’t a singular catastrophe that caused this, but nevertheless, I began to see his strange, questionable remarks for what they were: hateful and self-absorbed, not politically incorrect. Arguing for torture methods even more extreme than waterboarding is politically incorrect, but calling Mexicans rapists with the brief mention that “some, I assume, are good people” and virtually anyone who opposes him either part of the deep state or a radical socialist is manipulative bigotry.
The impact of Trump’s rhetoric is undeniable. His refusal to denounce blatant, untrue conspiracy theorists such as QAnon led to what happened in our Capitol. His hesitancy or outright refusal to fully denounce white supremacists, such as telling the right-wing Proud Boys group to, “Stand back and stand by,” has turned the clock of racial tolerance backwards. And his unrelenting threats to lock Hillary Clinton up while calling moderate Democrats, including President-elect Joe Biden, “radical socialists” have driven up political polarization to insane, unacceptable levels. Paranoia, prejudice, and hatred is what Donald Trump has bred. On every level, the President has failed his job in the Oval Office, and his trademark slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is now burning up in flames.
From a logistical lens, Trump didn’t even accomplish most of what he promised he would on the campaign trail in 2016. Remember, he was going to “Make America Great Again”? He would do this by ridding Washington D.C. of corporate lobbyists, bringing back jobs from Mexico, and among other things, building a wall on our southern border to halt illegal immigration. Now, a substantial chunk of people don’t even support his ideas, but he was ultimately voted in to enact these policies. If he did what he said he would do, Trump could have racked up points as an effective president, but he didn’t. Sure, he replaced Justice Scalia, pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, and renegotiated NAFTA. But there’s a lot more he didn’t do that he promised. According to PolitiFact, 50% of Trump’s promises were outright broken, and another 24% either ended in compromise or being stalled.
What happened to repealing and replacing ObamaCare? Getting rid of Common Core? Accelerating GDP growth to at least 4% per year? Or balancing the budget? All faded away into oblivion. Oh, and by the way, that ridiculous 2,000 mile border wall isn’t even close to being done, with less than 500 miles of wall being put up at the close of this administration. So, no matter what he tries to say, Trump ended up letting down his supporters. But despite this, thousands of them remained so loyal to him that they were willing to become domestic terrorists in a sick attempt to give him a second term as president.
And it shouldn’t be forgotten how Trump has turned America into a laughing stock of the world. From a failed pandemic response to shoving world leaders like a child, it’s no wonder why British protestors launched a giant baby balloon meant to mock him when he visited. He doesn’t get mocked because the globalists “fear” him — he has made a fool out of himself and the country he represents, so he has been treated as such. Threatening to destroy entire countries and getting into childish name-calling fights with Kim Jong-un is baffling on its own, but the Capitol raid that he incited has left even more damage on our world image.
The Capitol is supposed to be a symbol of democracy; a building of hope, freedom, and greatness. That’s the image it has projected for centuries. But thanks to Donald Trump and his crew of abhorrent yes-men advisors enabling him, the building was desecrated, and the world watched in shock as Trump supporters looted in the name of the Leader of the Free World. It cannot be forgotten that this is infact Donald Trump’s fault. He was the one who egged his supporters on every step of the way. He was the one who called the election rigged for months on end. And yes, he was the one who continued to rile up his supporters on January 6th, 2021, as he refused to accept the results of the election. Along with him were despicable traitors like Rudy Giuliani, who directly called for “trial by combat” hours before the raid, more than 100 Republican members of Congress, and over a dozen Republican senators fully intent on making unprecedented challenges to what is supposed to be a ceremonious procedure. And to top it all off, Trump continued to frame the election as stolen during the invasion, and afterwards, Senator Josh Hawley still wouldn’t recant his challenge to the results in Pennsylvania. In short, the raid epitomizes what Donald Trump has done to America: manipulation, polarization, betrayal, and failure.
At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton’s legacy as being marked by, “Death, destruction, terrorism, and weakness.” But as it turns out, this is the legacy of Trump, not Clinton. Nearly 400,000 dead from a pandemic he ignored, tension that has sparked riots and conflicts because of his polarization, terrorism incited by his remarks against our Capitol and those not on his side, and weakness from him refusing to accept a loss and bowing down to our enemies — Donald Trump will undoubtedly go down as one of, if not the worst, President of the United States.
