In the history of this nation, we have seen 45 former presidents lose their power, one way or another. A few died while in office, and were replaced almost immediately by their Vice-Presidents. Some stepped down after serving two full terms, others stepped down of their own accord after refusing to run again, such as Lyndon Johnson in 1968. Some were one-term presidents who were defeated in their attempts to win re-election and win another term. One way or another, most stepped down gracefully, recognizing that the presidency was the highlight of their political career, and leaving it at that. One became a Supreme Court Justice. One managed to win another term in office a few years later. One was so active in his post-presidency that he set the bar in the eyes of most for the most successful post-presidency, helping the needy, fighting diseases and trying to safeguard free and fair elections in troubled areas abroad, helping build homes for the disadvantaged here in the country, and ultimately winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
Of course, our newest former President of the United States is Donald Trump. This man never knew anything except enormous scams. He shrewdly knows only how to manipulate circumstances so that he himself benefits in some way, shape, or form. Not necessarily the country, or anything or anyone else, although Trump obviously claims otherwise. That is part of the scam. Because with Trump, it is always about Trump, and his petty ego and neediness.
This is what the statement from the new office stated:
"The office will be responsible for managing President Trump's correspondence, public statements, appearances and official activities to advance the interests of the United States and to carry on the agenda of the Trump administration through advocacy, organizing and public activism," the office said in a statement. "President Trump will always and forever be a champion for the American people."
Sounds impressive and important. It also sounds like it was written by someone other than Donald Trump himself. Anyone who was paying attention and could not help but grow aware of how Trump actually talks and writes could not help but feel very clearly that these were not his words.
Also, this feels like only the latest attempt to remain relevant by a man who never fails to betray how desperately he wants to remain relevant. You almost feel like he is going through some very late form of mid-life crisis, even if he is now in his mid-seventies, because also, for anyone who could not help but pay attention this sounds like an expression meant to impress people. In reality, he was hardly truly relevant while in office, especially during his lame duck period. Frankly, to borrow one of Trump's own favorite phrases that he used often towards others, this is sad. Very sad.
Until now, that was the range of the activities of former presidents, who usually (but not always) tried to let their successors actually do the difficult task at hand of being the Commander-in-Chief, obviously a demanding office.
Leave it to the one with by far the biggest and most fragile ego to set up what sounds at first like an impressive title: the “Office of the Former President.”
Yes, this is just the latest in Trump’s endless bag of tricks, be they political, or business. He never falls short in his attempts to either line his own pockets or stoke his own enormous ego, always trying to make himself look and sound like more than he actually is. In fact, after four ridiculous, absurd years that shall live in infamy in this nation’s history, most Americans are ready to put Trump behind them, to put him in the rearviewmirror and let the nation move ahead. But Trump himself obviously wants to remain relevant.
It seems quite obvious that this was an answer to Joe Biden having prominently given public speeches with the “Office of the President-Elect” title in the background, which clearly must have infuriated Trump.
And so, here he is, setting up an office that no other former president ever bothered trying to set up. He showed absolutely no grace or humility after losing the 2020 election, as he declared victory on the night of the election well before all of the votes were counted, and when all the networks and official sources were suggesting it was still too close to call. Of course, he claimed that there was massive voter fraud, and tried to stop the count in some states, while claiming that more votes (the ones he needed to win) needed to be counted in states like Arizona, where he was trailing by a small margin. He contested the election every step of the way, and as Biden stated, no avenue was denied him. His lawyers abandoned him, likely knowing full well that there was no real case in proving “massive voter fraud, although one lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, stuck with Trump right to the butter end, even though he himself was in the center of some truly absurd moments in political history in so doing. Trump rewarded him by refusing to pay his lofty legal bills when all wa said and done, showing once again, as if more proof of this was needed, that Trump never shows the same loyalty to other that he himself demands from them.
Trump failed in his bid to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that there was “massive voter fraud.” In fact, in court, they never even tried to have a case proving “massive voter fraud,” choosing instead to fixate on minor irregularities that could not possibly overturn an election. It seems clear that they understood that claiming “massive voter fraud” before television cameras would be more effective, and less potentially serious in terms of consequences, then doing so in the courts, under oath, and with the threat of perjury. After all, there are actual ramifications if you claim something that is not only not true, but outright misleading when you are under oath. So once again, it proved to all be a gimmick.
The next avenue for Trump was his apparent belief that his rowdy and violent band of his most loyal supporters would storm the Capitol building in Washington and “take back the country.”
They sure tried, didn’t they? They had built a gallows outside, and they clearly were trying at the very least to intimidate the members of Congress inside. Only in the end, they found that they could not end democracy merely because they were angry, and believed (falsely) that the election had been stolen from them.
For once, most people, regular Americans and even most politicians, recognized that Trump’s role in all of this was far from innocent. He was impeached for a second time, a stain on his legacy that should stick, as it is a dubious distinction that Trump, and only Trump, will have to endure, in terms of his legacy. People will remember that, as well as the stunning levels of polarization which he actively tried to foster, as well as the relentless lies, the arrogance, the ignorance, and the departure from any and all norms that had existed before. Some had actually suggested that the enormity and gravitas of the office would humble him.
Trump, humbled?
Give me a break.
Trump has no humility. Not one ounce.
There was a complete absence of gravitas throughout his presidency.
Why?
Because Trump is all about Trump. Always has been, always will be. His term in office was defined by his own unfailing, over-the-top praise of himself. It did not require, nor possess, any imagination or intelligence. It merely required a blind spot by tens of millions of Americans, who somehow fell for his well worn act of scamming people into believing things about himself that simply were not true.
No, Trump is not a “very stable genius.” No, his first term was not the most accomplished in history. Quite the opposite is true in both counts. Trump is no genius, and he most certainly is not stable. And his four years in office – four more years then he deserved, frankly – were the least accomplished of any in American history.
To be sure, the nation had it’s fair share of troubles before he took office. But after his four years, the nation was far less respected and trusted throughout the world, and that is not something that will simply go away. When world leaders declare outright that the United States can no longer be regarded as a reliable or trustworthy partner any longer, as numerous European leaders declared after meeting with Trump in 2017, that is not a success story. When the country added over $5 trillion dollars to the $19.9 trillion that it already had in national debt when Trump took over, that is not a success. When the country is more polarized then we have ever seen it, with some outright talking about a civil war, and some talk of Texas seceding from the union, that is not a success. When the general perception among most Americans is an acknowledgement that our democracy is a lot more fragile than previously believed, directly because of Trump’s actions, that is not a success. When the nation saw 400,000 citizens dies because of the lack of preparedness on the part of Trump administration officials, that is not a success. When the media is attacked and labeled an “enemy of the people,” words borrowed directly from some of tbhe most brutal dictators in world history, that is not a success. When a president censors any discussion on scientific matters that he himself is clearly not qualified to discuss, that is not a success. When tens of millions of Americans lost their healthcare because this president reneged on his promise to create a national healthcare system that would be affordable and cover everybody, that is not a success. When tens of millions of Americans file for unemployment because this president allowed a pandemic to grow completely out of control, to the point that the entire rest of the world used the United States as an example of what not to do, that is not a success.
Trump is a failure. He went bankrupt numerous times as a businessman, and his presidency, which he relied on scamming people into believing he was something that he was not in order to obtain, was an abysmal failure. Frankly, his four years in office set new low bars for this country, and it will take years, if not decades, for we as a country to overcome all that we have lost as a direct result of Trump being president.
No, I am not saying that all of the country’s problems are Trump’s fault. In fact, many of the problems facing the country were, in fact, the reason that Trump got into the office to begin with.
However, I can and will say, without any equivocation, that his presidency was the worst possible presidency that could have befallen the country during the past four years. He was a known liar and scam artist. He valued only himself, being astonishingly selfish and narcissistic and arrogant, and hardly embodied the “family values” that his political party claimed to believe in and preach for many decades. Trump never was anything that he claimed to be, and he predictably dragged the country down with him, once he took over for an office that he so clearly was not qualified for from the first.
Who cares about the “Office of the Former President”? To me, it is the political equivalent of Trump University, or Trump Steaks, or Trump Casinos, or Trump Magazine, or Trump Winery, or Trump Water, or Trump Airline, and so on and so forth. None of those Trump business ventures last very long, and they were all just shameless self-promotion from the master of self-promotion to begin with. They lacked substance, and went under. That is pretty much what Trump’s political career was, as well. Just a gimmick. And when enough people recognized, once and for all, that it lacked substance, Trump’s political career went under. No politician in history who ever lost power through the democratic process so richly deserved to be defeated and forcibly humbled as Donald Trump.
In other words, it is just yet another scam from the grand master of all con artists. Perhaps the greatest con artist in history, to give him some credit. But it is not real, it lacks substance, just like the man who created all of those scams. Now that most of us recognize it for what it was, let us put this big lie behind us, and actually seek real solutions, and not trust in the words of some self-serving scam artist.
Let us learn our lesson, and put him, and all of the titles that he still now wants to claim for himself, in the rearviewmirror. Let us remember that he made the problems in this country dramatically worse, and that not only does he not offer any relevant answers to what ails the country, but in fact, can and will only make matters worse if he continues to be relevant, which he clearly is not.
Here is the link to this article that got me on this topic, and from which I used the official statement highlighted in yellow above:
Trump opens "Office of the Former President" in Florida by Melissa Quinn, January 26, 2021:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/office-of-the-former-president-trump-florida/
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