It seems clear enough to me, as it is clear with most other people, that Donald Trump was little more than a criminal a con artist who has enjoyed a remarkably successful running throughout his life with getting away with his scams. Indeed, when I suggest that he is a scam artist, I mean in that in an almost literal sense. Nobody in this country, and probably nobody in this world, is as masterful at getting away with scams as Donald Trump has been, and apparently continues to be. Indeed, he got away with just awful behavior throughout his life, from dodging being drafted into the Vietnam conflict after received an elite military education, then in building his empire as a real estate tycoon, surviving getting sued apparently literally thousands of times. And then, probably his master stroke, convincing just enough people that he, and he alone, could fix this country's problems, and finding himself getting elected into the White House. Such a man as this never should have been entrusted with serious power, let alone what arguably still may be the most powerful office on the planet.
Yet, Trump managed the feat. Not surprisingly, despite claiming that he would be the president for all Americans, he was far and away the most polarizing "leader" we have had in modern times, and it is not even close. Hate crimes spiked, not coincidentally, with this man's political rise. So did the divisions, even though tensions were already quite high in a country very polarized.
What Trump managed to prove in four years in office is that (a) doing for the country what you did for yourself cannot work if you are nothing more than a scam artist and (b) he had no serious answers for the country, in terms of meaningful solutions or answers. What he did was opened his big mouth on every little subject, calculating how it would be interpreted and manipulating his loyal following, so that he himself appeared to be the champion of all that they believed in. For example, he posted a brief video of one of his own supporters yelling "white power" before taking it down after a few hours, which surely fired up the white nationalist element within his base. There were other examples, however. Trump himself did not have very strong belief in guns, even asking a crowd once that there had to be a point where there were too man guns. But when he got a reaction he did not want, he backed away and became a champion of the NRA and staunchly opposed to any restrictions on gun ownership. Ditto with healthcare. Years before running for the White House, Trump claimed that the only real healthcare solution in this country was a single-payer, universal healthcare system. When he actually did run for office, he promised to reform the healthcare system, even going so far as to suggest that it would be easy. Then, he lifted not so much as a finger in designing any kind of new healthcare program, only going with the crowds within the Republican party and opposing Obamacare, and at most, attaching his name and political weight behind former House Speaker Paul Ryan's healthcare plan. He promised that he would not have time for golf once in the White House, then seemed to systematically clear his schedule for it as often as possible, and far too often making sure that he did so on his own golf resorts, so that his businesses (and he himself, of course) would get some profits from it. He promised that he would divorce himself from his business interests, then simply never did so, using the office of the presidency to outright benefit his private business interests. He promised to pay off the national debt in eight years, but increased it by over 25 percent instead in his four years in office. and on and on and on like that. His whole presidency was an exercise in futility, irresponsibility, and kicking the coin down the street in terms of problems facing the country for future generations to take care of. No actual real or meaningful leadership from him in any way, shape or form.
Yet, those who were taken by him largely remained taken by him. Perhaps it was because he appeared to say whatever was on his mind at the time. Perhaps it was because he was a celebrity with a penchant for the dramatic. Nobody had a bigger mouth, and for some reason that I never understood, Trump has always been a ratings winner. Again, my guess is that it was the greatly inflated, even over the top confidence in himself, the lack of any outward signs of doubt. He said and did things that were, frankly, embarrassing and humiliating, and which anyone in their right mind would have probably lost all support and credibility over. Yet, he got away with it, time and time again. Things like praising the healthcare of a non-existent African nation in front of a room full of African leaders. Things like getting laughed at in front of the United Nations after mistaking them for a Trump rally audience. Things like referring to dozens of countries in Central American and Africa as "shithole nations" and then holding up Norway as the kind of country it was desirable to receive immigrants from. Things like that, which he did right away, even when he announced his candidacy for the White House back in the summer of 2015. There he descended from a golden escalator, and rained down all sorts of signs of what was to come. He conceded a career defined by greed, a word he repeated several times as defining him, before saying that he now wanted to do for the country what he had done for himself. Things like trashing Mexicans as rapists and criminals before conceding, reluctantly, that some, he guessed, were decent. Things like championing a national registry of all Muslims, even while it is unconstitutional to ostracize any particular religion. He always promised great things, then delivered unimpressive results, like any good con artist will do. No, he was not the greatest job creating president in American history, as he promised. No, the country was not stronger or better or more respected around the world than it ever had been before. No, the biggest problems facing the nation, including the national debt or environmental standards of the failed healthcare system or gun violence or the staggering levels of polarization, none of that was resolved, but in fact, had grown worse during Trump's four years in office. Al of this came right at the beginning of his presidency, to boot. No, there was no historical landslide when he won the 2016 election, which he in fact lost the popular vote for by 2.7 million. No, there was no historical turnout for his inauguration. No, he was not unbeatable in the polls and bound or a second (or third, or fourth, and so on) term in office save for the possibility of some massive voter fraud.
And the whole January 6th thing, when Trump tried to force the continuation of his presidency even though a very clear majority of both voters and states had rejected it, and very convincingly, was just one more typical scam by the master of all scam artists. He said and did just enough without going so far as to actually implicate himself. He urged the crowd to be strong, to show no weakness, because that would not be enough to take back the country. Yet he also had said that it was to remain peaceful, which it most certainly did not. He forever and always claimed that there was staggering evidence of some massive voter fraud, but never produced any serious proof of that, to the point where his own lawyers made it crystal clear that they were not arguing any sort of massive voter fraud in court, when they had their numerous days in court. After all, when you lie under oath in a court room, there are consequences. Not so much when you are outside of court and feeding your loyal followers nothing more than propaganda. And so, in that spirit, the propaganda continued, and just went on and on. No substance, which also was true of the whole Trump political phenomenon itself.
All of it was like some bad joke, except that it was real, and the consequences of it really are not funny at all. This is how far the country has fallen, that this pathetic, needy man is now hailed as some kind of great leader?
The United States is far worse off as a result of Trump's presidency than it had been before it. This was so obvious, that it really is difficult to understand how so many people believe otherwise. It is frankly astonishing to think that so many of his supporters truly seemed to think that they could get what they want by storming the Capitol building on January 6th. Or, for that matter, that they would get away with it. Perhaps they still somehow believed the Trump snake oil sales pitch. Perhaps they believed that he would grant them a pardon. But he did not, much like he did not actually have any intention of paying the legal bills of any of his supporters who actually physically struck some undesirables at Trump rallies before his rise to the White House. This country may need a lot of things, but yet another glittering gimmick lacking any real substance is not one of them.
My guess is that, like with pretty much everything else, Trump will get away with this. Perhaps that is what his supporters truly actually enjoy, is the false promise of Trump actually being held to account for his bad behavior. I would love to believe that he himself would be held to account, but my guy and also my head tell me that he will not be. To believe that this time, we absolutely have him, is tantamount to believing that this time, Charlie Brown will finally kick that field goal, that Lucy will not be quick enough to pull it away. But it just will not happen. Wish I had more faith in a positive outcome. But when it comes to this country and it's broken political system, I have come to accept - reluctantly, but definitely nevertheless - that things will grow worse before they get better.
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