The Worst President In History, But Not Why You Think

Two polls of historians have been held since Donald Trump became President. He tied for last. It’s not hard to see why. He wants to kill us with poison, put children in cages, shoot us down like dogs in the street, and promote White Supremacy and Neo-Nazi ideologies. He degrades women, African Americans, and Native Americans. He lies – several dozen times daily – while tweeting vile garbage of every kind from his porcelain throne. He loves our enemies and savages our friends. He wants to imprison his enemies and create a kleptocracy for his family and friends. He foments violence and racism wherever he can. He has dismantled our State Department and emasculated our intelligence services. He uses the military as props for his political theater. He schemes to corrupt our elections. Rather than marshal all the country’s resources and unite us together to mount a massive assault on the Covid – 19 threat, he chose to pick petty fights. He couldn’t damage our domestic and foreign policies any more effectively than if he were doing it deliberately. But none of that is what makes him the worst president in history. He is the worst because he could have been so much more, a potentially transformative figure along the lines of Lincoln, Roosevelt, or even Washington. When he took office, he had the GOP in his back pocket and the Democrats in disarray. All he had to do was move to the center and use his clout over the GOP to keep them in line and provide enough sweeteners to attract the Dems. He could have passed a generation’s worth of legislation in his first two years. He even got Nancy Pelosi to offer him $25 billion for his wall in exchange for the Dreamers and all he had to do was say yes. He had an agreement on an infrastructure plan if he could have seen a way to do it. He has had very few defectors in the GOP no matter what the bill with the exception of the repeal of Obamacare. The moment was made for him to bring the two sides together to push through immigration reform, tax reform, an infrastructure program, and even health care reform that required both parties to successfully address. But Trump was not made for the moment. He didn’t have a clue what to do or how to do it. If he had even an ounce of strategic vision or political acumen, he would have recognized where he stood. But, alas, he has neither. And, apparently, no one else in the GOP did either. He chose instead to be a petty, vindictive ignoramus who spent his four years in one tiny cesspool after another as he chased demons only he could see. Trump decided to carry on his petty squabbles, insults, and grandstanding, while the rest of his party schemed how to give the money to the rich and manipulate the system to try to remain in power. It was a stunning display of incompetence that may have no parallel in American history. There has never been another President who did so little with so much. Someone who stood on the cusp of greatness and chose instead to wallow in the manure. What would drive him to make this choice, especially for a man so desperate for adoration, which he surely would have gotten by the bucketful if he had chosen the path open to him. It may never be known, but clearly Trump has no ability to understand what he is presented with and no idea how to self-reflect on how to change his course or on what he has lost. It is clear that Trump’s growing list of outrages, incompetencies, lies, and pettiness will get longer and the nation’s appraisal of him as the worst President in history will grow, but that only makes the true depth of his awful choice to be a petty would-be tyrant instead of a transformational leader all the more clear. To paraphrase Shakespeare, some people are born failures, some achieve failure, and some have failure thrust upon them. Trump will be unique. He is a failure and the worst president in history because he chose to be.