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| This is the "comic relief" portion of his legacy |
Despite the fact that somewhere in the bowels of the White House basement Trump is plotting with notes provided by the MyPillow Guy to somehow hold onto the Presidency, in just a couple of days he’ll be gone. Historians will begin the process of determining the “Trump Legacy.” Oh, please, let me help.
THE DEBT
This seems an unusual place to start, given more recent events,
but it’s a wonderful bellwether of his four years in office. He campaigned heavily on his ability to run
the government like a business, and claimed he could reduce the debt “easily.”
Instead, he ran up massive deficits despite a robust economy. His disastrous tax cuts that favored the rich, his “trade wars are easy to win” tariffs, his stupid ineffective costly border wall, and the corruption for the benefit of himself, his family, his cabinet, and his cronies all contributed to a staggering rise in the debt BEFORE Covid-19. Check out the chart:
Yes, Trump ran the government like a business – one of his
bankrupt, failed casinos…or airline…or wine company…or university…etc.
CORRUPT/INEPT CABINET
I mentioned the cabinet briefly above, but it bears repeating that
his cabinet was another reflection on ho w poorly he ran the government. “Only the best people” was really “only
people completely loyal to me and me alone.”
Some publications called his initial cabinet “the most conservative” but
it was also the richest ever, one also with the least experience.
But that was then. Since
2016, there have been more changes
in the cabinet and other top positions in Trump’s administration than the
NY Jets coaching staff. Rather than me
make comment on this, I’ll let Trump speak for himself:
"We
have acting people. The reason they are acting is because I'm seeing how I like
them, and I'm liking a lot of them very, very much. There are people who have
done a bad job, and I let them go. If you call that turmoil, I don't call that
turmoil. I say that is being smart. That's what we do."
That works if you’re hiring someone to be a casino host; not a top
admin position. And having acting
administrators avoids that pesky problem of getting them approved by Congress,
which sums up Trump’s relationship with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle
for the length of his term: “Screw you.”
Of course, many of those who now sport “Former Secretary of …”
tags are former-Trump supporters and have incurred his wrath (and they tend to
give as good as they get). That there
are so many of them, and the fact that the merry-go-round is STILL continuing
mere days before he leaves office gives special consideration that the cabinet
of Trump is every bit as scary as that old silent,
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Actually,
they have something in common as both are “…actually the delusion of a madman.”
COVID
Remember this?
In
March, President Donald
Trump said keeping the death toll at 100,000 to 200,000 people would
indicate that his administration had “done a very good job.” Later
he said, “We have done a phenomenal job
with respect to COVID-19.”
That story was printed on September 9th, the day we hit
200,000 deaths. We’re now at TWICE that,
and it’s no wonder no one in the Trump administration mentions COVID anymore.
It’s THE single biggest failure of Trump. From the very beginning he downplayed the
virus, lied about, bungled every attempt to control it, screwed up equipment
and supplies, and even now the administration has failed to provide states with
sufficient vaccine (while lying about the process to boot).
OK. I lied. There’s a
bigger legacy than COVID.
THE INSURRECTION
After two months of failing to concede a lost election, countless
lawsuits, and endlessly claiming “FRAUD” but never showing an ounce of
evidence, Trump (and his minions) goaded Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and others
of their ilk to storm the Capitol on the day the Electoral College was to seal
his fate in order to…what, exactly?
“Re-steal” the election?
Obviously motives for many were only a show of support, but for others
an ominous undercurrent of sedition was “in force.” This story is still being written, and participants
still being arrested, but the initial evidence is clear – those involved in the
takeover of the building and the attempted takeover of the country were merely
doing Trump’s bidding.
And the reason they were doing so is the real legacy of Trump’s
Presidency:
LIES
Every instance of trump’s incompetence, every dismantling of our
democracy, every slight, every cruelty inflicted, everything – was always
accompanied by lies. Big lies, small
lies, continual lies in the face of fact checking; no President, hell, no
individual has lied as much as Trump. CNN’s
Daniel
Dale has done an excellent job cataloging them, if you’re interested.
And those lies have consequences.
Not just in everything I’ve stated above, but…well…everything. He’s lied so much, so often, about so many
things that many Americans are completely bamboozled. Brainwashed.
They have no idea what’s true and what’s false.
Covid is a hoax. Antifa
stormed the Capitol. Nazis are very fine
people. He won the election by a
landslide. Despite photos, evidence,
facts, proof…he keeps on lying and people believe him.
And why not? He has media
to back him (not the ones who are “enemies of the people,” of course), a weak
and frightened party to support him, and he’s never, never, NEVER had to suffer
the consequences for his actions.
Until now.
Now he’ll have to leave office.
He’ll try to regroup, like he always has, but this time it will be more
difficult. He’s in massive debt. His Trump “brand” is in tatters. And there are countless lawsuits and
investigations he’ll have to respond to.
Sure, he’ll respond with the usual lies and falsehoods. It’s his nature. It’s his M.O.
It’s his legacy.
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