Trump, Ousted, Leaves Behind A Far Greater Danger: His Example

Just about anyone hoping to acquire more power than he or she deserves —and to flourish as an impostor — will be emboldened by Donald Trump’s example.

President Donald Trump during an interview with Leslie Stahl in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. (Twitter/@realDonaldTrump)

"It's easier to be a parent this morning. It's easier to be a Dad," said Van Jones, a CNN commentator, soon after news broke on Friday that Joe Biden had edged out U.S. President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, clearing the Democrat's path to the White House. Jones struggled to hold back his tears as he sputtered, "It's easier to tell your kids character matters. It matters. Telling the truth matters. Being a good person matters.¹"

And yet, more than 70 million Americans — most of whom presumably see themselves as decent people — chose Trump over the eventual winner.

That is not all. Repellent though he may seem to many in the United States² and around the world³, Trump defied the polls⁴ to considerably improve his share of the popular vote (although he has lost it for the second election in a row). Any hopes of a "blue wave" — meaning an electoral windfall for Democrats arising from popular disgust with Trump's tumultuous reign, and in particular his spectacularly inept handling of the pandemic⁵ — quickly evaporated on Election Day. Instead, the president continued to spring surprises on his detractors. For example, an N.P.R. analysis⁶ of votes polled in the 100 U.S. counties with the highest coronavirus fatality rates found that support for Trump had increased in many of these places since 2016.

To be sure, it has long been clear that Trump-ism will not go gently into the night. The tenacity of the president's base has borne out one of the more notorious quotes in his rich archive of braggadocio: his hair-raising prediction in 2016 that he could, at no political cost to himself, gun down a pedestrian in the middle of Fifth Avenue⁷ (a historic Manhattan thoroughfare). Indeed, in November 2019, The New York Times used survey data to conclude⁸ that three years into his scandal-tainted reign, Trump remained "highly competitive in the battleground states likeliest to decide his re-election" and had retained the approval of 90 per cent of his backers from 2016.

From The New York Times's recent Sunday Review excoriating the Trump presidency. (Twitter/@ConnieSchultz)

As for the question of why Trump appeals to voters, many plausible explanations exist — from the comforting allure of his swaggering, maverick Mr. Fix-It persona⁹ at a time of dwindling confidence in U.S. institutions¹⁰, to his masterful manipulation of public discourse to construct a narrative of victimhood for his supporters, smear his opponents as their enemies, and appoint himself their messiah¹¹. To be fair to Trump, he does have some accomplishments to speak of. Even the "lame-stream" media he so reviles acknowledges his administration's contributions to fighting Islamist terrorism¹², curbing sex trafficking, effecting crucial sentencing reform¹³, and so on. And while fact-checkers dismiss his claim¹⁴ of having presided over "the greatest economy in the history of our country", they acknowledge that it was healthy before the pandemic struck, building on progress made during the Obama years.

But all this pales into insignificance next to Trump's ultimate legacy: that he held on to power for a full term despite his encyclopaedic collection of misdeeds, lies, and blunders¹⁵ — even surviving impeachment — and that he did so in the United States: not quite an exemplar among democracies, like Norway or New Zealand¹⁶, but a mature, resilient one with few rivals in terms of global visibility and influence.

From start to finish, Trump was besieged by a number of potentially career-ending revelations. But his eel-like powers of escape prevailed. Allegations of sexual assault¹⁷ and that infamous "grab 'em by the p***y" audio clip failed to deter the 42% of woman voters¹⁸ who picked him over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Later, an investigation of foreign election interference that Trump feared would end his presidency — "I'm f*cked," he said¹⁹ — found evidence²⁰ of his campaign's ties with Russian contacts and of his later efforts to derail the probe; yet it did not explicitly and unequivocally indict him. Then, when it emerged that the president had abused his power by asking Ukraine's newly-elected president to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter²¹, he was impeached but kept in power thanks to his party's majority in the Senate. Finally, despite downplaying the perils of the coronavirus, which he knew could potentially be lethal²², Trump came within touching distance of re-election in the country worst-hit by the pandemic. To boot, he has so far distinguished himself from other world leaders of his right-wing populist ilk — such as Marine Le Pen of France²³, Geert Wilders of the Netherlands²⁴, and Narendra Modi of India ²⁵ — in one crucial aspect: he is having serious trouble admitting defeat.

Of course, Trump could still face prosecution in a clutch of cases and investigations²⁶ once he is stripped of presidential immunity early next year — exactly how it all plays out remains to be seen. But even if the Trump story is headed for an Aesop's Fable finish, it is, on balance, far from an illustration of Van Jones's just-world assumption that it's "easy to do it the cheap way and get away with stuff, but it comes back around". On the contrary, it is hard to think of another figure in modern political history who was so obviously ill-equipped for high office and so transparently corrupt (Trump felt the call with Ukraine's Zelensky was "perfect"²⁷), but staggered along on his ruinous path, often with help from the tools of democracy and the rule of law, and in a nation where these work relatively well.

The Economist magazine feels²⁸ the lingering appeal of Trump-ism will cause "populist nationalists who look to Mr. Trump for inspiration" to "reckon that their brand of politics has a brighter future outside America, too". But there is more to glean from the Trump story than just a playbook for nativists, racists and climate skeptics. Just about anyone hoping to acquire more power than he or she deserves to wield — and flourish as an impostor — will be emboldened by Trump's example and its expansion of the realm of the possible. Think about it: an inept businessman²⁹ steeped in debt³⁰ rose to his country's highest office while portraying himself as "the very definition of the American success story"³¹. Exposed time and again as self-serving and deeply dishonest, he was still seen by millions as their best bet for the White House.

In power, Donald Trump was laughed at many times: in derision, in scorn and in disbelief. In defeat, his example will survive him — so we must resist the temptation to laugh in cathartic relief.

Trump supporters. (Twitter/@realDonaldTrump)

REFERENCES

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