Is Trump the Worst President in History?
by Richard Striner
Richard
Striner, a professor of history at Washington College, is the author of many
books including Father
Abraham: Lincoln’s Relentless Struggle to End Slavery and Lincoln’s
Way: How Six Great Presidents Created American Power.
As the chance of
getting rid of Donald Trump — through impeachment or by voting him out —
continues to dominate the headlines, the historical challenge is
compelling. No president has been a greater threat to the qualities
that make the United States of America worthy (at its best) of our allegiance.
The rise of
Trump and his movement was so freakish that historians will analyze its nature
for a long time. From his origins as a real estate hustler, this
exhibitionist sought attention as a TV vulgarian. Susceptible
television viewers found his coarse behavior amusing. Then he announced that he
was running for the presidency and it looked for a while like just another
cheap publicity stunt.
But his name-calling
tactics struck a chord with a certain group of
voters. Our American scene began to darken. Before
long, he was hurling such vicious abuse that it ushered in a politics of
rage. As his egomania developed into full megalomania, the “alt-right”
gravitated toward him.
The “movement” had
started.
More and more, to the
horror of everyone with power to see and understand, he showed a proto-fascist
mentality. So alarms began to spread: mental health professionals
warned that he exemplifies “malignant narcissism.”
Never before in
American history has the presidential office passed into the hands of a
seditionist. And the use of this term is
appropriate. With no conception of principles or limits — “I want”
is his political creed —he mocks the rule of law at every turn.
At a police convention
in 2017, he urged the officers in attendance to ignore their own regulations
and brutalize the people they arrest. He pardoned ex-Arizona sheriff
Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt of court. He
appointed Scott Pruitt to head the EPA so he could wreck the agency and let
polluters have the spree of their lives.
Trump is fascinated by
powerful dictators with little regard to human rights or democracy. He
compliments Vladimir Putin and hopes to invite that murderer to stay in the
White House. He likes Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, a tyrant
who subverts that nation’s democracy.
So,
Trump certainly has the personality of a fascist. But he is not
quite as dangerous as other authoritarians in history.
In the first place, he
lacks the fanatical vision that drove the great tyrants like Hitler and Stalin
to pursue their sick versions of utopia. He is nothing but a grubby
opportunist. He has no ideas, only appetites. The
themes that pass for ideas in the mind of Donald Trump begin as prompts that
are fed to him by others — Stephen Miller, Sean Hannity, and (once upon a time)
Steve Bannon. To be sure, he would fit right in among the despots who tyrannize
banana-republics. But that sort of a political outcome in America is
hard to envision at the moment.
Second, American
traditions — though our current crisis shows some very deep flaws in our
constitutional system — are strong enough to place a limit on the damage Trump
can do. If he ordered troops to occupy the Capitol, disperse the
members of Congress, and impose martial law, the chance that commanders or
troops would carry out such orders is nil.
Third, Americans have
faced challenges before. Many say he is our very worst president — bar
none. And how tempting it is to agree. But a short while
ago, people said the same thing about George W. Bush, who of course looks exemplary
now when compared to our presidential incumbent.
The “worst president.”
“Worst,” of course, is
a value judgment that is totally dependent on our standards for determining
“badness.” And any number of our presidents were very bad indeed —
or so it could be argued.
Take Andrew Jackson,
with his belligerence, his simple-mindedness, his racism as reflected in the
Indian Removal Act of 1830. Take all the pro-slavery presidents
before the Civil War who tried to make the enslavement of American blacks perpetual: John
Tyler, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan. Take James K. Polk and his squalid
war of aggression against Mexico. Take Andrew Johnson, who did
everything he could to ruin the lives of the newly-freed blacks after Lincoln’s
murder.
The list could go on
indefinitely, depending on our individual standards for identifying
“badness.” Shall we continue? Consider Ulysses S. Grant
and Warren G. Harding, so clueless in regard to the comparatively easy
challenge of preventing corruption among their associates. Or
consider Grover Cleveland and Herbert Hoover, who blinded themselves to the
desperation of millions in economic depressions. And Richard Nixon,
the only president to date who has resigned the office in disgrace.
Which brings us to
Trump.
However incompetent or
even malevolent some previous American presidents were, this one is unique. The
Trump presidency is a singular aberration, a defacement of norms and ideals
without precedent. However bad some other presidents were all of
them felt a certain basic obligation to maintain at least a semblance of
dignity and propriety in their actions.
Not Trump.
Foul
beyond words, he lurches from one brutal whim to another, seeking gratification
in his never-ending quest to humiliate others. He spews insults in every
direction all day. He makes fun of the handicapped. He
discredits journalists in order to boost the credibility of crackpots and
psychopathic bigots. He accuses reporters of creating “fake news” so
he can generate fake news himself: spew a daily torrent of hallucinatory
lies to his gullible followers.
He amuses himself —
with the help of his money and the shyster lawyers that it pays for — in
getting away with a lifetime’s worth of compulsive frauds that might very well
lead to prosecutions (later) if the evidence has not been destroyed and if the
statute of limitations has not expired.
So far, however, he is
always too brazen to get what he deserves, too slippery for anyone to
foil.
Anyone with half of
ounce of decency can see this wretched man for what he is. They know
what’s going on, and yet there’s nothing they can do to make it
stop. And that adds to Trump’s dirty satisfaction. Any chance
to out-maneuver the decent — to infuriate them — quickens his
glee. It makes his victory all the more rotten, incites him to keep
on taunting his victims.
It’s all a big joke to
Donald Trump, and he can never, ever, get enough of it.
The question must be
asked: when in our lifetimes — when in all the years that our
once-inspiring Republic has existed — have American institutions been subjected
to such treatment? How long can American morale and cohesion survive
this?
Nancy Pelosi has said
that in preference to seeing Trump impeached, she would like to see him in
jail. Current Justice Department policy — which forbids the
indictment of presidents — makes it possible for Trump to break our nation’s
laws with impunity. Impeachment is useless if the Senate’s Republicans,
united in their ruthlessness and denial, take the coward’s way out.
So the prospect of
locking him up may have to wait. But the day of reckoning for this
fake — this imposter who will never have a glimmer of clue as to how to measure
up to his office — may come in due time. Then the presidential fake
who accuses his victims of fakery will live with some things that are
real: stone walls, iron bars, a nice prison haircut, and the
consequences of his actions.
PRESIDENT of the
UNITED STATES DONALD TRUMP: pathological
liar, swindler, con man, huckster, golfing cheat, charity foundation fraudster,
tax evader, adulterer, porn whore chaser and servant of the Saudis dictators
THE TRUMP FAMILY
FOUNDATION SLUSH FUND…. Will they see jail?
VISUALIZE REVOLUTION!.... We know where they live!
“Underwood is a
Democrat and is seeking millions of dollars in penalties. She wants Trump and
his eldest children barred from running other charities.”
ANN COULTER
TRUMP’S PARASITIC
FAMILY
Jared’s BFF, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
(MBS), and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Muhammad bin Zayed (MBZ), refer to
Jared as “the clown prince.” Bone-cutter MBS assured those around him that he
had Jared “in my pocket.”
Following meetings at the White House
and also with the Kushners over their 666 Fifth Avenue property, former Qatari
Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim reported back to the emir that “the
people atop the new administration were heavily motivated by personal financial
interest.”
“Truthfully,
It Is Tough To Ignore Some Of The Gross Immoral Behavior By
The President” WASHINGTON
POST
Trump's sister
quits as a federal judge 10 days into formal probe of her possible role in
massive family tax scam that could have ended in her impeachment
·
Trump's older sister resigned as an
appellate court judge shortly after a probe opened into her involvement in
a family tax scheme
·
·
10 days ago an investigation into whether
Maryanne Trump Barry violated judicial conduct rules launched
·
·
The case was closed after Barry resigned
because retired judges are not subject to the rules
·
·
Barry had not heard a case in two years after
transitioning to inactive shortly after Trump's inauguration
·
·
The Trump siblings were probed after an
investigation found they were involved in a tax scheme related to the transfer
of their father's real estate empire
·
President Donald
Trump’s older
sister Maryanne Trump Barry, 82, retired as a federal judge just days after an
investigation opened into her possible role in family tax fraud scheme.
Barry was a federal appellate judge in the
third district, which includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, and the
investigation could have led to her impeachment.
She had not presided over a case in more than
two years, but was still listed as an inactive senior judge in the third
district – usually the step taken before full retirement.
Barry did not give any reasons for her
retirement.
The probe into the Trumps was first opened
last fall, after a New York Times investigation found the Trump siblings
engaged in tax schemes in the 1990s, including fraud, that increased their
inherited wealth.
+4
Maryanne Trump Barry resigned as a federal
appellate judge 10 days into an investigation into whether she violated
judicial conduct rules
An investigation into the Trump siblings
opened after the New York Times reported that they transferred their father's
real estate assets improperly in the 1990s
The formal investigation into whether Barry
violated judicial conduct rules started ten days ago, but was closed after
Barry announced her retirement since retired judges are not subject to judicial
conduct rules.
These reviews could result in the censure or
reprimand of federal judges, but in some more extreme cases, the judge could be
referred to the House of Representatives for impeachment.
It appears Barry will receive somewhere
between $184,500 and $217,600 annually, the same salary she earned when she
last met certain workload requirements before changing her status to inactive.
The Times investigation into the Trump’s
alleged that Fred Trump transferred his real estate empire profits and
ownership to his four children, including the president, Barry, brother Robert
Trump, and their sister Elizabeth Trump Grau, in ways designed to dodge gift
and estate taxes.
+4
Barry, pictured above with sister Elizabeth
Trump Grau, was a senior inactive judge, which is the step taken usually before
full retirement, and had not heard a case in over two year.
Trump's lawyer Charles Hardner said that the
allegations made as a result of the Times' investigation is '100 per cent
false' and accused the newspaper of defamation
“The New York Times’s allegations of fraud
and tax evasion are 100 per cent false, and highly defamatory,” a lawyer for
Trump, Charles Hardner, said last October.
Barry was elevated to the United States Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit by President Bill Clinton in 1999, and shortly
after Trump’s inauguration, in February 2017, she notified the court she would
stop hearing cases without citing a reason.
At this point she became a senior inactive
judge and gave up her staff and chambers.
TRUMP COMPARES PETE BUTTIGIEG TO MAD MAG ALFRED E NEUMAN....
Pete compares the Swamp Keeper to a conman, huckster, cheat, pathological liar,
bankrupt tax-evading phony billionaire, golf cheat, adulterer and whore chaser
with Tang-rinsed hair!
ANN COULTER: WILL THE
GLOBALIST DEMOCRAT PARTY FOR BANKSTERS AND BILLIONAIRES DESTROY AMERICA?
I would also go to all of the working class that are in America,
construction workers in particular. Their salaries have not just
stagnated, they have gone down in the last 20 years. These are the least among us. We are the only ones not speaking
out of self-interest. …
Most of the people who are advocating for open borders …
they have a vested in interest in having either the cheap labor or the
Democratic voters. Their neighborhoods aren’t the ones being
overwhelmed. They get the cheap maids, the cheap nannies,
and then they strut around like they’re Martin Luther King.
No, you are talking in your
self-interest, Chamber of Commerce, and Koch brothers, and Nancy Pelosi, and
Chuck Schumer. It’s Donald Trump and our side who are actually
caring about our fellow Americans — the kids who are getting addicted to black
tar heroin. …
The heroin problem in this country is 100 percent a problem of not
having a wall on the border. And 70,000 Americans are dying every year. That’s
more that died in the entire Vietnam War. That is a national emergency.
ANN COULTER
ANN COULTER
EXPOSES TRUMP’S “WALL” HOAX
In fact,
Trump is steadily moving in the precise opposite direction of what he promised.
Illegal immigration is on track to hit the highest levels in
more than a decade, and Trump has willfully decided to keep amnesty advocates
Jared, Ivanka, Mick Mulvaney, Marc Short, and Mercedes Schlapp in the White
House. For all his talk about immigration, did he ever consider hiring people
who share his MAGA vision?
THE TRUMP FAMILY FOUNDATION SLUSH FUND…. Will they see jail?
VISUALIZE REVOLUTION!.... We know where they live!
“Underwood is a Democrat
and is seeking millions of dollars in penalties. She wants Trump and his eldest
children barred from running other charities.”
TRUMP’S
CRAP ON BORDERS AND HIS PRETEND WALL IS ONLY ONE MORE TRUMP HOAX!
Only a
complete fool would believe that Trump is any more for American Legal workers
than the Democrat Party for Billionaires and Banksters!
“Trump
Administration Betrays Low-Skilled American Workers.”
The
latest ad from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) asks Trump
to reject the mass illegal and legal immigration policies supported by Wall
Street, corporate executives, and most specifically, the GOP mega-donor Koch
brothers.
Efforts by the big business
lobby, Chamber of Commerce, Koch brothers, and George W. Bush Center include
increasing employment-based legal immigration that would likely crush the historic wage gains that Trump has delivered
for America’s blue collar and working class citizens.
Mark
Zuckerberg’s Silicon Valley investors are uniting with the Koch network’s
consumer and industrial investors to demand a huge DACA amnesty
*
A handful of
Republican and Democrat lawmakers are continuing to tout a plan that gives
amnesty to nearly a million illegal aliens in exchange for some amount of
funding for President Trump’s proposed border wall along the U.S.-Mexico
border.
THE DEATH OF THE
AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS
THE ASSAULT ON THE AMERICAN WORKER BY
PHONY POPULIST SWAMP KEEPER TRUMP
Companies say they often pay good
wages to their imported H-2B workers, often around $15 per hour. But that price
is below the wages sought by Americans for the seasonal work which leaves them
jobless in the off-season. The lower wages paid to H-2Bs also allows companies
to pay lower wages to their American supervisors. NEIL MUNRO
WHAT WILL TRUMP AND
HIS PARASITIC FAMILY DO FOR MONEY???
JUST ASK THE
SAUDIS!
JOHN DEAN: Not
so far. This has been right by the letter of the special counsel’s charter.
He’s released the document. What I’m looking for is relief and
understanding that there’s no witting or unwitting likelihood that the
President is an agent of Russia. That’s when I’ll feel comfortable, and no
evidence even hints at that. We don’t have that yet. We’re still in the process
of unfolding the report to look at it. And its, as I say, if [Attornery General
William Barr] honors his word, we’ll know more soon.
“Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican
alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world
hell-holes. This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.”
---- Karen McQuillan AMERICAN THINKER
ANN COULTER EXPOSES TRUMP’S “WALL” HOAX
In fact, Trump is steadily moving in the precise opposite
direction of what he promised.
Illegal immigration is on track to hit the highest levels in
more than a decade, and Trump has willfully decided to keep amnesty advocates
Jared, Ivanka, Mick Mulvaney, Marc Short, and Mercedes Schlapp in the White
House. For all his talk about immigration, did he ever consider hiring people
who share his MAGA vision?
TRUMP’S CATCH AND RELEASE… all the “cheap” labor climbing our
borders, jobs and welfare lines!
THE ENTIRE REASON TRUMP
NOMINATED KIRSTJEN NIELSEN WAS BECAUSE OF HER LONG HISTORY OF ADVOCATING OPEN
BORDERS TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED!
In newly confirmed federal data from the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) agency, Breitbart News has learned the massive scale and
scope of DHS’s ramped up Catch and Release policy.
For months, DHS officials have said privately that the Catch and
Release program has been taken to new heights, while ICE
union officials declared this week that the program was
in “overdrive” under the direction of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. JOHN BINDER
TRUMP AND THE MURDERING 9-11 MUSLIM SAUDIS…
Why is the Swamp Keeper and his family of parasites up their
ar$es??
TRUMP’S TAX BILL:
A massive tax cut for his plundering Goldman Sachs infested
administration.
TRUMP’S SECRET AMNESTY, WIDER OPEN BORDERS DOCTRINE TO KEEP
WAGES DEPRESSED.
"During the same month that
Schlafly had backed Trump for his “America First”
agenda, Nielsen’s committee released an ideologically-globalist report, promoting
the European migrant crisis
as a win for big business who would profit greatly
from a never-ending stream
of cheap, foreign
migrants."
TRUMPERNOMICS FOR THE
RICH…. and his parasitic family!
Report:
Trump Says He Doesn't Care About the National Debt Because the Crisis Will Hit
After He's Gone
"Trump's
alleged comment is maddening and disheartening,
but at least he's being straightforward about his indefensible
and self-serving neglect. I'll leave you with this reminder of the scope of the problem, not that anyone in power is going to do a damn thing about it."
but at least he's being straightforward about his indefensible
and self-serving neglect. I'll leave you with this reminder of the scope of the problem, not that anyone in power is going to do a damn thing about it."
TRUMPERNOMICS:
THE RICH APPLAUD TWITTER’S
TRUMP’S TAX CUTS FOR THE SUPER RICH!
"The tax overhaul would mean an unprecedented windfall for the
super-rich, on top
of the fact that virtually all income gains during the period of
the supposed
recovery from the financial crash of 2008 have gone to the top 1
percent income
bracket."
TRUMPS INFORMS NARCOMEX:
THE PACT BETWEEN MEXICO AND TRUMP… NO WALL, NO REAL
ENFORCEMENT.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/08/did-trump-promise-mexico-no-pardon-for.html
Swamp Keeper Trump prepares
for the inevitable move to impeach him and ask for asylum in Scotland.
Fox News host Tucker
Carlson said in an interview Thursday that President Donald Trump has succeeded
as a conversation starter but has failed to keep his most important campaign
promises.
“His chief promises were
that he would build the wall, de-fund Planned Parenthood, and repeal Obamacare,
and he hasn’t done any of those things,” Carlson told Urs Gehriger of the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche.
TRUMP POSITIONS HIMSELF FOR IMPEACHMENT
MAY LEAVE THE COUNTRY FOR HIS GOLF COURSE IN
SCOTLAND
“Truthfully, It Is Tough To Ignore Some Of The Gross Immoral
Behavior By The President” WASHINGTON POST
“Mueller and the anti-Trump camp within the ruling elite know
very well that the billionaire New York real estate and gambling
speculator-turned president is mired in criminal activity, which is certain to
be reflected in the material seized from Cohen. They have Trump by the throat,
and Trump knows it.”
*
“Our entire crony capitalist system, Democrat and Republican
alike, has become a kleptocracy approaching par with third-world
hell-holes. This is the way a great country is raided by its elite.”
----Karen McQuillan AMERICAN THINKER
*
Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified before the House Oversight
Committee Wednesday that the “whole Trump family” was potentially
comprised by a foreign power ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
"Trump's alleged comment is
maddening and disheartening, but at least he's being straightforward
about his indefensible and self-serving neglect. I'll leave you
with this reminder of the
scope of the problem, not that anyone in power is going to do a damn thing
about it."
No comments:
Post a Comment