Where Do We Begin, and How Does This End?
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It’s hard to decide where to begin.
Do you start in the summer of 2015, when the man descended down an escalator to announce his run for president? An announcement that saw the man refer to Mexican immigrants as murders, drug dealers, and rapists?
What about a few years prior to that, when his political career unofficially began with the man calling into question the citizenship of America’s first Black president?
Or how about even further back, when the man was being sued for housing discrimination and calling for the Central Park 5 to face the death penalty for a crime they had already been cleared of committing?
It really doesn’t matter where you begin. Throw a dart on the timeline of Donald Trump’s existence, and no matter where you land, the answer is the same: Not only is Trump an awful president (historically, the worst - we know much how he loves superlatives and holding titles no one else can claim), but he’s an overall awful human being.
But alas, this article can’t zero in on all the ugliness pre-election. There’s simply not enough time to focus on all the contractors he’s stiffed, taxes he’s avoided paying, and mounting business failures (seriously, how do you bankrupt a casino?). We can’t focus on his fake university that scammed countless people out of their hard-earned money, or his charity foundation that was so corrupt, it had to be dissolved, and he was banned from sitting on the board of any future foundation he seeks to create in the state of New York. Again, there’s simply not enough time to waste on his financial crime spree in New York that shines a spotlight on his true character - a fraudulent grifter who moves like a mob boss.
Hell, we don’t even have enough time to focus on his actual presidential campaign. A campaign that saw a litany of players face legal jeopardy, including going to jail, cutting deals, or skipping jail completely, thanks to Trump commuting their sentences. Again, no time to get into the nefarious, shady dealings of George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, or Steve Bannon.
We don’t have enough time to get into the actual election. The Russian interference, the suspicious fact that Trump had a very narrow path to victory, won every single state he absolutely had to win, and did so by sewing up three swing states by a combined vote total of 75,000 across them.
We don’t have time to get into the subsequent Mueller investigation that followed as a result, and all the facts laid out in said report that say in no uncertain terms (1) The Russians interfered in our election (2) The Trump campaign welcomed the interference (3) Trump and his associates obstructed justice to hide the fact that they welcomed the interference.
We don’t have time to get into the inauguration. One that was sparsely attended, yet portrayed as having the largest crowd size ever, according to then press secretary Sean Spicer. (Fun fact: Spicer went from White House press secretary to doing the cha-cha on Dancing with the Stars. Which, as embarrassing as that is, is not quite as embarrassing as Rick Perry’s career trajectory; who went from doing the cha-cha on Dancing with the Stars to becoming our energy secretary. A department of government he didn’t fully understand the purpose of, but took the job anyway).
We don’t have time to get into the fact that the inauguration itself is under investigation for financial shadiness. The inauguration raked in $107 million in donations. Obama’s 2009 inauguration - the actual largest attended inauguration in history, only managed to rake in $53 million. Where did all that Trump money go? The investigation is ongoing.
So, no, we don’t have time to focus on all those (very important) things. This article will deal only with the happenings post-inauguration. Though, to be honest, we can’t cover all of that, either.
Trump is an enigma of diabolical and confusing proportions. Some days, he’s pure evil (children in cages - with 545 of them not yet reunited with their parents, if they ever will be; forced hysterectomies of migrant women being detained at the border, the Muslim ban, ignoring Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria). Some days, he’s classic Republican evil (tax cuts for the wealthy, stacking the courts with far right extremists, eliminating regulations so businesses can run wild at the expense of both working families and the environment). Some days, he’s cartoonishly stupid and inept (being unable to close an umbrella, using a Sharpie to alter a weather map, going on typo-riddled Twitter rants at 2 a.m., wearing a spray tan to clown-like levels, and staring directly into a solar eclipse with no sunglasses). Some days, he’s just mean (mocking a disabled reporter, claiming the women accusing him of sexual harassment aren’t attractive enough for him to make a move on, insulting gold star families and saying prisoners of war like John McCain aren’t heroes because they were captured - even while he himself dodged the draft five times).
A dangerously narcissistic reality show host with a checkered past and no experience in government is sitting in the most powerful office on the planet.
A job he didn’t even want, if we’re to believe former allies of his who suggest his entire run was nothing more than a marketing ploy to grow his brand and maybe start his own network. Until oops, he actually won.
We haven’t even officially dived into the crux of his awfulness, so again I ask - where do we start?
The tariffs that put a strain on our agricultural and manufacturing industries?
His pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, the Iran Nuclear Deal, and the fucking World Health Organization - during a pandemic? (The latter of which will only happen officially if he’s re-elected)
The continued attempts to end Obamacare? The fact that his administration is in court right now trying to eliminate pre-existing conditions during a pandemic?
His response to Charlottesville? Saying there were “very fine people on both sides” of a white supremacist march? His continued refusal to denounce white supremacy at all?
His manufactured culture war with Black athletes who kneel for the anthem, referring to them as “sons of bitches?”
Abandoning our allies, the Kurds, in the Middle East?
Cozying up to strongmen like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un? Taking the former’s side in Helsinki when the question was asked whether he believed Putin over his own intelligence agencies, and legitimizing the latter by creating a made-for-tv spectacle - visiting North Korea for a photo-op that hasn’t lead to any changes regarding their nuclear proliferation?
What about, in addition to the aforementioned cowering to Putin, we talk about how Trump, our draft-dodging Commander-in-Chief looked the other way on Russians putting bounties on the heads of U.S. troops?
Attempting to host a meeting with the Taliban at Camp David the week of 9/11?
Seriously, where do we begin? Because any of those would be a fine starting point, as all are worthy of their own detailed articles, and actually, all of those things already are detailed articles.
What about his rallies - especially now during a pandemic? The rallies where he basks in the chants of his supporters, calling for his political opponents to be locked up. The same rallies where he calls the press the “enemy of the people.” The same hateful, incendiary rhetoric that has lead to some of those same opponents receiving death threats, having bombs sent to them, or getting notified of thwarted kidnapping/murder plots against them?
Do we talk about the Access Hollywood tape, where he brags about grabbing women by their genitals?
Do we talk about the fact he won’t release his tax returns? That he’s sued to keep them hidden?
Do we talk about how he’s spread disinformation about the coronavirus, flatly ignores the science regarding it, and has done little to stop its wildfire spread? A pandemic that has, at the time of this writing - left 226,000 Americans dead?
This is a man running for re-election. Look at his behavior. How do you think he’d handle the virus if he’s given another four years?
Speaking of re-election, how can someone who was impeached be allowed to run for the same job they were nearly thrown out of?
What about the fact that he’s created a cult of personality? A cult that depicts him as a strong, virile, macho man - the pinnacle of classic masculinity - when in reality he’s a dangerously out of shape septuagenarian in clown makeup, who gets into Twitter spats with teenage girls like climate activist Greta Thunberg?
A cult that believes a billionaire New Yorker who literally lived in a golden penthouse and was featured in countless commercials, shows, and films isn’t a Hollywood elite. Why? Because he eats his steaks well done with ketchup, and just like them, he hasn’t won an Emmy?
A cult that considers any negative news of Trump as being fake, and whose more delusional members have spawned an even darker cult filled with conspiracy theories the president himself refuses to denounce?
Where do we begin? Asking for a country.
This is a rich, white, famous man who accidentally became president, and still finds a way to complain daily about how hard and unfair his life is. Even going so far as to walk out of a 60 Minutes interview because he didn’t like the questions.
That’s masculinity?
A man who refuses to take any responsibility whatsoever for America’s failed response (and continued failure) to the pandemic? A man who literally said “I don’t take responsibility at all?”
That’s leadership?
A white collar criminal who pardons his criminal friends, accepts foreign interference in our elections, turns the Department of Justice into a political arm, and installed a stooge as postmaster general to cripple the post office during a pandemic so that mail-in ballots won’t be counted? Crippling the post office so badly, people aren’t getting their medicine delivered on time, and animals being shipped alive are getting delivered dead?
That’s law and order?
Because of how polarizing this election is, nothing anyone says or does will sway any voters. He has his loyal cult, we have everyone else. It’s a matter of turning out the vote and hoping Joe Biden gets enough votes in the right combination of states so he can win the archaic, unfair, racially discriminatory electoral college, as opposed to just winning the popular vote and still losing anyway like Al Gore and Hillary Clinton did.
It’ll be an uphill climb. In addition to the usual Republican fuckery of voter suppression, we also have to worry about foreign interference, mail-in ballots not being counted, and a Supreme Court that’ll hand the election to Trump if it’s close - all during a raging pandemic.
Oh yeah, and he’s not even sure he’ll leave office if in fact he does lose.
But voting in mass numbers is the only way we can end this nightmare, begin to heal as a country, and hopefully reverse some of the damage this administration has caused to so many; though, to be honest, some of it is irreversible.
We’re not getting the time back on tackling climate change, the families separated at the border will forever be scarred psychologically, and the three Supreme Court justices he elected to lifetime appointments will halt progressive change for generations to come - including battles over gun control, abortion, LGBTQ rights, voting rights, and healthcare, just to name a few.
But we have to start somewhere.
This country is hanging by a thread. Another four years under this administration, and it’ll be unrecognizable.
A racist, sexist, xenophobic, lying, cruel, ignorant, narcissistic reality show host with a criminal background and a fondness for authoritarianism isn’t fit to lead what’s supposed to be the greatest country on Earth. He wasn’t in 2016, and he absolutely isn’t now.
NBC didn’t renew Trump’s Apprentice contract (ironically enough, it’s partly what got us to this point), and America shouldn’t renew his political one, either.
It’s been four disastrous, embarrassing, unbelievably dark years, and it’s time to move on.