The presidency of Donald John Trump, rooted from the beginning in anger, division and conspiracy-mongering, is over.
Like no U.S. president has done before, Donald Trump made himself the center of attention, the star of a literal reality show that was his administration, always with an eye for the camera, a flair for the dramatic, an instinct for the outrageous.
And lies.
Tens of thousands of lies every day for four years.
1,448 days of Twitter storms, provocations, race-baiting, busted norms, shock-jock governance and truth-bending prevarication from the Oval Office that have left the country more polarized than in generations.
The Trump show may have had deadly consequences.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States died of the disease associated with the coronavirus while Trump played down the danger of the pandemic and did not model wearing a mask.
He once suggested Americans inject disinfectant as a treatment.
Careless words and actions from a president unable to show empathy or compassion.
U.S. racial and political divides widened under Trump and migrant children were separated from their parents.
Trump used the power of his words and his office to attend to his political base, with which he kept a direct line of communication via his now-suspended Twitter feed.
He remembered what he had promised them as a presidential candidate and sought with some success to deliver on those pledges to build a border wall.
In the end, 80 miles of new border wall construction happened during Trump’s one term at a cost of billions of dollars.
And Mexico didn’t pay a dime for it.
Unemployment is higher than it was four years ago, the economy is tattered, and a crushing reality for Republicans is that the stock market performed better during the terms of both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama than Trump.
The sore loser threatened and irritated world leaders during trips abroad, pushing away our allies while flirting with autocrats and dictators.
Trump criticized and vilified the press, called us the ‘enemy of the American people,’ while craving journalists’ attention and respect.
He watched cable news for hours each day, while keeping a light work schedule.
The base enjoyed his demonization of the media and rewarded him with applause and cheering for the pejorative monikers he assigned.
And then he led an attempted coup, denying his defeat, challenging the Republic for which he took an oath to defend.
“We will never give up,” Trump declared to a crowd that included white nationalists and Qanon supporters. “We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that’s what this is all about.”
As the crowd on the Ellipse chanted, “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!” Trump, like a mad dictator, lashed out at members of his own party for not doing more to help him cling to power.
“There are so many weak Republicans,” he growled and then vowed to take revenge against those he deemed insufficiently loyal. “You primary them,” he said.
He singled out Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, a Republican who angered him by not intervening in the election, calling him “one of the dumbest governors in the United States.”
And he went after Bill Barr, the attorney general who debunked his false election complaints.
“All of a sudden, Bill Barr changed,” he groused.
Other speakers, including his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, castigated Republican lawmakers for not standing up for Trump.
“Let’s have trial by combat,” exhorted the increasingly crazy Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who has served as the president’s personal lawyer.
“The people who did nothing to stop the steal — this gathering should send a message to them,” Donald Trump Jr. roared. “This isn’t their Republican Party anymore. This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party.”
The resulting pictures will be the historical legacy of Donald Trump:
With the riot on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters who believed his false assertions of election fraud, the legacy of a second impeachment for spurring a deadly uprising will almost certainly overshadow any accomplishments, real or perceived.
“When a president incites an insurrection that could have killed his vice president, could have killed the speaker of the House and other members of Congress, could have destroyed a free presidential election and might have permanently impaired our democracy, there is very little good you can find that’s going to outshine that,” said historian Michael Beschloss.
The Donald Trump reality show from the White House is finally over.
In the end, the low ratings from his failed TV presidency doomed him.
Good riddance.