worst president ever

It's not your imagination. It's not make-believe. We are not trapped in The Twilight Zone (are we?) Trump is easily the worst president in U.S. history. That goes pretty far back, obviously, and we have had some real losers, like James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Warren G. Harding and Richard Nixon. But Trump takes the cake, if for no other reason than his constant, often unnecessary lying. But then you look at the corruption, the trashing of our allies, and who he surrounds himself with, and you know something is totally rotten in D.C.

‘Easily the Worst President in U.S. History’

Michael Bailey, a political scientist at Georgetown, prefaced his assessment of Trump’s consequentiality by pointedly noting that he would rank Trump “as easily the worst president in U.S. history. The corruption and damage to long-term U.S. institutions and reputation are far beyond anything we’ve seen before,” including Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan and Rutherford Hayes.

As for being consequential, Bailey continued, Trump has been “highly consequential in an overwhelmingly negative way. He will leave a lasting negative legacy.”

Bailey listed three of these legacies: “The erosion of trust in the U.S. by European and Asian allies; the erosion of U.S. dominance of higher education; and huge budget deficits (not only due to Trump, but exacerbated by him).”

Kate Shaw, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, cited “Trump’s violation of numerous statutes passed by Congress” to note:

It’s not that particular decisions to violate statutes can’t be undone or reversed; many, perhaps even most, can. But the combination of the president’s numerous and flagrant statutory violations and Congress’s failure to challenge those violations has created a permission structure for future presidents to disregard statutes any time they find those statutes inconvenient.

Gary Jacobson, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of California-San Diego, expanded the case against Trump:

He has done serious damage to many aspects of American government and politics that will be difficult and costly and, in some cases, impossible to undo.

The mass firing of dedicated and experienced civil servants has made government dumber and weaker and will make it harder to attract talented replacements even if the next administration wants to make it smarter and more effective.

The damage to scientific and medical research, the environment, relations with allies and trading partners, disaster preparedness, consumer safety, higher education, military leadership, civil rights, etc. will take years to repair even in cases where that is possible.

It is already clear, Jacobson continued, that “Trump is among the most consequential presidents in U.S. history, and not in a good way.”

In an email replying to my questions, Barbara Walter, a professor of international affairs at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California-San Diego, wrote:

To flag one thing that belongs on your permanent list that likely won’t show up in the obvious places: norms.

American democracy remained strong for so long because both its political parties and its presidents respected a set of unwritten rules.

Adding that while formal checks “were essential, the oil that would grease the wheels of democracy would be norms,” Walter continued. Trump “has shown that you can violate them and survive politically. He’s torn down the invisible wall that kept the worst impulses of political life in check, and once that’s torn down, a new, ugly world emerges.”

Yphtach Lelkes, a professor at Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication, shares Walter’s concerns, writing by email:

I’m less confident about which specific policies or institutions belong on which list than I am about the broader effect on norms. My guess is that this is where Trump’s longest shadow will fall.

Norms take a long time to develop because they rest on habits of restraint and on the expectation that violations will be punished. But they can disappear quickly once it becomes clear that punishment is not coming.

As a result, Lelkes wrote, “Trump’s most consequential legacy may be less any single policy than the lesson he taught politicians: Norms can be broken, repeatedly and openly, without necessarily paying much of a price.”

While Trump’s norm violations amount to a major assault on American democracy, I am less convinced than Walter or Lelkes of the long-lasting damage.

The Supreme Court has been complicit in the undermining of trust, Moynihan argued:

By allowing Trump to claim these powers, the Supreme Court is weakening the ability of a future president or Congress to repair the damage he is doing today. If the court goes all in on unitary executive theory, it weakens the ability of Congress to bind the president from doing bad things.

By eroding America's government credibility and soft power, Moynihan concluded, “Trump can be both a hugely consequential president and a deeply damaging one.”

All of which points to one more indelible bequeathal: the stain on America left by the record.

Voters in this country twice elected a president with no ethics, no empathy and no end to his narcissism.

-Thomas B Edsall