Republican presidential candidate former U.S. president Donald Trump arrives at a primary election night party in Nashua, N.H., on Jan. 23.Matt Rourke/The Associated Press
Donald Trump. It’s hard to imagine a worse person for the job at even the best of times. And these are not even close to okay times, amid extreme economic, environmental and geopolitical instability.
At this dark moment for planet Earth, its democratic superpower is barrelling toward a possible second Trump presidency. Should it come to pass – and that looks more and more likely – it could make Mr. Trump’s first nightmarish term look dreamy in comparison.
This is at a time when the world needs strong leadership more than ever.
Domestically, U.S. economic growth was strong last year, but that is expected to slow in 2024, as higher interest rates affect spending. Even now, many hardworking people can’t get by.
Millions of Americans are already working multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Too many are not managing to make those ends meet, racking up huge debts with no light at the end of the tunnel, and no map for a way out.
Mr. Trump is the darkness at the end of the tunnel.
If there was any optimism that he might have learned from his bad behaviour or past mistakes – the two impeachments, the 91 felony charges, the civil lawsuits – including one that has found him liable for sexual abuse – consider his graceless, immature, and at times incomprehensible victory speech in the New Hampshire Republican primary. The way he talked about rival Nikki Haley’s “fancy dress that probably wasn’t so fancy.” The way he said “You must really hate her” to South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, whom Ms. Haley had appointed to the Senate.
Gross.
There are a lot of very smart, sharp 77-year-olds. Mr. Trump is not one of them. He was no genius to begin with. And whatever cognitive abilities he once had seem to be disappearing faster than library books in Ron DeSantis’s Florida. Consider the way Mr. Trump recently confused Ms. Haley with Nancy Pelosi.
Imagine this bumbling narcissist being the person in charge of critical international files, including negotiating an end to the ever-widening war in the Middle East – or, buddy to Vladimir Putin that he is, weighing in on Russia’s war with Ukraine.
As the clock ticks down on our ability to avert a climate change apocalypse, Mr. Trump is the worst person to be making critical, planet-saving decisions. “We’re gonna drill, baby, drill,” he promised in that New Hampshire victory speech, to shouts of approval. As more wildfires burn and floods devastate, Mr. Trump will simply yell “fake news!” and his sycophants will laugh and applaud.
This is happening amid a vastly shrinking media environment. Just this week, the Los Angeles Times announced huge layoffs, which have “decimated” its Washington bureau. There are going to be fewer journalists around to ask tough questions, dig deep, and hold those in power accountable.
If Mr. Trump was bad before, he’ll be worse than ever. A second election win will embolden him to something that could resemble autocracy. He has already vowed to use his power to punish those who spoke truth to power during his first reign.
“I don’t get too angry,” he said Tuesday night. “I get even.”
He will think he can get away with it. Look at me: I won despite the fake felony charges and court decisions. I am unstoppable.
And maybe he is.
Ms. Haley is not going to be able to stop him. If you had told me three years ago that she was going to be the person who sane Republicans – and maybe the rest of the world – would be pinning all their hopes on, I would have thought: are you nuts?
Her very bad Civil War bungle aside, Ms. Haley has been a strong candidate in debates, taking Mr. Trump to task in absentia and showing up his fast-talking, much smarter, and (is it possible?) more irritating political spawn, Vivek Ramaswamy.
In my worst moments, I imagine the insufferable bro-fest of a Trump-Ramaswamy ticket: a union of the bully and the brat. And, worse: a Trump-Ramaswamy White House.
Ms. Haley has vowed to stay in the race, even though it is clear she can’t win it. Perhaps she can help pave the way for Joe Biden and the Democrats to chip away at Mr. Trump’s unfathomable appeal.
I don’t think Ms. Haley is the best person for the job. I don’t think Mr. Biden is the best person for the job either. But he’s the best hope – and serial killers and Marjorie Taylor Greene aside, Mr. Trump is certainly the worst person.
Hillary Clinton, who lost to him in 2016, has said that if Mr. Trump wins, “it would be the end of our country as we know it.”
It could be the end of the world as we know it, too. And none of this feels fine.