A Presidency Built on Political Misfires

“Glittering prizes and endless compromises

Shatter the illusion of integrity.”

— Rush, Spirit of Radio

When Trump first descended his golden escalator to announce his candidacy in 2015, few political experts took him seriously. He had no government experience, had never run for office, and the business résumé he touted as evidence of his economic expertise was littered with multiple bankruptcies. Born on third base, he wanted voters to believe he had hit a home run.

His candidacy had barely begun when he grabbed the third rail of Republican politics: dismissing the sacrifice of veterans.

“I like people that weren’t captured.”

-Donald Trump

With this, he proved he lacked the discipline necessary to be a serious candidate. There was no way his candidacy would ever make it near the finish line.

Yet it did.

Trump beat sixteen other major candidates in 2016 to secure the Republican nomination. One by one, he publicly humiliated opponents with more political experience, reducing them to begging for applause or trading crude jabs about the size of his "hands."

Even after one underdog victory, experts insisted he faced an uphill battle in November, especially against Hillary Clinton, a far more seasoned political operative. That sense deepened in the month before the election, when a tape of him bragging about sexually assaulting women was released. In the days before the election, he was given, at best, a 30% chance of winning. Some analysts put his odds at less than one in one hundred.

Mathematically, this was correct: one is higher than zero. Trump convinced the electorate to ignore (or perhaps embrace) his misogyny. With an assist from FBI Director James Comey, Trump once again beat the odds and won the presidency, losing the popular vote but capturing the Electoral College.

It quickly became clear that, while his unorthodox campaign style might have opened the door to the Oval Office, it did not prepare him to govern. Instead of building bridges and looking for compromises, he viewed the presidency as an extension of the campaign. He consolidated his base but did nothing to expand it.

The result was an approval rating that never cracked 50% and averaged just 41% during his first term. He proved unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing the virus to spread rapidly while devastating the economy. Despite his efforts to use the crisis to inflame culture wars and increase partisan divisions, he was not able to convince the electorate that he deserved re-election.

While George H. W. Bush and especially Jimmy Carter worked past their defeats to have productive post‑presidential lives, Trump wallowed in his bitterness. He declared that he had won the election, despite evidence to the contrary, including 62 failed lawsuits. Finally, he attempted to stay in office by fomenting the January 6ᵗʰ insurrection. When that did not work, he became the first president in modern history to skip the ceremonies that celebrate the peaceful transfer of power in our democracy. He wasted no time launching a campaign to reclaim the office he had just vacated.

And then he did it again.

Despite the failures of his first term, thirty‑four subsequent felony convictions, and a court finding that he had sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll (conduct many would colloquially describe as “rape”), Trump became the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms, joining Grover Cleveland, who founded this exclusive club in 1893.

So Trump once again defied the odds and is now serving his final term in the highest office in the land. Surely, this would suggest that he is a political genius, but his record seems to indicate otherwise:

• Redistricting
• Iran
• The California gubernatorial race

Are these failures to grasp political realities a continuation of Trump’s incompetence, or are the failures rapidly accelerating, perhaps made worse by cognitive decline? Do they threaten to drown the Republican party in a blue wave in November’s elections?

As Trump took the steps to remake the GOP in his own image, he eliminated any meaningful checks on his power. For the most part, Republicans have stood back as the president of their party fomented an attack on the Capitol, treated the government as his own personal piggy bank, and tore down parts of the White House.

Having ceded control to Trump, Republican leaders are at his mercy. If they are forced from power in November, they may rue the day they failed to invoke the protections offered by impeachment or the 25ᵗʰ Amendment.

Carl Petersen is a former Green Party candidate for the LAUSD School Board and a longtime advocate for public education and special needs families. Now based in Washington State, he writes about politics, culture, and their intersections at TheDifrntDrmr.