Trump has brought disgrace to America like no other president

The United States is a big country that used to be ‘great’. It has more fire power, technological savviness, and economic muscles than many countries. At the height of its greatness, people believed it and its potential.

US presidents' words carried weight because there was a general belief that he was basically an honest man who could not lie or lower the dignity of the office with reckless words. Back in 1787, 55 men met in Philadelphia to make a strong and effective union and, by creating an Electoral College, thought they had taken care of accidental riff-ruffs sneaking into the presidency.

They wanted a ‘Republic’, never a ‘Democracy’, and could hardly imagine that a convict would be elected president because being honourable was a basic expectation. In the 21st Century, Americans ditched that expectation. They have a president who insults and refers to previous presidents, especially Barack Obama, in ways that reflect badly on the presidency. When President Donald Trump portrayed Michelle and Barack Obama as ‘apes’, he demeaned and made the presidency sink below the lowest point in public esteem.

Trump succeeded in dismantling the reputation of the US that others had worked hard to establish but he was not the first to do so. In 1800 vice-presidential candidate Aron Burr connived with Federalist Electors to steal the election but Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton, pointing out that Thomas Jefferson was an ‘honest’ man, saved the system from disgrace. Some presidents, though honest men, were just misfits in office.

When crises arose, James Buchanan and Herbert Hoover did not know what to do. Andrew Johnson misread the mood of the country and was impeached because of firing cabinet secretaries only to be saved in the more conscientious Senate.

The Senate similarly saved Bill Clinton whose impeachable office was kissing/hugging women. Richard Nixon, paranoid about the name Kennedy, had to resign in order to avoid impeachment and conviction over the Watergate fiasco; Nixon’s real offence was to ‘lie’ to senators.

Dwight D Eisenhower

Other presidents caught lying, like George HW Bush claims in Iraq, added to the erosion of trust in presidents. Some of the presidents failed to apply the doctrine of ‘plausible deniability’, knowing how to cover their tracts while authorising questionable activities. Dwight D Eisenhower for instance changed the CIA from centralising intelligence for the president's use into a government overthrowing outfit as long as he could deny it plausibly.

Trump does not have the luxury of having ‘plausible deniability’ skills or, despite his desire to be considered one, ability for greatness. He does not measure up to pre-Civil War giants who laid the foundations of what to expect from US presidents such as George Washington, Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln.

He pales when compared to post-Civil War presidents who exuded confidence including Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Obama with his 'Yes We Can' slogan. Lacking Jefferson’s brilliance and FDR’s temperament, Trump appears to engage in extreme pettiness which drives others first into despair and then into a reluctant sense of rebelliousness.

Trump watches his craving for greatness sink deep into oblivion. The first president deliberately to destroy US institutions leaves him in quandary. His New Right inclination to destroy the post-World War II liberal world order succeeds in forcing global geopolitical re-alignment and redefinition of allies and enemies. He seemingly admires the very ‘evils’ that had dominated pre-World War II policies such as racism and its attendant colonialism. He is angry that a Kenyan, Obama, lived at the ‘White House’ as president.

Obama represents the annoying phenomenon of former colonial subjects becoming visible in revered white political ‘gardens’. In forcing a return to the evil past of global ‘racism’, he destroys American ‘soft power’ by engaging in global dubiosity. Watching American greatness slide into ‘pitiful’ ignominy, he still believes he is ‘great’.