Donald Trump is the worst president in U.S. history for three big reasons
The editorial board operates independently from the U-T newsroom but holds itself to similar ethical standards. We base our editorials and endorsements on reporting, interviews and rigorous debate, and strive for accuracy, fairness and civility in our section. Disagree? Let us know.
Donald Trump is the worst president in U.S. history for three huge reasons and tens of thousands of lesser ones. Only the reasons’ order is up for debate.
The first huge reason is his unending assault on civility, democracy and the concept of morality itself. Constantly belittling anyone who didn’t give him unconditional support by endorsing his proposals or enabling his lies — The Washington Post tallied 30,573 false or misleading claims — the 45th president was a staggeringly bad role model. Trump was a lying sexist racist narcissist whose tweets made a farce of first lady Melania Trump’s “Be Best” anti-cyberbullying campaign. His attacks on Arizona Sen. John McCain, a war hero, as he was dying of brain cancer and after he died were unbelievable and unsurprising. So were his attacks on San Diego federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel for ruling against him in the Trump University fraud lawsuit and for being of Latino descent. That was part of his larger pattern of overt racism that included targeting Mexicans, building a border wall, telling four congressional leaders of color — three of whom were born in the U.S. — to “go back” to the “places from which they came,” banning travel to the U.S. from mostly Muslim nations and calling nations with non-White populations “shithole countries.”
Trump’s attacks on institutions — the press, the judiciary, the intelligence community — culminated in his war on voting. The Jan. 6 mayhem at the Capitol was a direct result and rightly led to a previously unimaginable second presidential impeachment.
The second huge reason is Trump’s stunningly incompetent response to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of seeing the virus as a public health threat, he treated it as a threat to the economy and thus to his re-election — downplaying it even after it hit in full force in April. He refused to use White House clout to obtain basic supplies and offer guidance to states, then pushed the view that wearing a mask was a political statement against him — not an attempt to keep people safe. More than 400,000 Americans are dead at least partly as a result.
The third huge reason is that Trump doubled down on his refusal to accept that the United States must respond to the existential threat of climate change by promoting the idea that it is a myth. In 2018, 13 federal agencies jointly released the National Climate Assessment, which warned that greenhouse gas emissions imperiled humanity. Trump’s blithe response: “I don’t believe it. No, no, I don’t believe it.” He restricted government climate scientists’ access to the media and effectively banned administration officials from acknowledging the threat. President Joe Biden has reversed many of Trump’s related decisions, starting by rejoining the Paris climate accords. But having the world’s largest economy and most powerful nation take four years off from the battle against climate change — even as scientists warned the planet was near a tipping point — was shockingly irresponsible.
Trump deserves credit for not starting any new wars, for bringing home U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, for pressuring other nations to pay a fairer share for NATO, even if he did so far too dismissively, and for brokering four treaties between Israel and Arab nations. At home, an analysis by The New York Times just before the pandemic found that while Trump inherited a growing economy from Barack Obama, lower-income workers had fared better during his presidency. And his vaccine research funding was historic even if most everything else about his pandemic handling was horrible.
But Trump’s toxic effect is unmistakable. From his family separation policy to his refusal to accept a fair election and his incitement of an insurrection that had lawmakers fearing for their lives, Trump’s pollution of American ideals and institutions was long-lasting and will poison our politics for years. He was a civic arsonist, and his was a matchbook presidency. Build that wall? No. It’s time to rebuild it all.
