In the video above, I explain how Trump is the opposite of what the founders thought a president would be, and how his stupidity is the cause of the failure of his presidency and the entire Republican Party. Please give him a watch to complement this item.
For those who observed Trump’s first term, it was clear that his second term was destined fail before it starts. Successful presidencies are often built before the president-elect even takes office, during the presidential transition through staff recruitment.
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Trump learned the wrong lesson from his first term. Trump thought he couldn’t do what he wanted because people around him told him no, so he replaced competent people with loyalists who would carry out his wishes.
By staffing his administration in this way, he set himself up to fail and went against what the Founders wanted the presidency to be.
The American system of governance was based on the idea that presidents would be virtuous people. The Founders believed that the American people would not choose a president lacking character and virtue.
The model for the presidency, according to Constitutional Convention delegate Pierce Butler, was George Washington.
Butler said the delegates “turned their eyes to General Washington.” [the Convention’s presiding officer] as president; and have shaped their ideas on the powers to be given to a president, by their opinions on his virtue.
The Constitution has been able to persist since 1787 because it is not a completely specific document. The Constitution served as a governing document, with relatively few amendments, but a few very important ones in the nation’s history.
Those who wrote the Constitution created a strong executive because they believed future executives would be like Washington. The assumption that presidents would follow Washington’s lead and behave like high-ranking figures who respected their office and public service meant that the presidency was often governed by norms and precedents, not laws and rules.
Presidents are supposed to be honorable public servants, and the system worked very well, with a few exceptions, until the American people twice elected someone opposed to George Washington to become president.
Not only was Donald Trump found guilty of fraud in court, but corruption appears to be the motto of his administration. Trump ignores rules, norms and ethics as if they don’t exist.
Trump was elected president twice, and that was no accident. Trump has strengths. Because he is not a thinker, Trump makes solutions to complex problems seem simple, which may appeal to some voters. The problem is that once he is in power and he cannot solve the problems, the voters turn against him.
Trump’s lack of respect for norms, laws and his generally immoral behavior means he has no qualms about using intimidation and being dishonest. Again, these are all traits that can help win an election or two, but they become liabilities when it comes to governing.
Because of his traits and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, many Americans feared that his return to the presidency would mean the end of democracy and dictatorship, but Trump has a giant limiting factor that explains why his presidency has already been considered a failure by the American people.
It would be foolish to dismiss Trump solely because of his apparent lack of intelligence, but Trump’s refusal to learn is his Achilles heel and the reason for his failure.
Trump contains a self-destructive combination of arrogance and stupidity that is sinking his presidency.
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