By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com
It is totally fair at this point in Donald Trump’s term as president to wonder: How will history remember this individual?
Well … I do not believe it will be with much kindness or charity.
One can say truthfully that Donald Trump was a “transformational” president. That is, he transformed the office into one steeped in decorum and dignity into something decidedly less dignified and where decorum has been tossed into the crapper.
Trump told us he would be unconventional and he most certainly has been that. He also pledged to be “presidential,” which he has failed to do time and time and time again.
My mind has a tendency to wander and at times it wanders into strange places. Such as wondering what a Donald Trump presidential library would look like; what it would contain; what it would highlight. I have had the pleasure of visiting four presidential libraries: the Lyndon Johnson library in Austin, the Herbert Hoover library in West Branch, Iowa, the George W. Bush library and museum down the road in Dallas and the Jimmy Carter Center in Atlanta. They all highlight something about the president’s time in office.
Indeed, they all reveal plenty about the men and about the time in which they served.
What in the name of humanity is Donald Trump going to highlight in a library he might want to erect? Where would he put it? How in the world does this president get past several dark chapters: impeachment, the myriad sexual scandals, the investigations into corruption and perhaps the darkest of them all … his seditious actions since losing his bid for re-election?
It is going to be a tall order for historians to look back on this individual’s tenure without invoking the hideous, reprehensible behavior of the president. How he fired Cabinet officials and sennior staffers via Twitter. How he upbraided our nation’s strong and heretofore reliable allies. How he denigrated our military and our intelligence establishments in the presence of a man whose country, Russia, attacked our electoral system in 2016.
And then there’s the pandemic, which he blew off publicly while knowing privately that it was about to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Trump’s time in office is winding down. I would hate to be charged with trying to tie a bow neatly around this individual’s term. It cannot be done. It will be a complicated and agonizing effort.
Aww, but what the heck. It can be just another “unconventional” chapter in the life of Donald John Trump.
I just want him to be on his way.