The dangerous, petulant child Donald Trump has been subdued
In February, 2021, a man goes to the White House to see Donald Trump. He is told by the Marine on duty that Trump is no longer president and that he no longer resides there. Three days in a row the man returns to see Trump and each time the same Marine tells him Trump is no longer president.
On the fourth day, the Marine finally asks the man why he keeps coming back asking for Trump when he already knows the answer. The man replies, “I just love hearing you tell me Trump is no longer the president.” The Marine snaps to attention, salutes and says, “See you tomorrow, sir!”
I don’t know about you, but that’s the first joke I ever heard that I find genuinely funny that also makes me proud. We Americans — and that includes Americans abroad and non-Americans too, I think — are experiencing something brand new in the emotions department. We are experiencing a kind of relief combined with joy combined with wild enthusiasm combined with disbelief combined with pride.
We’re also getting used to the fact that a dangerous, petulant child has been subdued. We are becoming accustomed to the fact that the reign of terror from the four year old who found daddy’s pistol and has been menacing us and our house guests with it ever since has finally been disarmed and defeated. We are getting used to the idea of a return to normality. We’re getting used to the idea of being happy again. And we like it.
We have much to celebrate. Not only has Donald Trump been defeated, he has been humiliated. Imagine it in numerical terms. Last time Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly three million. This time Joe Biden won by more than twice that number. But that’s not comparing like for like. Because this time Trump had a power he lacked the first time. He had the power of incumbency.
In the past, the power of incumbency has been enough to re-elect bad presidents. It happened in 1872, for instance, with Ulysses S. Grant. In 1972 it happened with Nixon. We saw it again in 2004 with George W. Bush.
Of the 44 different men who have been presidents of the United States, on January 20, 2021, Donald Trump will become only the twelfth to serve precisely 1,461 days. That is, exactly one term. Trump will be relegated to the mediocrities of the past, the little more than one quarter of the men who couldn’t cut it, who couldn’t get re-elected. They didn’t have what it took, not even with the decided edge of incumbency, to convince the American people they deserved a second term. Donald Trump is a one-term failure, a reject, a repudiated loser. The American people have spoken.
Of course, America spoke the first time, too. In 2016 Americans told Donald Trump that they didn’t want him then either, and they did so in numbers sufficient to populate a large city. Unfortunately, we still have a racist relic of America’s dishonorable past called the Electoral College, and that relic made Trump possible despite his decisive loss of the popular vote. The Electoral College needs to go, of course.
America also spoke with Donald Trump’s impeachment. Only one other president in American history has been impeached during his first term. That was Andrew Johnson. Americans didn’t give him a second term, either. Andrew Johnson had the good sense not to attend the inauguration of the victor. I hope Trump doesn’t attend this coming inauguration either. We don’t want him.
I know it’s fashionable these days to lament the numbers who voted for Donald Trump. It’s a daunting number, a shameful number, and not to be discounted. But we should also remember that Americans by and large never wanted him, and they said so both times in the only kind of numbers that ever really count — the majority. That was true in 2016, and it’s true in 2020.
On balance, we should be happy with that. Like the Marine said, Donald Trump is no longer president. Let’s allow ourselves the joy we deserve and remember that it will soon be safely true. As countries go, we ain’t too bad, and we just proved it — again. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.