Exhale, America

The one-term reign of the man who never should've won

- By Jonathan Chait

The End an Error

Donald Trump destroyed many things in his single term as president. The quickest one Joe Biden can repair may be the measure of self-respect Trump robbed the country through four years of national humiliation. Of all the endless lies made by and for Trump, the most insidiously effective is the one his daughter Ivanka uttered at his nominating convention in August when she described him as “the people’s president.” One would think that a precondition for being a “people’s president”—and not just a duly elected holder of the office—would be gaining the support of a plurality of the electorate. But after four years of relentless pseudo-populist propaganda, this absurd claim came naturally.

Trump has been fanatical about portraying his shocking election in the cloak of an imagined popular mandate. It is why he instructed his press secretary to tell farcical lies about his inaugural crowds, why he has circulated misleading maps showing the vast land areas occupied by his supporters, and why he has depicted his enemies as an elite and alien force. They needed to depict Trump as the true representative of the volk.