“Yet others see Trump’s pivot as a sign of weakness. Second-term presidents become labelled lame ducks — victim to events as their authority ebbs.” The Times today.
Trump is not even close to being a conventional “second-term President”. Thr four year break destroyed any continuity there might have been from his first term. Independent commentators placed that term as the worst presidency in America’s long history. His second term is infinitely worse.
What authority Trump has comes from his use of the Executive Order to create what is close to a dictatorship. Compare post Weimar Germany and their suspension of democracy. But Trump’s defeat on the Epstein files shows that there is a glimmer of hope that Congress might be prepared to call a halt to his madness.
Authoritarian leaders do succeed to power in previously democratic administrations – there are plenty examples of this in twentieth and twenty-first century history. But America is different. Nixon pushed the limits of the possible and paid the price. Trump is infinitely worse than tricky Dicky. America must act.
Paddy’s Blogs in a crazy world 