by
Mark
Wilson/Getty
Images)
I
was
chatting
with
a
guy
at
a
wedding
recently
who
told
me
that
Donald
Trump
was
the
best
president
in
American
history.
You
have
to
be
careful
these
days. Was
he
pulling
my
leg? Was
he
serious?
I
explored: “What
do
you
have
in
mind?”
“Trump
moved
the
U.S.
embassy
in
Israel
from
Tel
Aviv
to
Jerusalem,
and
he
negotiated
the
Abraham
Accords.”
Got
it. If
you’re
a
strong
supporter
of
Israel,
and
you
ignore
everything
else,
Trump’s
great.
I
headed
to
the
bar
for
another
drink.
If
you
ask
me,
Trump
is
the
worst
president
in
American
history. In
12
short
months,
Trump
has
changed
the
world
in
ways
that
it
will
take
decades
—
or
longer
—
to
recover
from. A
year
ago,
American
medical
research
was
the
envy
of
the
world. No
more. And
one
can’t
easily
replace
the
institutional
knowledge
that
has
departed
government
agencies.
A
year
ago,
America
had
allies
around
the
world
who
we
could
count
on
for
support. No
more. And
now
that
countries
have
learned
that
the
United
States
is
untrustworthy,
it’s
not
clear
that
we’ll
ever
be
able
to
restore
our
reputation.
A
year
ago,
most
countries
were
showing
restraint
in
their
pursuit
of
nuclear
weapons. I’m
pretty
sure
those
days
are
over.
If
European
countries
in
NATO
and
Asian
allies
can
no
longer
trust
American
security
guarantees
—
and
Trump
has
made
clear
that
they
can’t
—
then
Germany
and
Poland
and
South
Korea
and
Japan,
not
to
mention
less
prominent
countries,
will
think
again
about
developing
nuclear
deterrents.
Trump
has
changed
the
world,
perhaps
permanently,
for
the
worse. There’s
no
going
back.
I’m
not
talking
about
political
foolishness
—
pardoning
the
January
6
crowd
—
or
economic
foolishness
—
imposing,
and
then
lifting,
and
then
imposing
again
tariffs. Those
are
short-term
harms,
from
which
the
country
might
recover. I’m
talking
about
long-term
damage
that
may
be
irreparable.
And
that’s
giving
Trump
the
benefit
of
the
doubt
about
whether
he’ll
try
to
do
something
venal
in
connection
with
this
year’s
midterm
elections.
Despite
all
that,
I
guarantee
—
guarantee
—
that
at
some
point
during
the
2028
presidential
election
campaign,
Democrats
will
say
that
one
or
more
Republican
candidates
are
“worse
than
Trump.”
These
are
Democrats
who
scream
that
Trump
is
a
fascist,
compare
him
to
Hitler,
and
believe
that
the
United
States
may
never
again
have
a
fair
election.
I
guarantee
you
they’ll
say
the
2028
candidate
will
be
even
worse.
On
what
basis
do
I
give
this
guarantee?
First,
there’s
the
logic
of
political
campaigns. Every
Republican
candidate
is
the
worst
ever. Bush
lied
and
people
died;
no
one
could
be
worse. Romney
strapped
his
dog
to
the
roof
of
a
car;
no
one
could
be
worse. Trump
ran
companies
into
bankruptcy
and
had
no
government
experience;
how
could
things
get
worse?
Folks
always
go
nuts
in
political
campaigns
to
gain
an
advantage
over
the
other
side. Democrats
will
do
it
again
in
2028.
Second,
there’s
past
precedent. In
2024,
it
looked
for
a
while
like
Ron
DeSantis
was
gaining
ground
and
might
become
the
Republican
presidential
nominee. So
what
did
Democrats
say
about
him?
There
was
the
opinion
piece
in
the Los
Angeles
Times describing
a
DeSantis
presidency
as
a
“catastrophe
in
other
ways,”
potentially
more
dangerous
in
certain
respects
than
Trump. There
were political
forums in
which
folks
wrote
that
“DeSantis
would
be
worse
than
Trump.” There
were Facebook
discussion
groups in
which
people
explained
that
DeSantis’s
politics
were
to
the
right
of
Trump,
and
he
was
a
more
effective
spokesman
for
those
views,
so
DeSantis
was
the
greater
of
two
evils.
Finally,
I
guarantee
that
people
will
say
that
other
candidates
are
worse
than
Trump
because
they
already
are
doing
precisely
that. A
few
weeks
ago,
in
an
opinion
piece
for Fox
News,
Hugh
Hewitt
canvassed
the
many
places
in
which
people
have
already
said
that
JD
Vance
is
worse
than
Trump. Vance
appears
calmer,
can
speak
more
crisply,
is
more
reactionary,
and
would
be
more
effective. He’s
worse
than
Trump!
No,
no,
no.
Trump
is
terrible.
Some
spineless
lickspittle
Republican
who
showered
praise
on
Trump
during
cabinet
meetings
or
didn’t
have
the
gumption
to
call
him
out
in
Congress
is
surely
a
disgusting
human
being. That
person
may
be
stupid
or
may
be
smart,
may
be
trustworthy
or
not,
may
be
a
felon
or
have
been
found
liable
for
damages
for
sexual
assault,
or
may
have
many
other
reasons
to
oppose
him
(or
her).
But
having
proclaimed
that
Trump
is
the
worst,
and
with
all
the
evidence
to
back
it
up,
the
2028
Democratic
campaign
must
be
run
on
other
issues.
No
matter
how
bad
the
Republican
candidate
in
2028,
that
person
is
not
worse
than
Trump.
It’s
simply
impossible.
Mark Herrmann spent
17
years
as
a
partner
at
a
leading
international
law
firm
and
later
oversaw
litigation,
compliance
and
employment
matters
at
a
large
international
company.
He
is
the
author
of The
Curmudgeon’s
Guide
to
Practicing
Law and Drug
and
Device
Product
Liability
Litigation
Strategy (affiliate
links).
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected].