By Terence Smith
It is an old saying – Elections have consequences — but never more true than today, in the chaos and corruption of Trump 2.0.
I don’t know about you, but I did not expect this level of buffoonery when Donald Trump was elected to a second term as President in 2024. I anticipated the self-promotion, the personal assaults, the gross incompetence at the higher levels, the shameless profiteering by the entire Trump family — all the dreary characteristics of Trump 1.0.
But I never dreamed that we would have the nightmare we see today. Pick your horror: RFK Jr. dismantling vital vaccination programs; Kristi Noem in her oversized cowboy hat lying about ICE, Kash Patel getting it wrong again and again, Pete Hegseth’s laughable “warrior ethos.” All of them picked and praised repeatedly by Donald J.
And overseas: the sellout of Ukraine, the increasingly dangerous game of chicken with Iran, the undercutting of NATO and Europe, the tariff craziness, the corrupt coziness with Putin, Orban, Netanyahu and the like. Not to mention Venezuela, Panama, Greenland…the list goes on.
How much of this nonsense will survive into another Presidential term? Not much, I hope, even if we have President J.D., unlikely as that may be. But, as David Brooks has written, the crudeness, the coarseness in public discourse, the lower standards may well continue under another name, because elections have consequences.