what makes trumps antics truly pathetic is the utter banality of his public persona. rather than the considered statements and guiding philosophies of statesmen, we get something akin to a bottom-tier reality television character, perpetually auditioning for the dubious honor of public attention. while the founders and early leaders grappled with the moral implications of government, the prerogatives of liberty, and the shaping of a fragile union, trumps intellectual orbit never seems to rise beyond his own reflection. he revels in the trivial, the crude, and the personally vindictive. if washington worried about the legacy he would leaveabout how every public action might set the tone for centuries of governancetrump fixates only on how many adoring comments, salutes, and sycophantic praises he can squeeze from a passing news cycle. the dissonance couldnt be more stark: one can almost imagine the great minds of the early republic looking on with disbelief and disgust, incredulous that the monument they constructed with pen and sword now houses a carnival barker who cares for little beyond his own magnified shadow. if the founding giants had their personal failings and national sinssometimes colossal onesat least they strove to engage with the grand project of america on a conceptual and moral level. trump, on the other hand, seems to be a man who cannot fathom a project larger than himself, making him a dim echo of truly great american leadership, an embarrassing footnote rather than a worthy heir.
United States