Trump’s Missed Opportunities Are Piling Up

Whether you like it or not, U.S. President Donald Trump has been the most important figure in the country’s political scene for nearly a decade. By this point, we’ve had plenty of time to judge the man, and two things about him are now abundantly clear. First, his political appeal was underestimated from the start, and he has become a more effective politician over time. Despite chronic lying, broken pledges, felony convictions, sex offenses, and a demonstrated willingness to trash any norm that might deny him what he wants, he has remade the Republican Party in his image, and he won reelection in 2024 despite his dismal first-term performance. He is now attempting the most radical transformation of American politics in the nation’s history, an authoritarian takeover that is well underway and may succeed.