Looking for some of the more aged members of SW to weigh in: Has another president in your lifetime generated so much division or worldwide ridicule?
Obviously we always consider the events of our own lifetimes to be the most important or different than those that came before. Whether you support him or revile him, Trump has been the focal point of a division in his country approaching civil war. Or so it seems.
You older folks who have seen a few presidents come and go, has it ever been like this?
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Of the 11 presidents I can recall, there has never been one as incompetent and deliberately divisive as Trump. It isn't even close.
Nixon was bad, and his policies on Vietnam were divisive, but he still had significant support right up until the day he resigned in disgrace. Reagan was showing signs of his Alzheimer's while he was president, but although many disagreed with his policies, he still tried to be the president for all the people. Trump is the first president to deliberately divide the nation into those that adore him and voted for him, and those that do not. He works to punish those who do not give him the adoration his mental illness requires, and reward those who worship him as Savior. He does nothing to unite the country and everything to benefit himself.
Globally, Reagan and Bush 43 were reviled for their foreign policy. I recall being on a business trip in Portugal during his first term and being asked repeatedly why he (Reagan) was doing what he was doing. I could tell from the demeanor of the questioners that they reviled him. Bush's foreign policy, including starting two wars of convenience, was so destructive that Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 largely for not being Bush.
When Trump is finally, and mercifully, gone, historians will rank him at the very bottom of all our presidents, and colleges and universities around the world will study his presidency and the huge negative impact he had on the US and on the world. People will take college courses that take at least an entire semester to complete. His complete and utter surrender to the coronavirus which will ultimately kill more than half a million Americans, including deliberately spreading it in the weeks leading up to the election, will be particularly harshly judged, and rightly so.
