Trump is exactly what America needs—a mirror we must face

In less than a year, the U.S. will celebrate its 250^th anniversary.  Whether you like him or not, there may be no better person than President Trump to lead us in the celebration.   

A decade after the Declaration of Independence, a gathering of brilliant men put down on paper a plan for how our republic should function.  Enough has been written about them to know that they would be horrified by President Trump, but they probably wouldn’t be surprised he was elected.  You can see their pessimism about human nature woven into their blueprint for our government—with its three equal branches, each suspiciously eyeing the other two.  They may have thought such an arrangement would contain the ambitions of selfish, incompetent men.  But they were wrong.   

Despite his flaws, President Trump is exactly what America needs right now.  A more competent leader—one better at managing his emotions, and the affairs of state—might have lulled us into a false sense of security about the nagging, pressing issues we seem unwilling to address—issues like climate change, economic justice and racism.  As our 250^th anniversary approaches, Donald Trump’s performance in office is forcing us to confront questions about ourselves, about the sort of country we are, and about what sort of people we want to be.  

Are we, for example, the sort of people who take advantage of the poor to benefit the rich?  Based on the number of people who elected Trump to a second term, we may be. 

Six months in office, Trump signed into law a bill that weakens the social safety net for needy Americans—and few of us objected.  According to an assessment by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” gives the top 10 percent of Americans in this country an average income increase of $13,600, while it cuts the income of the bottom 10 percent by $1,200, and cuts social and healthcare assistance for low-income families. 

Is that what Americans do to each other? Is that who we are?

If Thomas Jefferson was alive today, what would he think of this nation’s role in all the suffering happening around the world?  Jefferson was burdened with his own sins, but it’s hard to imagine him turning a blind eye to America’s complicity in the systematic starvation and killing happening in Gaza.  Is it possible that that is the sort of nation we’ve become?

Are Americans liars? Are we the sort of people who erase unpleasant details from our past to make ourselves feel better about our crimes? Are we the sort of people who think it’s OK to erect monuments to sworn enemies of the United States, to force Black Americans to remember their place?  Is that us?

If God blesses America with another 250 years, will we continue being the sort of nation that alienates and segregates based on ethnicity or sexual orientation?  Or, that weaponizes benevolent concepts like diversity, equity and inclusion out of angry spite?  250 years from now, will we still worship demagogues, and fascists who tell us pretty stories about ourselves, as they fan the flames of our worst instincts? 

The Trump presidency couldn’t have come at a better time.  It forces us to look at ourselves and to see who we really are—who we’ve become.  The next time the president of the United States calls a veteran a loser, or mocks someone with a disability, each of us will be confronted with a 250 year old question: “Is that us?”  

The next time an innocent American is snatched off a public street and thrown into jail just for being homeless, or for looking foreign; The next time a public health emergency is ignored by our leaders, or met with incompetence and insensitivity; The next time a federal employee is fired for simply telling the truth, or a group of torch-bearing Neo-Nazis, screaming racist chants in the streets, are called “very fine people” by the men our children look up to, we will be forced to ask ourselves, “Is that us, is that America?”