You’re fired! Trump flounces out of top job

Did Donald Trump teach us a valuable lesson? Many will rejoice when Trump finally leaves the White House later today, but others warn that we must learn the lessons of his presidency. Today, at 12pm, Donald Trump will cease to be president of the United States of America. Many will breathe a sigh of relief at the end of what they see as the most troubled, divisive presidency in modern US history. But some warn that Trump’s opponents are in danger of becoming complacent. They think the Trump presidency has taught us a lesson we should not forget. It is easy to forget just how unprecedented Trump’s bid for the White House was. He was the first president never to have held an elected position or a military rank. Instead, he was best known for his reality TV show, The Apprentice. When he first entered the primaries in 2015, many dismissed his run as a joke. But he won by a landslide, humiliating his Republican opponents in the process. His presidency was just as unprecedented. He was the first president to be impeached twice. He ignored the time-honoured tradition that a defeated candidate should concede to the winner, and let a violent mob loose on the Capitol. The lesson is stark: America’s system of legal checks and balances, designed to keep any leader from seizing too much power, is more fragile than it seems. His successes also carry grim lessons for Democrats. Trump won the presidency in 2016 by carving a path through the Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Some claimed his victory was a howl of pain from voters whose loyalty to the Democrats had got them nothing in return. Although Biden won these states back, it was by a narrow margin. Not long ago, they were solidly Democratic; now they are set to be battleground states for years to come. Democrats may never win Trump’s working-class voters back. Even Trump’s defeat in 2020 contained bad news for his opponents. In spite of his racist comments, Trump won a greater proportion of the ethnic minority vote than any Republican candidate since 2004. He made big gains among Latino and Black voters, including women in those groups – and all this in a year when a Black and South Asian woman was on the Democratic ticket. These voters have historically been extremely loyal to the Democrats. But Trump has proved that Democrats cannot take them for granted. Latinos who switched their vote cited the higher standard of living they had enjoyed under Trump. If the Democrats cannot deliver these voters substantial economic gains, they are likely to lose them in future. These lessons have already sunk in on the Republican side. Already, potential heirs to Trump’s throne are vying for position. Ted Cruz, Trump’s bitter rival in 2016, recently sponsored a bid to overturn the election results, in what was widely seen as an attempt to appeal to Trump loyalists. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has publically lashed out at Trump’s main foreign enemies, Iran and China. The Republican candidate at the next election is likely to be a Trumpist: a believer in economic nationalism and anti-interventionism. So, did Donald Trump teach us a valuable lesson? Learn the hard way Yes, say some. They argue that Trump gave voice to a forgotten people in America’s heartlands: workers who had lost their incomes to globalisation, who felt that the political system had abandoned them, who wanted to give the people in charge a good kicking. The fact that Biden, a man with deep roots in the Rust Belt, has succeeded him, proves that Trump has changed US politics, perhaps for good. Not at all, say others. They point out that in 2016 and 2020, the average Trump voter was richer than the average Democratic voter. He did not give voice to a forgotten demographic, he just represented the same wealthy people who always vote Republican. And in centring attention on the white working class, he just gave politicians another excuse to ignore the needs of Black and Latino people. KeywordsComplacent - Feeling that you do not need to do anything about a situation. For example, somebody with very high grades at school might think they do not need to work hard any longer.