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Leonard Greene is a columnist for the New York Daily News.
I don’t understand America anymore.
Imagine if the company where you work spends months trying to fire you, and when they can’t fire you, they just decide not to renew your contract and hire someone else for the job.
But you won’t leave quietly. Instead, in a selfish effort to keep your job, you incite a violent riot that gets people killed, and puts the company at risk.
Then on your way out the door, after they take away your key card and your company phone, you help yourself to sensitive documents and store them in your home.
You leave the job, reluctantly, but you can’t stop criticizing your replacement, or whining about how the removal process was rigged against you.
You vow to get your job back. But instead of being on your best behavior, you run afoul of the law, over and over again. This prosecutor says you’re a cheat, that plaintiff says you’re a rapist.
A jury says you owe that plaintiff $83 million for destroying her reputation.
America, meet Donald Trump.
Only in America could a president get impeached — twice — stage an insurrection, perpetrate an alleged fraud with a business that launched him to stardom, be accused of sexual assault and defamation, and still be in a position to run the country again.
Well, that’s not entirely true. That happens in plenty of other countries, mostly third-world nations and dictatorships.
But Trump, when asked if he would abuse power or punish his enemies if he returned to the White House, assured voters he has no plans to be a dictator.
“Except for day one,” the presidential hopeful said. “We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.”
This is what Trump said before he won the Iowa caucuses, before he won the New Hampshire primary last month.
This is what he has said and done for years, and people still vote for him.
I don’t understand America anymore.
President Joe Biden says Trump is a threat to democracy.
“He’s saying it out loud,” said Biden, a Democrat who is running for reelection. “The other day he said he wants to be a dictator only on one day, wipe out the civil servants and a whole range of other things,” Biden told donors at a campaign event in Philadelphia. “He embraces political violence instead of rejecting it. We can’t let that happen.”
Even one day as a dictator is one day too many. Even one day abusing power is a day we can’t get back.
A lot can happen in a day. The world can change in 24 hours. Supreme Court judges can be appointed. Abortion rights can be overturned. Affirmative action can be wiped out.
Jan. 6 happened in just one day, while Trump was still president.
Still, Trump is still cruising to the Republican nomination, with all his challengers dropping like flies.
Chris Christie, gone. Ron DeSantis, adios. Tim Scott, making kissing noises in the background.
All before a single primary vote was cast.
That leaves former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s former governor, as the only challenger left standing. But her days are probably numbered.
Meanwhile, that federal jury ruled that Trump must pay $83 million in damages for defamatory statements he made while denying he sexually assaulted the writer E. Jean Carroll.
Eighty-three million. That’s one dollar for every reason Trump should never be president again.
