Donald J. Trump is our useful idiot

The left had Biden, Harris, Levine, Blinken, Austin, Garland, Haaland, Becerra, Buttigieg, Granholm, Cardona, Mayorkas, Klain, Kerry, Bernstein, Brinton, most of the media and academia. We have Trump.

It’s been less than a week since Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 47th POTUS, and in just a few days, the chaos and calamity that characterized POTUS 45, Trump 1.0, have returned in full force. It’s a wonder to behold. And it’s already making my vote for none of the above a few months back look like visionary gen-you-wine sage of the ages stuff. Modesty prevents me from making such a claim forthright, but if you want to make it for me, I shall certainly not object. Be sure to hit like and subscribe.

Even though I despised almost everything about the previous administration: their handling of the economy, immigration, wokeness, Ukraine, Israel, their insufferable smugness, and much more, I loathe Trump as well. For me, the presidential election of 2024 came down to the least awful choice. And as bad as Trump happens to be (a lot), he was, in my estimation, orders of magnitude better than his opponent.

So it seems like, in an essentially binary system, an easy choice. But as I stood in that voting booth a few months back, looking at my kids standing over by the doorway, I couldn’t bring myself to vote for Trump because I knew that I probably couldn’t explain it to them if things played out as I expected them to play out, kind of like they seem to be doing. So I did the only thing that any reasonable person in my position would have done: I voted for Alfred E. Neuman as a write-in candidate. That was fast thinking, there on the spot, if I do say so myself.

Alright, alright. I feel your look. A mea culpa, if you will. I am aware of the lay of the land. Though I would not have voted for the Harris-Walz ticket if you’d threatened to wax me with 50-grit sandpaper, rubbing alcohol, a surface grinder for pubic hair, and red-hot needle nose pliers for orifice work while shouting my ex-wife’s name at 125 dB through a bullhorn and forcing me to look at wedding photos, I would, if I lived in a state where the electoral votes were in doubt, have voted for Trump. He was clearly the more desirable of two undesirables.

But that wasn’t the case, so I voted my conscience. My dreams are untroubled. I wish you haters peace.

The better of two awful choices to lead our country, Trump, happens to be vain, a bully, a meglomaniac, a serial liar, and a narcissist who lives surrounded by a cocoon of personal grievances. While many of his ardent supporters imagine that his antics are a form of 3-dimensional chess, I seriously doubt that’s true. I think that he straight up wears his vapidity and mendacity on his sleeve. What you see is what you get. You know what? I’m actually OK with that. It’s all out in the open. That’s actually kind of refreshing in politics. Trump is certainly no LBJ (or JFK), and I mean that as a complement.

All of that being said, Trump is still better than his predecessor and would-be replacement by a lot. That’s just where we are. As much as I dislike Trump, he’s indisputably anathema to the woke left, government overreach, the media, and the excesses of progressivism. When you add to all of the above the outrageous fraudulent lawfare waged on Trump by the left, support of Trump among the majority of Americans was a slam dunk.

Trump’s first few days in office have, predictably, been mixed. While I completely approve of his focus on curbing illegal immigration and deporting many who’ve entered this country illegally, some quite unsavory characters among them, I think that his ill-advised attempt to usurp the 14th Amendment via executive order is the result of insufficient contemplation and completely counterproductive to the overall goal of curbing illegal immigration. Good luck storming the castle with any of that.

I approve of Trump’s mandates to rid the government of DEI (so far), but I worry that he’s ultimately going to be as bad as his predecessor in ignoring the First Amendment when it gets in his way. You should have every right to advocate for DEI; what you should never have is the right to cersure and cancel me or anyone else for disagreeing. I’m against government censorship no matter who’s side it’s coming from. On this account, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Then there are the presidential pardons. Aye yi yi.

I found Biden’s use of the presidential pardon just as the screen door was hitting him in the fanny on the way out disgusting in a manner that penetrated layers of personal cynicism developed over decades of writing about disgusting politics and disgusting politicians. As bad as the pardon of his son, Hunter, happened to be, what happened next with pardons was an even worse abuse of power. Preemptive pardons? Who’d a thunk it? Say it ain’t so, Joe. And not just for government officials, at least some of whom should face the music, but to members of his familial influence-peddling operation. It’s a dent in what’s left of Biden’s historical legacy, an affront to justice, and a huge black eye for the media that stubbornly portrayed Biden as an honest, well-meaning figure when it was obvious that he was anything but.

Of course what all of this means, as you might expect, is par for the course in contemporary American politics. Again, that’s just where we are. To wit: One day after Biden’s abuse of the presidential pardon, along comes Trump with nearly universal pardons for J6 protestors.

While I think that it’s entirely plausible that many of J6ers were overprosecuted, especially in light of the leniency and outright amnesty afforded many left-wing protestors responsible for far more egregious recent illegal behavior, many are clearly guilty of the offenses, some serious, with which they were charged. In addition to trespassing, which is completely evident, making threats against government officials, also completely evident, assault, etc., there’s the ugly specter of J6 protestors pooping on the floor of the U.S. Capitol. Do you have any idea of the response required upon discovering as much as a single pile of human fecal matter in a government building during the height of the pandemic? Let me lay it out for you:

We’re talking a pretty damn major operation here. Lots of money spent on piles of crap that could have been used to house illegals in a blue city somewhere. Pardon, my ass. The SOB’s responsible for crapping on the Capitol Building floor ought to be sent to the same chain gang that got Luke Jackson’s mind right until they work off the single-digit increase in the national debt they precipitated because the men’s rooms were full and they didn’t want to use the ladies rooms during their patriotic field trip to the nation’s capital.

There’s the geographic silliness concerning the Gulf of America and Mt. McKinley punctuated by the very real and intriguing possibility of forming a strategic alliance with Greenland—something that I unambigously support. Then there’s removing John Bolton’s security detail while he’s under death threats from Iran, which seems petty with a chaser of sinister. It’s all part of the buffet. With Trump, you get eggroll.

Like I said, it’s a mixed bag. Trump, who is his own worst enemy, can’t help himself anymore now than he could in his first presidency. If he’d left Twitter two months earlier the last time around, we might be talking about the first week of the Pence administration right now. We’ll just have to see how long it takes for a critical mass of Trump supporters to tire of his antics once again.

In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how my vote ages in the fullness of time. Imaginary clown or real one? Who knows right now? As long as Trump keeps bashing the worst of progressivism, I’m inclined to ignore the histrionics and root for the guy. But one thing is for sure. Love him or hate him, Trump may be every kind of idiot there is, but he’s sure a useful one. He’s our useful idiot.

Associated Press and Idaho Press Club-winning columnist Martin Hackworth of Pocatello is a physicist, writer, and retired Idaho State University faculty member who now spends his time with family, riding bicycles and motorcycles, and arranging and playing music. Follow him on Twitter @MartinHackworth, on Facebook at facebook.com/martin.hackworth, and on Substack at martinhackworthsubstack.com