The years of calm are over. In Donald Trump well have a child at the White House

[babylonsister]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/02/donald-trump-white-house-obama-scandal?CMP=fb_gu

The years of calm are over. In Donald Trump we’ll have a child at the White House
Dave Eggers

President Obama’s term passed without a whiff of scandal. But with Trump we face an era of lawsuits, feuds, threats, denials and insults

Friday 2 December 2016 14.01 EST

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People of all affiliations must admit that the period of calm dignity at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is fast approaching its end. Whatever his capabilities, Donald Trump is not a man of serenity. He is loud and brash, he is not above spreading rumours and falsehoods, and controversy follows him as surely as dusk follows day. There are currently 75 lawsuits outstanding against him. They range from employees at his buildings suing him for personally sexually assaulting them to an architect who claims he was never paid for the work he completed. Trump has been married three times, and has filed for bankruptcy five times, in each case emerging unscathed while his creditors receive pennies on the dollar.

A few days after winning the electoral college, the president-elect settled a class action against him, wherein 7,000 people sued him for fraud. These 7,000 individuals had paid up to $35,000 to learn at Trump University and, according to all of the 7,000 people, none came away with any tangible knowledge or benefit. After winning the election, the president-elect paid $25m to settle their claim. It has been reported that most of the plaintiffs will receive about half of what they lost.

We are in a time of extraordinary relativism, when the incoming president was sued for fraud by 7,000 different people and this was not seen as a disqualifying fact. The president-elect was accused of defrauding thousands of their life savings, and now, across from the White House, we’re building a structure wherein he can watch a parade in his honour.

No one is sure what shape this presidency will take. Just as during the third debate he promised to keep us in suspense as to whether or not he would accept any result other than his victory, now we live in a different and more foreboding kind of suspense. Which Donald Trump will govern the country? If past is prologue, we can be sure that the Trump who shows up on 20 January for the inauguration will be awed and humbled by the office of the presidency. He will recite the oath properly and, if he employs the same writer who penned his victory speech, will probably deliver a well-worded inaugural address. But which man will show up on 21 January?

We don’t know. But we do know that the days of decency are gone. We had almost 3,000 such days in a row, and it will soon come to an end. That we have traded Obama’s unshakable composure for Trump’s undivinable mayhem is not a matter of debate. We can agree that Trump was elected. We can agree that his election has sent the Dow to a new high. We can agree that he very well may rebuild the nation’s infrastructure – and if he does, he will have the backing of most of the country.

But we must also agree that this president has the bearing and impulses of a nine-year-old boy – a troubled nine-year-old boy. He wants most to be liked and admired, and when he isn’t, he lashes out with insults and aggrieved demands for apologies. He has no patience and little self-control. He cannot spell and does not read. He is our new president.

For the next four years, the highs will be high and the lows will be low, and the embarrassments to our democracy will arrive with great regularity. Remember George W Bush trying to give an impromptu massage to Angela Merkel? Remember Bill Clinton receiving oral sex in the Oval Office? Remember the totality of Richard Nixon? All were difficult to bear. Having one’s president behave worse than anyone you know is wounding to the soul. Prepare yourself for more.

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/02/donald-trump-white-house-obama-scandal?CMP=fb_gu