NYT Editorial Board
President Donald Trump. Three words
that were unthinkable to tens of millions of Americans — and much of the rest
of the world — have now become the future of the United States.
Having confounded Republican elites
in the primaries, Mr. Trump did the same to the Democrats in the general
election, repeating the judo move of turning the weight of a complacent
establishment against it. His victory is a humbling blow to the news media, the
pollsters and the Clinton-dominated Democratic leadership.
The candidates appeared neck-in-neck
in the popular vote, but Mr. Trump bested Hillary Clinton in the Electoral
College.
So who is the man who will be the
45th president?
After a year and a half of erratic
tweets and rambling speeches, we can’t be certain. We don’t know how Mr. Trump
would carry out basic functions of the executive. We don’t know what financial
conflicts he might have, since he never released his tax returns, breaking with
40 years of tradition in both parties. We don’t know if he has the capacity to
focus on any issue and arrive at a rational conclusion. We don’t know if he has
any idea what it means to control the largest nuclear arsenal in the world.
Here is what we do know: We know Mr.
Trump is the most unprepared president-elect in modern history. We know that by
words and actions, he has shown himself to be temperamentally unfit to lead a
diverse nation of 320 million people. We know he has threatened to prosecute
and jail his political opponents, and he has said he would curtail the freedom
of the press. We know he lies without compunction.
He has said he intends to cut taxes for
the wealthy and to withdraw the health care protection of the Affordable Care
Act from tens of millions of Americans. He has insulted women and threatened
Muslims and immigrants, and he has recruited as his allies a dark combination
of racists, white supremacists and anti-Semites. Given the importance of the
alt-right to Mr. Trump’s rise, it is perhaps time to drop the “alt.” David Duke
celebrated Mr. Trump’s victory on Tuesday night, tweeting, “It’s time to TAKE
AMERICA BACK!!!”
When Mr. Trump has looked beyond our
borders, he has said that he would tear up the agreement to prevent Iran from
building nuclear arms and that he would do away with the North American Free
Trade Agreement. He has said that he would repudiate last December’s Paris
agreement on climate change, thereby abandoning America’s leadership role in
addressing the biggest long-term threat to humanity. He has also threatened to
abandon NATO allies and start a trade war with China.
We know
that, with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, Mr. Trump would be
able to restore a right-wing majority by filling the Supreme Court seat that
Republican senators have held hostage for nine months.
Republicans will soon control every
branch of the federal government, in addition to a majority of governorships
and statehouses. There is no obvious check on Mr. Trump’s vengeful impulses.
Other Republican leaders, including his running mate, Mike Pence, have largely
made excuses for his most extreme behavior.
By challenging every norm of American
politics, Mr. Trump upended first the Republican Party and now the Democratic
Party, which attempted a Clinton restoration at a moment when the nation was
impatient to escape the status quo. Misogyny and racism played their part in his
rise, but so did a fierce and even heedless desire for change.
That change has now placed the United
States on a precipice.
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