The series is introduced with “Our Dishonest President.” Gavin Newsom, California’s Lieutenant Governor, says, “The headline is harsh, but so is the reality we are living in.”
The Times series will address three troubling traits:
On Monday, "Trump’s shocking lack of respect for those fundamental rules and institutions on which our government is based."
On Tuesday, "His utter lack of regard for truth."
On Wednesday: "His scary willingness to repeat alt-right conspiracy theories, racist memes and crackpot, out-of-the-mainstream ideas."
They should be interesting reads.
Here are the first few paragraphs of “Our Dishonest President.”:
“It was no secret during the campaign that Donald Trump was a narcissist and a demagogue who used fear and dishonesty to appeal to the worst in American voters. The Times called him unprepared and unsuited for the job he was seeking, and said his election would be a ‘catastrophe.’
“Still, nothing prepared us for the magnitude of this train wreck. Like millions of other Americans, we clung to a slim hope that the new president would turn out to be all noise and bluster, or that the people around him in the White House would act as a check on his worst instincts, or that he would be sobered and transformed by the awesome responsibilities of office.
“Instead, seventy-some days in — and with about 1,400 to go before his term is completed — it is increasingly clear that those hopes were misplaced.
“In a matter of weeks, President Trump has taken dozens of real-life steps that, if they are not reversed, will rip families apart, foul rivers and pollute the air, intensify the calamitous effects of climate change and profoundly weaken the system of American public education for all.
“His attempt to de-insure millions of people who had finally received healthcare coverage and, along the way, enact a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich has been put on hold for the moment. But he is proceeding with his efforts to defang the government’s regulatory agencies and bloat the Pentagon’s budget even as he supposedly retreats from the global stage.
“It is impossible to know where his presidency will lead or how much damage he will do to our nation.”
By the Times editorial board
