The second thing we’ve learned about him is that he’s a terrible policymaker, whose combination of ignorance, impulsiveness, and preference for loyalty over competence has repeatedly led him to make foolish decisions. He’s turned out to be much better at concentrating power, enriching himself, and coercing vulnerable targets than at developing and implementing constructive initiatives that would benefit the United States as a whole.

Whether you like it or not, U.S. President Donald Trump has been the most important figure in the country’s political scene for nearly a decade. By this point, we’ve had plenty of time to judge the man, and two things about him are now abundantly clear. First, his political appeal was underestimated from the start, and he has become a more effective politician over time. Despite chronic lying, broken pledges, felony convictions, sex offenses, and a demonstrated willingness to trash any norm that might deny him what he wants, he has remade the Republican Party in his image, and he won reelection in 2024 despite his dismal first-term performance. He is now attempting the most radical transformation of American politics in the nation’s history, an authoritarian takeover that is well underway and may succeed.

Whether you like it or not, U.S. President Donald Trump has been the most important figure in the country’s political scene for nearly a decade. By this point, we’ve had plenty of time to judge the man, and two things about him are now abundantly clear. First, his political appeal was underestimated from the start, and he has become a more effective politician over time. Despite chronic lying, broken pledges, felony convictions, sex offenses, and a demonstrated willingness to trash any norm that might deny him what he wants, he has remade the Republican Party in his image, and he won reelection in 2024 despite his dismal first-term performance.