Political columnist Richard Cohen authored a brutal takedown of President Donald Trump on New Year's Eve, writing that the next president will make America greater than Trump ever could just by showing up.
"Trump has soiled America. He has not made it greater but, in a word whose need is now apparent, worser. The America that previous Presidents boasted about — Ronald Reagan’s 'shining city on a hill' — is now a slum among nations. The goodness of the American people — another refrain of Presidents past — is now a mere memory," Cohen writes in The Washington Post.
"His soul is dark. His vision is to shrink the traditional American one. He offers the world no moral leadership and slaps the back of authoritarians such as Vladimir Putin. He lies with every breath — not because he must, as Eisenhower did about the downing of Francis Gary Powers in his U-2 spy plane — because it’s the easier course. There’s not a parent out there who wants his or her child to be like Trump."
Citing his frequent lies and perpetual scandals, Cohen accused Trump of being a madman who had turned the White House into a madhouse.
"Trump’s one certain achievement will be to leave his successor an America that will become greater just by his leaving office."
