'The most incompetent president in modern history': CNN national security analyst scorches Trump's four years of 'chaos'

In a Memorial Day weekend column for CNN, national security analyst Peter Bergen made a compelling case that, after Donald Trump's four years of "chaos," it can be safely concluded that he was not in any way up to the job of fulfilling the primary duty of a president, which is to protect the safety of all Americans.

According to Bergen, the author of "The Cost of Chaos: The Trump Administration and the World," hints by the former president that he might run again in 2024, combined with polling that shows Republican voters might be willing to give him one more shot, should be of grave concern to Americans still reeling from the Trump years.

Recalling that as Trump left office he proclaimed, "We will be back in some form," Bergen suggested that promise should be considered a threat by critics of the former president, before conceding, "Either way, Trump is, indeed, back."

With that in mind, he made his case that "Trump was the most incompetent President in modern American history."

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Calling Trump's tenures a series of "spectacular failures," Bergen said Trump is, in the long run, responsible for the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban due to his negotiations, paved the way for Russia to invade Ukraine after four years of Trump "undermining" NATO, ignored the military build-up in North Korea while trying to use his "personal charm" on Kim Jong Un, and "...the Iranian nuclear program took a large step forward as a result of Trump's ham-handed approach to the Iranians."

That was just internationally, with Bergen then pointing at how the Trump administration botched the response to COVID-19 in the U.S.

"It was, above all, in his mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic that Trump revealed his many weaknesses as a leader. First, he never did any homework, meaning his understanding of complex issues, such as how best to mitigate a pandemic, was always cartoonish. Related to Trump's first failing was his second: He always believed he knew more than the experts about any given subject. Third, Trump always trusted his own gut. This was not likely to produce relevant knowledge or coherent policy. And it didn't," he wrote.

Writing, "His weak leadership produced grave results: More than 400,000 Americans died from Covid-19 during Trump's final year in office, which was more than the death toll of all the Americans who had died in wars going back to World War II," Bergen then added, "Many of those deaths could have been avoided with better leadership; Covid mortality in the US was 40% higher than the average of other advanced nations such as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, according to a report from the medical journal The Lancet."

"The first duty of the commander in chief is the protection of US citizens, and Trump clearly was derelict in this duty," he wrote before concluding, "In short, Trump was the most incompetent President in modern American history."

You can read his whole piece here.