U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony, joined by U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, during the dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, U.S., July 1, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
A political expert issued a dire warning about President Donald Trump on Wednesday as the U.S. approaches its 250th anniversary.
David Rothkopf, global affairs columnist for The Daily Beast, argued in a new column on Wednesday that Trump represents the antithesis of what the American founders envisioned for the presidency. He compared Trump to the nation's first president, George Washington, whom Rothkopf noted "valued integrity above all things." Trump, on the other hand, is a pathological liar who was clocked at over 30,000 lies by the Washington Post during his first term in office," Rothkopf added.
"He is not just a bad, incompetent man whose own hand-picked Supreme Court majority let stand a ruling that he was guilty of sex abuse and defamation earlier this week. He is actually the antithesis of our founders," Rothkopf wrote.
"He’s the un-Washington, the anti-George," he added.
Rothkopf also warned that the situation may worsen unless Congress acts to curtail the "constellation of oligarchs" circling the government.
"To see how grave the situation has become, we need only contrast our first president with our current chief executive. But that alone is not enough," Rothkopf wrote. "We must also act to undo the damage Trump and the court and the Congress and the constellation of oligarchs they serve have done, or the contrast will grow only starker, as it will be between our first democratically elected president and our last."