In a lengthy op-ed published Monday, author and policy expert William Becker laid out what he described as the “stench of scandal” President Donald Trump may have permanently placed on the White House, but despite his countless controversies, the president still had one “last chance” at achieving redemption, one that Becker urged Trump to consider before it’s too late.
“The voting public has twice given Trump the opportunity to redeem his legacy. Each time, he has only made it worse. His last chance is to resign now, citing health reasons,” Becker wrote in an op-ed published in The Hill.
“If he doesn’t, then the challenge of redemption will pass to Congress. History will remember its current members more kindly if they do their jobs by removing Trump from office before he does irreparable damage to the country.”
Becker meticulously listed what he considered to be the Trump administration’s worst controversies: having “repeatedly violated the Constitution, engaged in profitable conflicts of interest, abused his pardon power, deployed the military against the civilian population, ignored citizens’ constitutional rights, withheld public funds from states that didn’t vote for him, and used the threat of legal action and the denial of federal funds to extort private corporations and universities into conformance with his policies.”
And yet, despite the Trump administration’s increasing number of precedent-breaking controversies, were Trump to willfully step down from office, Becker argued, his legacy could be spared from being reduced to a historic “morality lesson.” The president also had a plausible reason to resign, one that could allow him to save face, Becker suggested, given Trump’s numerous suspected health issues.
“He doesn’t understand, or perhaps will not admit, that he is memorializing a decade in which he caused decay, division, degradation, degeneration and disgrace,” Becker wrote. “Once Trump leaves office, the plaques on his monuments will explain how the government failed America and nearly allowed the world’s continuing democracy to slip away.”
