January 6th is a day that will forever be etched into the minds of Americans and people all over the world. It was a tragic day when a rioter or protester lost her life, and many others were wounded. It was a chaotic day – one of the most chaotic days in the history of Washington D.C. And yes, it was Donald Trump’s fault that the riot happened in the first place. But it was not as simple as that. There were a lot of things going on that day, and bit by bit, more and more of what really went on is being revealed.
Everybody knew about the planned demonstration and the ensuing march or riot on the Capitol building. This was anything but spontaneous. Trump may have indeed egged on the demonstrators to march on the Capitol. He certainly treated Mike Pence despicably when Pence refused to heed Trump’s call to reject the election results.
But Donald Trump is not responsible for the lack of sufficient security detail that day at the Capitol. There were definitely some people in the security detail who wanted the chaos to ensue, who egged it on, and were not Trump supporters. Donald Trump’s career in politics was certainly derailed in the 2020 election. But the events of Jan. 6th were the best way to place a permanent label on Donald Trump as a chaos creating force in US politics that is dangerous to the stability of the United States. Allowing the march on the Capitol to become a riot was the best way of destroying Donald Trump’s image with reasonable centrist voters.
The truth is that Donald Trump presidency shook up the United States and the world in many ways – mostly positive. He was perhaps the most transformational President in modern times. When things get shaken up, obviously there will be much resistance and push back. Trump related controversies were the norm during his Presidency. Trump has taught the masses how to turn bad press into a blessing. He spoke his mind without filtering out politically incorrect statements and communicated effectively. It was hard to not love or hate him. His actions, statements and tweets completely dominated the news cycle for nearly five years, from the time he was the front-running candidate until he left office. The blood pressure of the United States definitely rose due to the Trump phenomenon.
Bu make no mistake. He truly left his mark. The American economy experienced major breakthroughs under his tenure and the dangerous dictators of the world stood down while he was at the helm. He was a uniquely effective President. Put simply, Putin, China’s leadership, and North Korea’s leadership were scared of him. Iran was not sufficiently scared of him. But when Trump ordered the attack on the head of their military-terror apparatus, they got the message. Iran was on the way of becoming a non-problem due to Trump’s policies by 2020. Biden’s policies are what reinvigorated the Iranian economy and kept the radical Islamists in power.
Donald Trump was the least boring President in many decades. Sometimes, it is good to have a President who calms the people and the world, like Gerald Ford, following the Nixon Watergate scandal. But in today’s day and age, things are downright scary. All the wrong actors are working together instead of fighting each other. Joe Biden’s Presidency will be remembered as the four years that the world went from stability to the precipice of World War III as Russia and China dangerously worked closely to achieve maximum expansion and domination.
The chaotic norms of Donald Trump’s presidency actually calmed the entire world down as Trump’s unpredictability kept the world leaders on edge. The United States is still the most powerful Army in the world and is indeed the world’s policeman. That is a very good thing. Trump knew this and flexed American muscle effectively and unpredictably. The Democrat leadership is largely against American exceptionalism. That is why the Ukraine, Iran and southeast China are so unstable these days.
If and when the Republicans win the Oval Office again, whether with DeSantis, Pompeo, Haley, or someone else, it will be Trump-inspired policies that will dominate the foreign policies. Donald Trump was not thought of as a heavyweight on foreign policy when he announced his candidacy. What did New York real estate have to do with foreign policy? But, in the end, his legacy may very well involve some major accomplishments on the foreign policy level.