The Case Against Donald Trump.

• Author: Zakheim, Dov S.
• Position: The Realist

For too long, many Donald Trump supporters have argued that however debased his character might be, his policies--notably his support for "values" (read: "Christian values"), his pushback against illegal immigrants, and his nomination of conservative judges--suffice to command support. On the other hand, many Republicans who, unlike Trump, actually have been lifelong party members and support both values and conservative judges, argue that whatever the merits of his policies, character matters--indeed, it outweighs other considerations. While there is little debate about the man's character, it is arguable that far too many of his policies undermine both America's cohesion and prosperity at home and its leadership abroad.

There is really little to add about Trump's character that has not been repeated ad nauseam not only by his political opponents, but by both principled Republicans and the many officials who were part of the revolving door that is the Trump administration. Since he has not been subject to a formal mental evaluation, he cannot be called a narcissist. But he has consistently exhibited narcissistic tendencies. How else to describe someone who, at one time or another, publicly and repeatedly has described himself as the leading expert on any subject he has addressed, be it politics, taxes, trade, foreign policy, the military, and just about anything else?

One cannot call Trump a racist; after all, he insists that he "does not have a racist bone in his body." Yet his own statements--whether to the media, or in his innumerable tweets, belie his self-proclaimed innocence. A central theme of his presidential campaign, and a primary objective once he took office, was to build a wall to keep out Mexican "rapists."

Trump virtually opened his presidential term by banning residents of seven Muslim majority countries from entering the United States; he later added six more countries, five of which were similarly predominantly Muslim. He made it clear that he preferred immigrants from what he assumed was lily-white Norway, while terming Haiti and African states "shithole countries." He did not condemn the Charlortesville marchers in the 2017 Unite the Right rally who assaulted a Black man and chanted anti-Black and anti-Semitic slogans such as "Jews will not replace us." Instead, Trump asserted that there were "very fine people on both sides." Gary Cohn, Trump's most senior economic advisor, clearly was unhappy with Trump's response; he nearly resigned and did in fact leave the administration eight months later.

Trump's tweets and retweets have included slurs against minority groups. He has railed against efforts to remove Confederate symbols of all kinds. In one notorious case, he retweeted a video of a man shouting "white power." He has tweeted that Black Lives Matter is a "symbol of hate." His appeals to his base increasingly echo those of George Wallace. If Trump is not a racist, he certainly...