Trump has suddenly become the “least bad outcome” in the US, says Gwynne Dyer Wesley Tingey/UnsplashArticle contentI would rather eat worms than write about the current hullabaloo on the American right over the conspiracy theories about paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his various pals and accomplices.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Subscribe now to access this story and more:Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsSUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES.Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsRegister to unlock more articles.Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.Access additional stories every monthShare your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting communityGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorArticle contentThe temptation is just to sit back and enjoy watching the MAGA revolution devour its own children, but duty calls.Article contentArticle contentIt is not enough just to wish that both sides lose. (Well, all of the many sides, really.) It is becoming clear that this scandal will probably injure Donald Trump personally and weaken him permanently. It doesn’t matter whether he was really implicated in Epstein’s crimes or not. As usual, it’s the attempted cover-up that does the damage.Article contentArticle contentNobody outside the United States has any influence on how the political storm that is growing there comes out, but everybody has a stake in the outcome. Even an increasingly isolationist America that is descending into political chaos is still the world’s greatest military power and a major economic player. What happens there matters, but what should we hope for?Article content U.S. President Donald Trump Unsplash/Library of CongressArticle contentWhy you should hope Trump stays in officeArticle contentThe first principle is that we should all work to ensure that Trump remains in office for the remaining 42 months of his four-year term. He would only leave voluntarily if his entanglement in the Epstein affair grows so damning that he has to resign in order to be pardoned by his successor, President J.D. Vance, but that is not out of the question.Article contentThe great virtue of Trump as candidate for the role of first American dictator is that he’s not up to the job. The push towards a ‘soft fascist’ authoritarian system is real and quite rapid – the ever-growing ICE is emerging as his private army – but his instinctive preference for a state of chaos that maximises his options is not a sound foundation for a lasting dictatorship.Article contentAnother three-and-a-half-years of Trump freed from all the restraints that the ‘grown-ups’ put on him during his first term will probably do great damage to the US economy. However, it would also make it unlikely that either a chosen successor (or Trump himself, in defiance of the Constitution) could win the presidency in 2028.Article contentDemocracy in the United States can survive Donald Trump, and not just as a Hungarian-style ‘elective dictatorship’. The number of people who swallow all the lies is shocking and shaming, but they never exceed half the population. A democratic comeback is possible.Article contentArticle contentIt’s an incredible honor to take the oath of office as the 50th Vice President of the United States. I look forward to working alongside President Trump to serve the American people. Let’s Make America Great Again! pic.twitter.com/oLbHLQ0EhP— Vice President JD Vance (@VP) January 20, 2025Article contentOn the other hand, democracy in the United States would probably not survive a ‘President’ Vance who took power long enough before the 2028 election – whether by succession to a physically incapacitated or criminally implicated Trump or simply by a putsch – to rig the vote.Article contentArticle contentJust look at him. You know it’s true. So put up with Trump. Within limits, of course.Article contentWhere’s the line?Article contentThe limits would include any US invasion of a near-neighbour (Greenland, Panama, Canada), but the rest of the world has tacitly accepted US air-strikes on at least half-a-dozen distant countries in recent decades. Now is not the right time to get picky about it.Article contentNobody should condone the slow-motion genocide of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, but almost none of the other traditional democracies on the ‘West’ openly condemn it either.
GWYNNE DYER: How did Trump become the least bad outcome?
