Mr. President, You Did This to Yourself
By: Gabe Sullivan
Tags: Joe Biden, Opinion, Donald Trump, Election 2020, Politics

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Read the original version of this story, published here.

It’s February 2020. President Donald Trump has been impeached by the United States House of Representatives and acquitted by the Senate. The dangers of the coronavirus are only a vague whisper heard by few. President Trump’s reëlection chances are looking good. The economy is strong, the S&P 500 was at record highs. The year, no, the decade, appeared to be starting off extremely well. Joe Biden was the Democratic front-runner, but he had yet to secure his nomination. It was pretty clear he was the perfect example of the establishment: old, white, and a politician with decades of experience.

President Trump had little in his way. The chants of “Four More Years” emanating from the GOP during his State of the Union address in February seemed to be a prophesy. The Democrats held onto the House, but in every other manner, appeared to be dividing themselves.

But now, it’s nearly 2 weeks after the electoral college met to vote on December 14th, which officially (mostly, considering Congress still needs to count the votes in early January) declared Joe Biden as the President-elect. Still, the President continues to declare fowl-play, accusing Biden of using voter fraud to ‘steal’ the election from him. Perhaps if a person was not aware of the events between that February State of the Union and November 3rd, they might believe that Trump’s lose was impossible, because, quite frankly, it was.

But those events did happen, and Trump’s failure in the election was due to one person: Trump himself.

Many might point out the coronavirus pandemic as the reason for the President’s downfall. But this position may be ill-founded. In fact, Trump was presented with the perfect opportunity to garner support. Much like the Great Depression and World War II, both disasters of which allowed Franklin Delano Roosevelt to be portrayed as a triümphant hero, the coronavirus outbreak gave Trump the opportunity to “save” the country. However, Trump failed to portray himself this way.

By refusing to avidly support masks, he gave news organizations easy stories. Yes, he didn’t necessarily need to wear a mask. He, and all of his staff were tested several times a week. However, by not wearing a mask, he made mask-wearing political. Supporters were portrayed by news media as ignorant, people who couldn’t care any less about other people’s health. If President Trump had instead praised mask-wearing before it was too late, perhaps mask-wearing wouldn’t have been such a taboo topic.

President Trump also allowed the media to focus on him. Instead of shifting the spotlight onto how the individual state governors handled the virus, he sparred with journalists in press briefings.

And this continued into the Black Lives Matter protests and riots that filled the summer. Trump took the ‘Law and Order’ position, but he allowed the media to portray him as an authoritarian and brutal dictator. He tear-gassed protestors for a photo in front of a church, he used charged language when describing protestors and rioters. None of these things did anything but drive voters away.

Very few people voted for Biden because they like Biden. He’s an old, exhausted career politician who has historically done lickety-split, even so when compared to legislation passed versus time spent as a public servant. His campaign even framed Biden vs. Trump as the “Battle for the Soul of the Nation.” Biden wasn’t the ideal choice, everybody knew that. But he was the alternative.

Instead, much like 2016, people voted against Trump. Trump gave people every reason not to vote for him. He acted unpresidential, he attacked his political opponents unlike anybody else, and he embarrassed the United States, at least from the position of a Democrat.

In terms of supporting the conservative agenda, Trump has been a very good president. But in terms of presenting himself as a reliable figure, he has not.

During the debates, he confirmed everything his opponents believed about them, and gave them audio clips for their commercials. His comments on the Proud Boys, although they appeared to be well intentioned, gave activists the opportunity to frame him as a white supremacist, whether he is or not.

Trump has historically shifted blame to others. The Congress, the bureaucracies, his opponents, his foreign adversaries. Some of these were made correctly, some of them were not. But if there is one instigator for the failure of his reëlection, for ruining his perfect opportunity to serve four more years, for letting the media take advantage of him, and for allowing the Democrats to portray Biden as the savior, that instigator, is Trump himself.