Time to Admit It: Trump Is a Great President. He’s Still Trying To Be a Good One.
The most consequential presidents divided the nation — before “reuniting it on a new level of understanding.”
By John F. Harris
01/21/2025 05:00 AM EST
John Harris is founding editor and global editor-in-chief of POLITICO. His Altitude column offers a regular perspective on politics in a moment of radical disruption.Donald J. Trump in his second inaugural address was everything his supporters hoped he would be: Breathtakingly expansive about his intention to reshape the vast federal government around his vision; raucously jingoistic in proclaiming that the country will do whatever it wants to advance its interests around the world; openly triumphal in asserting his belief that his survival from an assassin’s bullet and his victory show he is God’s chosen instrument to lead an American revival.
Trump was also everything his adversaries feared: Messianic in tone; lovingly protective of his grievances; wholly uncharitable to the people, sitting just feet from him under the Capitol Rotunda, who he defeated so convincingly.
In one light, it was all quite familiar.
But the second occasion of Trump taking the oath of office also put him in an entirely new light. For the first time, he is holding power under circumstances in which reasonable people cannot deny a basic fact:
He is the greatest American figure of his era.
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https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/21/harris-column-trump-great-president-00199564
