Me, the Trump. Not, We, the People.
B. Jay Cooper argues Donald Trump’s election claims, personal branding and political tactics are eroding presidential credibility and leaving a difficult democratic repair job for his successor.
🔍 WHY THIS STORY MATTERS
Trust in presidential statements and election integrity affects democratic stability, international confidence and the ability of future US leaders to communicate credibly during wars, economic emergencies and other national crises.
KEY TAKEAWAYS...
● Repeated false election claims are weakening public trust in the presidency and American democratic institutions.
● Broadcasters’ decision not to carry a Trump election-security address live illustrates declining confidence in presidential communications.
● Political leadership has become increasingly personalised at the expense of public service.
● A future president will inherit the challenge of rebuilding domestic and international confidence in US institutions.
E veryone, even most of the Republican Party, knows President Trump lies about most everything including the 2020 election results. Let’s talk bigger picture.
President Trump is destroying the credibility of the United States among our long-time allies, among our citizenry and, importantly, of the presidency. And, an entire generation of voters is being taught not to listen to what a President says because, in advance, we know it won’t be the truth.
The fact that a President of the United States can announce an address to the nation and no one – except his most loyal of cable channels – covered it is destroying, too, the ability of the President to say, “this is important. Pay attention. I have important news about the United States – be it war or the state of the economy.”
And no one can listen to what he says because the networks and cable news, in advance, said: since we know he’s going to lie, we won’t broadcast it live, but we will cover anything newsworthy.
Sensible news coverage? I think so. If a president, any president, is not making news, why cover it?
What does that generation think, then, when they are older? The presidency is just another office, not one they should pay attention to?
The only legacy this President cares about is putting his name on anything and everything – from savings accounts for children to the Kennedy Center, to a gold coin and almost anything else. He can’t wait patiently to win that recognition based on what he does because he knows it likely won’t happen, so he’ll do it himself. As he did with Trump Vodka, Trump University, Trump Airlines and other failed products.
He had every right to do that when he was in the private sector. He doesn’t now.
It truly all is about him, not us.
What does the next President – and there will be a next President – do to regain that credibility? Who is that man or woman who not only is capable of running this country and its foreign policy but also can talk, with credibility, about our daily lives? About the legitimate threats we face?
He talked that night (apparently, because I couldn’t find a place to listen to him) about election security. His spokesperson announced in advance that he had “shocking” things to say about it.
He didn’t.
He released information that we mostly all knew before, putting his “spin” on it that it threatens the legitimacy of our elections. It hasn’t, and it doesn’t.
He provided no proof that any election was affected by any tampering. Because that proof doesn’t exist. Why doesn’t it exist? Because it has never happened.
It wasn’t enough that he called the Georgia Secretary of State a few years ago demanding he find enough votes for him to win Georgia; now he is using, at best, innuendo to damn our election process that had made the United States the envy of the world, insulting every elected official responsible – Democrat and Republican for overseeing free and fair elections.
If our elections are so manipulated by cheaters – how did he win?
How did the Republican Party gain control of both the House and Senate?
If the evil Deep State, the media and others conspired to screw the GOP, wouldn’t the GOP be screwed? But it isn’t. The GOP controls every lever of government, including the Supreme Court. Where are the fruits of this “cheating?”
In doing so, he never mentioned that as President, as The New York Times reported, he has: “…(dismantled) the election protections built up over previous years. The FBI’s task force on foreign influence was shut down, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence sharply cut back a task force that warned against foreign meddling and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency gutted. And, Mr. Trump has appointed an heir to a housing fortune with no relevant experience as the interim director of national intelligence.”
If there is evidence of foreign meddling, why gut the agencies responsible for uncovering and protecting against that meddling?
Do other countries try to influence our elections?
Duh, yes.
But not by invading our voting machines or adding votes to their favored candidate. They do it by gaining access to publicly available information to target their disinformation efforts at our voters.
My friends, that’s what the major political parties do, too.
This isn’t all Mr. Trump’s fault, though much of the responsibility can be laid at his door.
Former President Joe Biden contributed to our political world by not doing what he said he’d do – serve as a President who will get us back to “normal” and then not seek re-election. He promised to be a transition president, a one-term president. But he didn’t keep that promise. He, too, convinced himself only he could beat Trump. Even he, he thought, was above our system.
Mr. Trump was elected President because he had the good fortune of running against a flawed candidate (Hillary Clinton) and by Biden deciding too late that he was too old to run. A decision he was only forced into.
The only candidate Donald Trump could have defeated in 2016 was Hillary Clinton. The only way he won in 2024 was because President Biden created the political environment for him to win.
Has Mr. Trump done some good things? Probably. Illegal immigration is down, though one can certainly question the tactics he’s using. One can mourn the lives of those immigrants who did everything the right way, but still were gunned down by thugs hired to supposedly protect us from the “worst of the worst.”
You may not agree with every policy he’s brought to our country but he won the election(s) and that’s how our system works. It’s the tactics that he has introduced to our country, the damage he has done to the United States’ credibility that is the problem. It is the conspiracy theories he foments and spreads.
And that we, in a couple of years, must deal with, with whoever the next President is.
He does not look at legacy as, am I leaving our citizens in better shape than they I found them? His legacy is how that we must correct all the damage he has done to our country, internationally and domestically. To our system.
His approval rating is down to, basically, his base of voters, people who want their lives made better, not more violent, people who want their children to be better off than they were. But who, for some reason, support the very man in the way of that progress. Who, for some reason, believe he is telling the truth.
That’s the measure, the legacy, of a President. We’ve had some succeed at that, some fail.
He’s failing. And because of his failures, our system is being undermined by a man who cares only about “Me, the Trump.”
Not We, the People.
🔮 WHAT MATTERS NEXT...
🎯 WHAT TO WATCH NEXT:
● Whether election security remains central to Republican messaging before November’s midterm elections.
● Congressional action on proposed voter-identification, citizenship and postal-voting restrictions.
● Further changes to federal agencies responsible for countering election interference and disinformation.
● Whether presidential approval and public confidence in US institutions deteriorate further before the midterms.
🎯 MOST LIKELY OUTCOME:
● Disputes over election legitimacy will remain politically prominent, while confidence in presidential communications and democratic institutions will recover slowly, if at all, before the next election.
🎯 WHAT COULD CHANGE THE PICTURE:
● Credible evidence of vote manipulation, or a substantial bipartisan agreement protecting election administration, would materially alter the political and institutional debate.
🎯 WHY THIS MATTERS:
● Public confidence in elections and presidential communications determines whether future US leaders can govern effectively and secure acceptance of legitimate electoral outcomes.
GOING FURTHER
Takeaways from Trump’s address claiming election vulnerabilities | The New York Times
Trump says these documents prove his false claims of election fraud. Here’s what they really say | Associated Press
Declassified documents touted by Trump say election systems would be difficult to manipulate | ABC News
Trump speech alleges election-security vulnerabilities but does not substantiate the claims | The Washington Post
Trump says ABC and NBC licences should be revoked after networks decline to carry speech | The Washington Post
Trump delivers conspiracy-tinged speech on US elections and accuses China of interference | Le Monde
What Trump’s newly declassified documents do and don’t say about threats to US elections | CNN
Trump approval remains in the 30s amid pessimism over the economy and Iran | The Washington Post
Sources:
▪ This piece was first published in The Screaming Moderate and re-published in Europeans TODAY on 6 August 2026 under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. | The author writes in a personal capacity.
▪ Cover: Dreamstime/KORWEN.
