Ignorant Trump must be dumped

It is almost a year since Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th US president. Will he last another 12 months? Day after tumultuous day since January 20 2017, Trump has provided fresh evidence of his unfitness for the US’s highest office. It is not only that his politics and policies, from tax cuts and climate change to Palestine and nuclear weapons, are disastrously wrong-headed.

It is not just that his idea of leadership is divisive, confrontational and irresponsible. Nor does the problem lie solely with his blatant racism, misogyny and chauvinism, though these are indeed massive problems.

His latest foul-mouthed outrage — describing developing countries as “sh**holes” — is appalling even by his crude standards.

The fundamental failing underlying his presidency is his wilful ignorance. Trump’s frequently petulant, childish behaviour combines with a staggering lack of knowledge and contempt for facts to produce serial, chronic misjudgments. Trump, in power, cannot be trusted. He has been exposed as lacking in empathy, mendacious, cynical and unversed or uninterested in the enduring human and constitutional values his office is sworn to uphold.

Trump is the first and hopefully the last of his kind: an anti-American president. He is a disgrace and a danger to his country. The sooner he is sent packing, the better.

How much longer will Americans tolerate his embarrassing presence in the White House? His tenancy runs until November 2020, when he could seek a second term. But the problem is getting worse, not better. A series of scenarios, fuelled by his endlessly damaging, unacceptable words and actions, is beginning to unfold that could bring about his early departure.

Is this dysfunction evidence of an unhinged personality, as many people suggest?

Rather than invoking the 25th amendment and dumping Trump, it would be better if he was held responsible for his actions. London, January 14