It’s hard to reduce to a word or phrase the trail of destruction U.S. President Donald Trump leaves in his wake as he exits the world stage. And while it would be tempting for allies to write him off as an anomaly and for adversaries to hold him up as a cautionary tale of the American experiment, Trump gifted the world two particular things that, collectively, make his imprint on it more profound.
First, he turbocharged a global ecosystem of disinformation and fascist conspiracy theories that are increasingly making large swaths of the world’s population immune to the rule of law. And second, he yanked the world’s policeman off the beat. Neither will change when President-elect Joe Biden takes the oath of office on Wednesday.
