Has there ever been a person more damaging to America than Donald Trump?

[Poiuyt]

I was listening to the news this morning - still hearing about the Jan 6 anniversary - and I started to wonder if there has been single person who has been more damaging to America than Don Trump.

I'm not a historian, so I don't know about all the major figures in our past. But who else could it be? Benedict Arnold? Jefferson Davis? The Rosenburgs? Hell, even Richard Nixon did good things and he did love America. I can't think of anyone remotely close to Trump.

And this I know. We won't be rid of his influence until after he dies. (Note: I am in no way advocating for violence against Trump or anyone else)

[Walleye]

1. Correct. It's obvious that beating him at the ballot box, like they are saying we should do, doesn't work at all

[Botany]

2. Putin who recruited and groomed Trump in order to hurt and divide America

The damage is still on going today.

[Easterncedar]

12. Took the words out of my mouth

The people running Trump are the real danger

[Botany]

16. Part of the largest crime and national/international mob in history and Trump was a willing part in that

… world wide mafia from even before he was elected. Look at the changes to the 2016 RNC
platform to help Putin and hurt Ukraine and how the GOP is working to weaken Ukraine and
help Putin right now.

[Lonestarblue]

57. The writers of Project 2025 have laid out a dystopian future for a dictator and a hobbled government serving one person.

Donald Trump.

[Deuxcents]

3. In a word, no.

[world wide wally]

55. That is the short answer.

Add a period.

[Beakybird]

4. Trump will be defeated and then replaced by another sinister man.

He's a product of this post-truth era where people can seek news from whoever conforms to their prejudices and predispositions.

[chicoescuela]

8. You are correct. tfg is only the warm up act.

[Poiuyt]

22. I haven't seen anyone who has the same perverse charisma that Trump has.

Say what you will about him, but he does know how to command a room.

[Beakybird]

25. Putin is a leader in a post-truth society. You don't need charisma. You just need a perceived crisis.

[TSExile]

5. In a word, no.

Has anyone divided more families than he has? I am talking both literally (migrant families at the border) and figuratively (family members who have wildly differing views on him). He is poison!!

[JanMichael]

6. Andrew Jackson is certainly a competitor. Indian Removal Act?

He wasn't just a talker.

[ITAL]

27. That was more a symptom of the times than Jackson

Settlers wanted the land. If it wasn't Jackson, it would have been the next populist westerner.

[Runningdawg]

60. BINGO! It's not a coincidence both TFG and Hitler admired him.

[MerrilyMerrily]

7. Father Coughlin and Sen. Joe McCarthy deserve consideration.

Both did lasting damage, thanks to supporters who persisted in believing them and passed on their garbage to the next generations.

Btw, hello everybody! Been a lurker a very long time, finally signed up.

[TwilightZone]

14. Welcome to DU.

I'd agree on both counts. I'm a bit surprised that we don't hear more about Coughlin, considering the current political climate, for the steady diet of fascism and antisemitism that he fed to tens of millions of Americans. It seems that we're living in "It Can't Happen Here" redux.

[MerrilyMerrily]

17. Thanks TZ - and I agree with you, it's surprising. nt

[Poiuyt]

23. Welcome to DU!

[MerrilyMerrily]

44. Thanks! Glad to be here. nt

[LetMyPeopleVote]

48. Welcome to DU

[dalton99a]

9. As a traitor, Trump is in a league of his own

The piece of shit is orders of magnitude worse and more destructive than anyone alive or dead

[leftyladyfrommo]

58. Boy, that's the truth. I just keep getting

flabbergasted at this continuing forever saga.

[Initech]

10. Rupert Murdoch

The current GOP are basically content creators for Fox News and that's about it. They're not there to do any actual work, they're there to do whatever Murdoch tells them to.

[Ferryboat]

36. Murdoch media empire is a huge factor

Banned in Australia his home. Running amok in Britain but held to account on occasion.

Free run in America.
Where his impact is boundless. Morons buy it hook line and sinker.

[Initech]

49. Yup, Murdoch's bullshit will be around for generations long after Trump is gone.

Trump is but a mere symptom of a much greater problem - the right wing propaganda sphere. When Trump is gone, they'll find someone newer and scarier.

[IA8IT]

41. Rupert's Rabies

[brush]

51. Absolutely. Murdoch has been extremely destructive and damaging to the nation.

And FOX and his other winger media outlets keep spewing winger crap 24/7. I don't get how his outlets are legally allowed to spew lies over the airwaves and printed pages.

[Kid Berwyn]

11. Bush Family Evil Empire

ETA: Each member has advanced the fascist or white supremacist cause. Recent generations have seen a US Senator, his son a President of the United States (following 2 terms of the almost-assassinated Ronald Reagan), and grandson a 2-term POTUS.

From the Merchants of Death making money off the Civil War and Spanish-American War through World Wars I and II to Vietnam-Panama-Iraq-Afghanistan to the present day.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3743890

[Emile]

13. No, but Rush Limbaugh did his part too.

[Tumbulu]

31. I believe that without Rush, T would never have decided

to milk these brainwashed fools for all they have got.

I see T as the opportunist that swooped in to lead the crowd where they were already headed.

And the crowd existed because of the decades of the propaganda campaign led by Rush. And those who funded him.

[TwilightZone]

45. Trump was triggered by the 2011 Correspondence Dinner.

That was the beginning of the end, though, as you noted, the audience was already there.

[Tumbulu]

61. I agree with you that that was his trigger

But he saw the base created by the hate am radio personalities let by Limbaugh for so many decades and decided to grab them and take us all on this hellish ride that never seems to stop.

[Cha]

15. Not imo and the Traitor is Not finished yet.

[Basic LA]

18. Willing to destroy democracy with a lie.

Having the ego to cynically destroy America's faith in voting. That's a new one.

[leftyladyfrommo]

59. And to just do it for no good reason. It's appalling. nt

[D23MIURG23]

19. Jefferson Davis.

I have Trump at #2.

[brush]

53. I would add Robert E. Lee too. He was offered command of the Union Army but chose to side with the confederates.

Nothing but a traitor who got his ass kicked by Grant once Lincoln finally realized that the general in western theater knew how to defeat the rebels.

[H2O Man]

20. No.

There hasn't been. And there have been many horrible people.

[sinkingfeeling]

21. Not in my lifetime.

[MistakenLamb]

24. the secessionist southerners

[kimbutgar]

26. No

I never liked him and was shocked he was elected and even more shocked he has zombie like followers.

The fact that his zombie supporters would qive up family, friends, and other acquaintances to defend him is scary and sad.

[louis-t]

28. His worshipers will riot and kill if he is jailed.

They will riot and kill if he loses the election. They will riot and kill if he wins the election. We're kinds screwed no matter what.

[mucifer]

29. andrew johnson was awful. I wonder what the USA would be like after the

civil war if President Lincoln had a better VP.

[JT45242]

30. Murdoch. The Koch boys. The federalist society. Alito

We never get to TFG without them.

Had the Dems gone after Reagan and Bush when they found proof of money going through Baker to the Iranians then TFG would just be a failed businessman.

Oh yeah, the tax auditors who should have locked him and his old man up decades ago.

TFG is a symptom of a larger problem of crony capitalism and plutocracy that goes back to Morgan, Carnegie, and the other robber barons.

[LonePirate]

32. I regret that I will not be alive in 2124 to see how history has judged that traitor as it will be very harsh.

[Tumbulu]

33. Without those who funded Limbaugh T would not

have been able to swoop in and take the lead.

The masses of people who he calls his base were created by the 3 + decade talk radio propaganda campaign funded by the republican donors. They made the monster, and now the monster has eaten them. And is still poised to take the rest of the nation with him.

[walkingman]

34. I think Trump is the worst for America in my lifetime but

George "W" is a close second and as a Texan W's legacy here has affected my family and friends worse. He is responsible for the last 30 years of political insanity here in Texas. There is a direct connection to him as Texas Gov. to Cornyn, Cruz, Perry, Abbott, Paxton and tens of others now serving in Texas government.

Trump and his supporters are evil by any measure. They are about as anti-American as any in US history.

[Warpy]

35. Maybe John Eastman

TFG was way too stupid to have thought up the J6 plot all by himself. He'd have spent the next years sending lawyers desperate for work and with no scruples into courtrooms with "evidence" consisting of copies of blogs by unidentified randos who disappeared and couldn't be contacted to testify under oath. He'd have been laughed out, sanctioned, and sent packing without much of a fuss.

Eastman turned him from a total buffoon to a credible threat.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

37. Can't think of anyone.

[StoolPigeon]

38. My vote would be Sirhan Sirhan

If we could have had President Bobby Kennedy instead of Nixon, the world would be a very different place.

[SlimJimmy]

39. I'll have to go with Jefferson Davis. But the orange man is a close number two.

[dlk]

40. Leonard Leo

[Model35mech]

50. THIS

absolutely right about that.

He and the other radical Catholics have used the Federalist Society to destroy nopartisan courts.

[dlk]

63. Actually, Leonard Leo and Rupert Murdoch

Those two have done more to destroy America than most people realize.

[Emile]

42. Trump is the worst of all. He orchestrated an insurrection against

the United States of America. I don't know of anything worse in our history than this.

[betsuni]

43. The Onion predicted this:

Said it before, I think Trump is some sort of supernatural creature.

[dalton99a]

46. +1. A giant orange blob from Hell

[limbicnuminousity]

47. William Trent

Small pox blankets.

Thomas Perron- surgeon general overseeing Tuskegee experiment.

[lastlib]

52. Ronald Reagan, James Buchanan, and Roger B. Taney---

(author of the horrendous Dred Scott decision).
Robert E. Lee did his share, but not in the big leagues with the others.

[SocialDemocrat61]

54. Nixon

He set the pattern of today’s Republican Party.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

56. J Edgar Hoover would be up there.

But still not as bad as TFG.

[DemocraticPatriot]

62. NO. Full stop.

Even within the traitorous southern Confederacy which opened fire and made war upon the American flag,

there was no single person more damaging to America than Donald tRump....

[liberalmediaaddict]

64. Definitely within the United States

There's been no single American citizen who's done more damage to America than Trump. He's the very definition of the enemy within.

Foreign enemies like Hitler, Bin Laden and Putin were worse.

And outside media moguls like Murdoch have done more damage to America than we'll ever know.

But Trump has been a unique and sustained domestic terror threat to our country for 8 years and will be until the day he dies.