If he’d never entered politics, Trump would have lived out his wretched life as a low-level public nuisance, laundering money for oligarchs and mobsters, bribing public officials, evading taxes, abusing women, bullying and cheating defenseless laborers and contractors with the power of his wealth, and parading his ostentatious bad taste in the media.

The worst—the very worst—thing that could have happened to such a malignant personality was the 2016 election, feeding his sense of personal grandeur at his glorious victory while handing him the prodigious powers of the U. S. presidency with which to do further mischief. The result was predictable and gruesome. We are still paying the price for this egregious blunder, and will continue to pay it long after (if ever) he is gone.