By Emmanuel Espinal
January 20, 2021

Today the words "You're Fired!", by We the People, were finally executed and the end of the Trump Error, yes the Trump Error not Era, was sealed as Trump departed from the White House. After four years in which the flags of Democracy were flown at half staff, they were raised as Joe Biden raised his right hand, took the oath and was inaugurated the 46th President of the United States of America. The efforts of movements like Black Lives Matter and the Lincoln Project, mobilizations and voter empowerment in key states as the one led by Stacey Abrams as well as the women and Latino votes were all instrumental in securing a Biden victory.

Four years of lies, divisiveness and corrupt narratives from the ultimate white privileged con man and sore loser that was driving a stake through the heart of the U.S. Let us not forget the approximate 30,000 lies he tried to pass on as truths to benefit his own personal agendas and not the necessities of the people he swore he would work for. Trump made it his purpose to break the stitches of the wounds at the seams of this unfinished nation that were stitched to maintain it breathing and walking the road toward a true Republic for all. Leaving it convalescent and struggling to breath. Sadly, Trump leaves us a sick nation, figuratively and literally, with a ravishing virus in COVID-19 and white supremacy. Let us not forget his responsibility in the 400,000 souls that died from the virus and the five that died on the 6th of January at the Capitol.

An indictment of a presidency are the accomplishments achieved while in office of the promises made. Unfortunately like most of all his endeavors, Trump’s presidency was a failure. During the campaign he promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, he did neither and did not even put forward a plan to replace it. He promised his followers an impenetrable border wall that would be paid for by Mexico; he constructed a couple of miles of scalable wall paid for by taxpayers. He spoke about an infrastructure bill, manufacturing factories returning back to the U.S. and even cutting social security (something his followers were for), yet none were accomplished under his four years. The only campaign promises Trump was able to accomplish were the defunding of Planned Parenthood and pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord. Not much that we can say other than he failed under his own standard—a friendly reminder for his followers to keep in mind historically, that the experiment to drain the swamp was riddled with issues and eventually failed.

Luckily, the power of the pen will undue most of these (policies) swiftly as Biden will sign executive orders to reverse or change many of the Trump mandates. A few of them include rejoining the World Health Organization and Paris climate accord, the ban on Muslim travelers, halting the construction of the border wall, preservation of DACA and halting of deportations. Let this just be a historical snapshot for reference if it needs to be remembered in 2024 so that we do not commit the same mistake again. The saying states, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."