In 1976, a fleet of tall ships sailed into New York Harbour to commemorate the 200th birthday of the founding of America. It was a stunning sight. Gerald Ford was US president, having replaced the disgraced Richard Nixon. The nation, still reeling from the Watergate scandal, held Bicentennial parades and celebrations all year. America began to feel better about itself.
Today, America’s 250th anniversary celebrations, culminating on Independence Day, 4 July, are in the hands of Donald Trump. There has been a cage fight on the White House lawn, a tawdry Trump rally on the National Mall and historic Washington looks like a tacky building site.
Trump’s Vice President, JD Vance, had this to say about Nixon, while promoting his book on religion, Communion: “If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.”
Vance is right, isn’t he? His boss has survived so many potential career-ending scandals that Nixon’s crimes seem trifling by comparison. The current US President would probably have brushed off the Watergate burglary, insisted it was all a radical Democrat “hoax” and sent the leakers to prison, if he could.
Trump arrived in Washington for his first presidency in 2016 promising to “drain the swamp”. The algae-ridden, paint-peeling reflecting pool by the Lincoln Memorial is the perfect metaphor for what has happened since. Were Trump to look into the pool, like Narcissus, he would see the rot at the heart of his administration reflected back at him.
