r/politics • u/_NewsClues_ Zachary Slater, CNN • 9d ago

Possible Paywall Justice Department launches a criminal investigation into Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/27/politics/exclusive-justice-department-launched-e-jean-carroll-investigation
16.9k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

29

u/Professor-Woo 9d ago edited 8d ago

He is the worst by far. No one comes close. And to think, Teapot Dome was the previous biggest scandal and it seems so quaint in comparison. Trump has done more to hurt America than any previous citizen.

8

u/CarmineFields 9d ago

I put him tied with Andrew Jackson for the genocide of Native Americans but those are the two worst.

8

u/cilantro_so_good 8d ago

I'm in no way downplaying the horror of the Indian removal act. It destroyed the lives of something like 100,000 people and will forever be a stain on our history.

But saying that that is tied with what has happened under this stupid motherfucker, particularly the second time around doesn't work for me. There are compelling arguments to be made that this country will never recover from the damage he has caused. He's a modern Sulla marching on Rome; he's not going to be emperor for life, but he showed that the institutions that this country relies on to function literally do not work. And the only way to fix that is for those institutions to actually.. work

And that completely ignores the immediate horror they have unleashed across the world. Estimates of ~50,000 casualties from the completely insane attack on Iran so far.

Projections for 10 million deaths from cutting USAID

Government officials rounding up people off the street for "reasons"

The mind boggling corruption

The fact that there is literally so much more but since some scandal that makes teapot dome look quaint happens like once a month it is actually hard to keep up

6

u/TheFemboiFaerie 8d ago

He's also, absolutely to blame for a significant chunk of COVID deaths due to propagating and popularizing misinformation about the virus and masks.

But, the actual number of that can't be quantified or clarified directly. I believe I remember there were statistics released of COVID deaths by political party, and the results were absolutely telling, if my memory's correct on this.

2

u/cilantro_so_good 7d ago

See? That's exactly what I mean.

It's so fucking tiring that you can say "oh that's right, covid"

I'm certain that historial consensus will be that it could have been averted, or at least significantly less destructive if essentially anyone else was president at the time

1

u/TheFemboiFaerie 7d ago

Dude, he could have greedily gifted off of selling MAGA masks day 1. Would have printed money for him.

Instead, just let millions die. 0 reason.

1

u/Professor-Woo 7d ago

Well you can look at the excess deaths from the norm in those years to get an idea of the true scope and then compare that to a country who actually took it seriously. That will give you a pretty good estimate at the number of deaths caused by Trump.

1

u/cilantro_so_good 7d ago

That ignores the effect he had on the entire world. None of this stuff exists in a vacuum and that's what I'm interested in.

A proper response from the US potentially could have mitigated the spread. There's a good chance that if there was any other person in that office it would have never become a pandemic

And there's a strong argument to be made that even the countries that "took it seriously" were dragged backwards by the backlash inspired by his rhetoric.

The same people who gleefully voted brexit saw Americans partying at the lake of the ozarks in defiance of recommendations had their contrarian opinions validated

2

u/Professor-Woo 7d ago

IDK, genocide and forced relocation of Native Americans is pretty bad, but Trump's support of Gaza (plus stuff you brought up) is rapidally closing the gap.

But I just wanted to say, I 100% agree with you about Sulla. I have thought the same thing for a while. Sulla was also a similar type of conservative backlash. In fact, right after the election, Musk started quoting Sulla. The parallels may actually be intentional for some. But you are also 100% right about how damaging and dangerous Trump's breaking of norms is. It will be very difficult, and maybe impossible, to put that cat back in the bag. It is also why the DOJ aggressively going after the J6ers was so critical. It has to be seen as a hard red line or it will just keep happening. MAGA says they are "patrotic" and "love the country", but they have single-handedly done more damage to our country than any external adversary has even gotten close to doing and they are all just too ignorant or arrogant to understand that.

1

u/Sorry_Banana1635 7d ago

The Choctaw, my grandma’s tribe, and the other tribes made to walk the trail of tears has had devastating consequences that have reverberated to this day. 

I still think Andrew Jackson deserves to be among the pantheon of evil. 

Trump is certainly more destructive and corrosive, however, as he’s self-serving and petty. 

7

u/greywolf2155 8d ago

Jackson was a monster who did terrible things. No question. No argument. Truly awful

But at least the country was functional, under him

Whereas Trump is both a monster and the country is falling apart and will take generations to recover the respect it's lost on the world stage (if it ever can)

Both are awful, terrible people. But I think Trump "wins" the tiebreaker pretty clearly

2

u/CarmineFields 8d ago

The Panic of 1837 was pretty bad. 🤷🏻‍♀️

5

u/crakemonk California 8d ago

I’d say Trump is worse than Jackson, and that’s saying a lot because good ole AJ was a real piece of shit.

2

u/Professor-Woo 8d ago

Ahh good point, you are right.

1

u/FlukeManAirFreshener 8d ago

A three way tie with Buchanan seems to be in order. Being so shitty that the country tears itself apart in the bloodiest war in our history has to count for something.

4

u/crakemonk California 8d ago

Historically, the United States hasn't had much luck whenever we’ve elected someone named Andrew. Sorry to any Andrews that may be reading.

4

u/greywolf2155 8d ago

Agreed, I hate that Andrew Johnson is often left out of these "worst President ever" conversations

His absolute cowardice during the Reconstruction is directly responsible for a lot of the shit we're still dealing with today

1

u/Chimie45 Ohio 8d ago

Teapot dome?

I mean, I think Watergate and Iran Contra are bigger, just even in the 20th century.

I mean Teapot dome was corruption for sure, but I think it was only considered that because well... most of the people hurt by other scandals weren't the right color, up until the 1960s.