We failed to see demons lurking beneath:
The buffoon, the grabber, the hoaxter, the thief.
The womanizer, scammer, self-aggrandizer;
The wannabe king, sultan, monarch, or Kaiser.
No consistency, compassion, dignity or predictability.
No couth, no virtue, no ethics or civility.
We bought a huckster with orange veneer:
A flim-flammer/hustler who’s seldom sincere.
His 2016 superpac was white nationalist alt-right
(like Bolton and Bibi: pro-apartheid).
DeVos insisted upon guns in our schools—
Glocks were her preferred educational tools.
Of brief tenure, his cabinet picks—
Their suggestions and guidance he’d summarily nix.
His cabinet was frustrated with undefined roles;
He backtracked and flip-flopped; lacked vision and goals.
We elected his image; we fell for his spiel.
He believed his high station was license to steal.
Master of tweets, failed deals, and deflection,
He intimidated by blaming, demeaning, and projection.
Regressive in policy (to enhance his own wealth),
To hell with education, or welfare or health.
He abandoned soy farmers—in the wind they were twisting.
He was out golfing. They were barely existing.
Our farmers had no Chinese orders to fill:
Xi rejected Trump’s tariffs and bought from Brazil.
Farmers went bankrupt; some were indeed jailed.
Their soy farms lay fallow, flooded or failed.
Corruption, obstruction, and abuse of power
Were plotted with glee in the lofty Trump Tower.
Trouble bubbled— a witch's brew
Of schemes and potions with his crew.
Bolton, Barr, Giuliani, and Pence
Fed advice to The Man, but failed to sense
His inherent dishonesty and duplicity,
His fraudulent behavior—his toxicity.
Each with dependent personality
Worshipped a shell empty of morality.
Each earnestly believed his career would rise
But was later disgraced in awkward demise.
I close my eyes and imagine his fate:
The law has caught up with this “chief of state.”
Allegations, investigations, indictments and court.
His flimsy defenses fall pathetically short.
Tax evasion, insurrection and illicit deals
Get him convicted; he loses appeals.
All 20 lawyers plus eager yes men
Cannot put Trumpty together again.
The disgraced ex-POTUS now sits on the ground.
Dejected and scowling, he looks all around.
Gone are his Russians and Twitter and pals.
Gone Air Force One, his toupee and gals.
Gone are his failures in immigration and trade.
Gone are golf weekend vacations (tax-paid).
Gone are his ego and hubris and bling.
Gone are high hopes to be emperor or king.
No more indictments or dead-end appeals,
Just doomed to the Yard and prison food meals.
We failed to examine his character within.
We overlooked his harmful tendencies therein.
We judged a book by its misleading cover.
Our country's resilient—let’s hope we’ll recover.
Our election candidates we must carefully vet
To identify problems we’d later regret.
—Will Walsh 2021