As if unwilling to let George W. Bush retain the honor of the worst modern US president, Donald Trump’s final year in office seemed like a sprint to cause as much damage as possible. The conspiracy theorizing, the brazen dishonesty, the manic egomania, the borderline authoritarianism — all collided with a global pandemic and the second breakdown of global capitalism in a little more than ten years to create mass suffering and death.

The consequences of Trump’s tenure go well beyond the United States. As the leader of the world’s dominant superpower, he influenced countless far-right figures in countries from Hungary to India to Brazil. He inspired reactionary movements and antidemocratic rollbacks. His decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement threatens the very health of the planet, nixing even the most minimal minor steps to avert climate catastrophe.

All this to say we are better off seeing the back of him. To the extent that individuals matter in politics, Trump and his apparatchiks managed to do a lot of damage in a remarkably short period of time — limited if at all largely by their own incompetence, greed, and stupidity.