# What kind of future president would it take to make Trump look good? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 19, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026 "2020-09-19T20:55:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/1 "2020-09-19T20:55:07Z")
During the Obama era, [many Republicans suddenly waxed nostalgic for the Bill Clinton era](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/04/miss-me-yet-george-w-bush-democrats/524175/), and during the Trump era, [many Democrats suddenly took a better view of George W. Bush.](https://newrepublic.com/article/157607/democrats-keep-embracing-george-w-bush) This, of course, was because Republicans felt Obama was worse than Clinton and Democrats feel Trump is worse than Bush. So - after Trump has left office, what kind of president would it take to make Trump and his presidency viewed in a more positive light? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/2 "2020-09-19T20:56:03Z")
Ann Coulter. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/3 "2020-09-19T21:00:34Z")
I don’t know but I’m kind of looking forward to finding out; they followed up GWB with DJT so who could possibly be next? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/4 "2020-09-19T21:08:46Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > during the Trump era, [many Democrats suddenly took a better view of George W. Bush.](https://newrepublic.com/article/157607/democrats-keep-embracing-george-w-bush) I disagree with this claim. I feel Democrats still see Bush as a bad President and his policies were generally wrong. We can do this while also recognizing that Trump is worse. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/5 "2020-09-19T21:10:21Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I don’t know but I’m kind of looking forward to finding out; they followed up GWB with DJT so who could possibly be next? Somebody as immoral as Trump but without his incompetence, laziness, and ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/6 "2020-09-19T21:16:41Z")
The second beast of Revelation would be a contender, if not Old Scratch himself. Basically we have Hitler though not at full power, in terms of human existence you don’t do much worse. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/7 "2020-09-19T21:18:53Z")
Hitler, Charles Manson, Adi Amin, Vlad the Impaler, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/8 "2020-09-19T21:33:32Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Somebody as immoral as Trump but without his incompetence, laziness, and ignorance. This. Someone with the skill and competence to _appear_ to be a “good guy” but who really isn’t. A villain with actual diplomatic skills. And someone who can offer something to everyone, so he isn’t limited to a base of only 1/3 of the people: someone who can make at least 50% of us grudgingly happy. An actual “uniter not a divider” with the unity being of a evil, greedy, harmful nature. To paraphrase Tolkien, someone who seems fair but is foul. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/9 "2020-09-19T21:41:28Z")
That’s Idi Amin. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/10 "2020-09-20T03:36:53Z")
Jim Jordan, probably because I’ve only ever seen him questioning people on various House committees and thus I’ve literally never seen him do anything at all except sneer at Democrats. How would that make Trump look good, you ask? Well, I guess maybe it wouldn’t, but I at least have the vague impression that Trump changes it up every once in a great while. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/11 "2020-09-20T07:49:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Somebody as immoral as Trump but without his incompetence, laziness, and ignorance. This might be Yoshihide Suga, new PM of Japan, perhaps. See this post I made in this forum a few days ago: > [@Yoshihide Suga: New PM of Japan](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoshihide-suga-new-pm-of-japan/920620): > > I don’t typically follow all the political news in Japan; however I came across this article today about Yoshihide Suga, the new Prime Minister of Japan. So I figured I should read it and be at least minimally aware of the political goings-on there. [Japan’s Ruthless New PM Is a Control Freak Who Muzzled the Press](https://news.yahoo.com/japan-ruthless-pm-control-freak-174849950.html), Jake Adelstein, The Daily Beast as republished at Yahoo News, Sept. 14, 2020. This article is highly critical of Suga (and Abe too), describing them (and especially Suga) as a ruthl… . . . ess control-freak, mired in corruption and scandal, with ties to yakuza, squelching the press and any reporters who ask too many questions, and likewise any bureaucrats who don’t toe his line. Also squelched a rape accusation against one of his buddies. Sounds to me a lot like the hypothetical “next Trump only competent” that we’ve worried about in other threads here. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/12 "2020-09-20T08:21:10Z")
To wax nostalgic about the Chump presidency would entail the US falling into a Khmer Rouge-like situation. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/13 "2020-09-20T16:24:11Z")
I was going to jokingly say the president in “Idiocracy”, but he at least listened to and followed the advice of an “expert”— to stop watering crops with Brawndo and use water. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/14 "2020-09-20T16:56:24Z")
Zombie James Buchanan rises from the grave, wins a second term, and is a major contributing factor to yet another civil war that kills 2% of Americans. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/15 "2020-09-20T19:25:01Z")
Kanye ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/16 "2020-09-20T21:43:19Z")
According to Bill Maher, maybe Donny’s father (the one on the right)? [![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/02/article-2303038-190D5688000005DC-562_634x369.jpg) ](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/02/article-2303038-190D5688000005DC-562_634x369.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/17 "2020-09-20T22:03:58Z")
In order to make the current so-called administration “look good”, you’re going to need no less than a Jonestown type situation. Minimum. And this current idiot has a situation not very far from that, anyway. The airplane with the congressman has just landed at the airfield, if you will. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/18 "2020-09-20T22:05:03Z")
A president who has all the bad qualities of Trump, but who is more guileful and more competent at pushing his nefarious agenda. Or, a president who has all the bad qualities of Trump, but who gets us into a huge war. Trump has done a significant amount of damage, but I think that, in some ways, his being a blundering idiot has limited the amount of damage he’s been able to do. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2020, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/19 "2020-09-20T23:55:51Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Or, a president who has all the bad qualities of Trump, but who gets us into a huge war. This. I know most people aren’t taking this thread seriously, but the answer is, simply, another war. Trump, for all his faults, has not been a warmonger at all. If he’s re-elected I don’t expect him to start being one. He just doesn’t seem to be interested in it. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2020, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026/20 "2020-09-21T01:22:40Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > I know most people aren’t taking this thread seriously, but the answer is, simply, another war. To take it even more seriously: Nothing, in a world where historians are allowed free expression, could made Donald J. Trump look good. Does James Polk make Trump look good because Polk was guilty of aggression against Mexico? Of course not. It just reminds us that there has been more than one bad U.S. president. Did Mao make Chiang Kai-shek look good? Of course not. Both were very bad leaders of China, even though Mao was worse. However, there is one kind of future president that could, at least inside the United States, make The Donald look good. It is a future dictator president who outlaws criticism of DJT. Consider: > [@](#): > > Given the right conditions, any society can turn against democracy. Indeed, if history is anything to go by, all societies eventually will. – [Anne Applebaum](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Applebaum) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-future-president-would-it-take-to-make-trump-look-good/921026.md?page=2)