The Los Angeles Times blisteringly dissects the Trump 'train wreck,' in four chapters

President Trump is dissected by the L.A. Times, in four parts

(Image credit: Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

last updated 4 April 2017

The Los Angeles Times, like almost every other newspaper in America of any political leaning, did not endorse Donald Trump for president, calling him unprepared and unsuited for the job. On Sunday, the Times launched a four-day editorial assessment of how Trump is doing now that he has assumed the presidency, and it isn't glowing. "It was no secret during the campaign that Donald Trump was a narcissist and a demagogue who used fear and dishonesty to appeal to the worst in American voters," the Times editorial board began. "Still, nothing prepared us for the magnitude of this train wreck."

The editorialists said they had maintained a "slim hope" that Trump would become presidential, or at least hire people who would curb his worst impulses, but instead he has pursued a series of "immensely dangerous" policies that "threaten to weaken this country's moral standing in the world, imperil the planet, and reverse years of slow but steady gains by marginalized or impoverished Americans," providing some examples. But those "radically wrongheaded" polices aren't even "the most frightening aspect of the Trump presidency," the Times argued:

What is most worrisome about Trump is Trump himself. He is a man so unpredictable, so reckless, so petulant, so full of blind self-regard, so untethered to reality that it is impossible to know where his presidency will lead or how much damage he will do to our nation. His obsession with his own fame, wealth and success, his determination to vanquish enemies real and imagined, his craving for adulation — these traits were, of course, at the very heart of his scorched-earth outsider campaign; indeed, some of them helped get him elected. But in a real presidency in which he wields unimaginable power, they are nothing short of disastrous. [Los Angeles Times]

This is only part one. For each of the next three days, the Times says it will look at three distinct aspects of the Trump "train wreck": Trump's "shocking lack of respect for those fundamental rules and institutions on which our government is based," his "utter lack of regard for truth," and on Wednesday, his "scary willingness to repeat alt-right conspiracy theories, racist memes, and crackpot, out-of-the-mainstream ideas." You can read Part 1 and the subsequent three chapters at the Los Angels Times.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.