The last days of Trump's presidency were even worse than expected (Analysis)

Trump calls polls that do not favor him false 0:41

(CNN) -

Donald Trump's final days as president were characterized by near total chaos, as House Democrats mobilized to initiate impeachment for his action (and inaction) during the unrest in the United States. January 6 at the United States Capitol, even as the future former president tried to use the power of his office to settle scores and reward people loyal to him.

Yet even in the midst of those last wild days, there was a feeling that, as bad as all we could see was, there were even worse things happening behind closed doors that would not be made public until Trump left office. charge, and the real journalistic dig will begin.

Which brings me to Tuesday, when two highly anticipated books on Trump were released: "Frankly We Did Win This Election" by Michael Bender and "Landslide" by Michael Wolff and a third book, "I Alone Can Fix It, "by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, due out in seven days.

• ANALYSIS |

  Disconnected from reality, Trump continually lies about the 2020 election at the CPAC conference

All three books focus on Trump's final year in office.

And all three present what can be described as a terrifying image of a president consumed by hatred and unwilling to even consider the limits his predecessors imposed on themselves in office.

The stories that have already emerged paint a terrifying picture. Trump calling for the execution of the leaker who had been taken to the White House bunker while Black Lives Matter protesters marched through the streets of Washington following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. His explosive reaction when Arizona was claimed by Joe Biden on election night. Trump raging at then Attorney General Bill Barr for the (non-existent) electoral fraud. A shouting match between Trump and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, over the proper response to the BLM protests that engulfed the country in the summer of 2020.

There are more stories that have emerged from these books.

And there will be even more once readers - and journalists - get their hands on the hard copies and can do their own research on Trump's last days.

But these stories also present a problem: each is, yes, gruesome.

But the nature of our news cycle is such that even as I was writing this article, I had a hard time remembering the individual stories that had already come out about the books.

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The stories that come out of these books, which are published to arouse excitement and, more importantly, pre-release sales, tend to be fleeting, shining for a brief moment when the entire political universe looks at them, but quickly fading into the vastness of our broader news consumption.

That is why it is important not to get sucked into any revelation that has emerged or will emerge from these books and instead to step back and see the larger reality that is being painted here.

And that reality is the following:

• Faced with a public health crisis unique in the century, Donald Trump not only mishandled some of the basics (rapid tests for covid-19, wearing face masks) but also actively worked to undermine public confidence in them. physicians, epidemiologists, and public health experts who were working to keep Americans safe.

• Unable to accept that he had lost the election, Trump tried to use the official powers of the government, including the Justice Department, to try to find nonexistent evidence of fraud. It created an environment in which a large section of Americans believed this Big Lie about the election and then not only incited the crowd on January 6, but stood by for hours as they looted the Capitol.

• Trump, who repeatedly told crowds during the campaign that he had done more for blacks than any other president since Abraham Lincoln, understood neither the gravity nor the goals of the Black Lives Matter protests. He saw the racial justice protests as nothing more than an uprising against HIM, and tried to force the army to deploy in states where marches were most frequent.

In short, he is a man profoundly incapable of the presidency.

(This is not a partisan statement. It is a statement of fact based on the clear portrait we have of how Trump behaved while in the most powerful office in the country.)

A man who, due to his inability to understand the integrity of the position he held, threatened to destroy it for those who followed him in the White House.

And a man who was, without question, a danger to all Americans, whether they supported him or opposed him.

That is the highlight of these books.

That is the forest through the trees.

And THAT is the truth voters must hear if Trump tries to regain the presidency in 2024.

Donald trump