In a lengthy op-ed published Monday in The Hill, author and policy expert William Becker made a pointed case that President Donald Trump has left a lasting “stench of scandal” on the White House but argued that one narrow path to redemption still remains open, if the president is willing to take it.
Becker did not mince words. Despite Trump’s repeated return to power, he wrote, the president has squandered every opportunity voters handed him. “The voting public has twice given Trump the opportunity to redeem his legacy. Each time, he has only made it worse. His last chance is to resign now, citing health reasons,” Becker wrote.
The op-ed methodically catalogued what Becker considers the administration’s most damaging controversies.
He accused Trump of having “repeatedly violated the Constitution, engaged in profitable conflicts of interest, abused his pardon power, deployed the military against the civilian population, ignored citizens‘ constitutional rights, withheld public funds from states that didn’t vote for him, and used the threat of legal action and the denial of federal funds to extort private corporations and universities into conformance with his policies.”
It is a sweeping indictment and one Becker argues has already begun to define how history will remember this era.
Yet the op-ed stops short of calling the situation entirely hopeless. Becker suggests that a voluntary resignation, particularly one framed around Trump’s widely speculated health concerns, could offer the president a dignified exit and spare his legacy from becoming little more than a cautionary tale.
Stepping down on his own terms, Becker contends, is the one move that could soften the historical verdict.
If Trump refuses, Becker warned, the responsibility shifts elsewhere. “If he doesn’t, then the challenge of redemption will pass to Congress. History will remember its current members more kindly if they do their jobs by removing Trump from office before he does irreparable damage to the country.”
The piece closes on a bleak note about the president’s self-awareness or lack thereof. “He doesn’t understand, or perhaps will not admit, that he is memorializing a decade in which he caused decay, division, degradation, degeneration and disgrace,” Becker wrote.
In his view, once Trump leaves office, any monuments bearing his name will ultimately serve as reminders of governmental failure rather than achievements. Becker’s op-ed reflects a broader anxiety among Trump’s critics that the window for accountability is narrowing and that without decisive action, the damage may prove very difficult to undo.