Regarding Donald Trump's historic impeachment, one thing is indisputable: He will plunge to the darkest depths of unfathomable sleaze once he grasps that his Titanic-like presidency has run full tilt into a self-made iceberg, even if the Republican-majority Senate acquits him (as is expected).
Being a fork-tongued predator with an ophidian fidelity to nihilism, a cold-blooded appetite for power and a viperous hatred for "others," Trump will react as all poisonous reptiles do: venomously, viscously, without conscience. In his puny mind, life is a zero-sum game; only "losers" finish second.
Definitely — having called the impeachment inquiry a "lynching" — he'll continue inflaming racial tensions with rhetorical kerosene to ignite his ideological, asbestos-clad "base," many of whom think they're "superior" based on skin color (white) and religion (Christianity). Snaking deeper into that swamp, Trump will further bask in the ethno-nativist darkness that brought America 1844's anti-Catholic riots, 1882's Chinese Exclusion Act and 1942's internment of Japanese Americans.
Possibly, he'll be caught on a hot mic saying race riots would boost his "please-love-me rallies" crowd sizes. In his serpentine heart, Trump believes such violence might guarantee another term "leading" what he has helped become the "United States of Hate."
Conceivably, he'll fake an "assassination attempt" by a (nonwhite, naturally) "far-left whacko," betting that "sympathy" will juice his "ratings." Anyone believing such a nauseating scam would go against "Trump's principles" — an oxymoron, obviously — has been fatally Trump-bitten.
Probably, if he isn't re-elected, Trump will spin his electoral loss as "totally, 100 percent my plan!" since admitting "defeat" requires "character."
As Theodore Roosevelt wrote in 1900, "Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life." This resonates more "bigly" than ever with Trump slithering around the Oval Office and he must be defeated in 2020, thus banished to the sprawling wasteland of his barren "soul" and desolate "mind."
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.