Trump’s second term could face the 'same disastrous end' as Grover Cleveland’s: presidential historian

19 January

Like Donald Trump, former President Grover Cleveland secured the White House for a second time after losing a previous election, presidential historian Alexis Coe notes in a Sunday, MSNBC op-ed.

However, "Cleveland’s second act was a tragedy in four years, a cautionary tale the GOP seems hellbent on remaking," Coe insists.

"For Cleveland, a Democrat, it was the Panic of 1893, a severe economic depression triggered by railroad overbuilding and shaky financing, which set off a series of bank failures," the New America senior fellow writes, adding, "Within months, unemployment skyrocketed to nearly 20%, over 15,000 companies and 500 banks failed, and farmers in the South and Midwest faced ruin as crop prices plummeted. His inflexibility exacerbated the crisis as he rigidly hung on to the gold standard and fiscal conservatism, fracturing his Democratic Party."

Coe continued, "Trump, meanwhile, faced the Covid-19 pandemic with a mix of self-absorption and pseudoscience that would make snake oil salesmen blush."

Furthermore, the incoming president's "erratic policy shifts on tariffs, immigration and foreign relations threaten to create both domestic and global chaos," the presidential historian emphasized.

Coe concluded, "Despite their contrasting styles — Cleveland’s stubborn adherence versus Trump’s mercurial shifts — both approaches risk the same disastrous end: a party in disarray."

Read Coe's full op-ed here.

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