The damage that Donald Trump has already done to our democracy in the two and a half years of his presidency is incalculable. The list of his offenses against our republic is long, but one of the most egregious of those offenses is the way he intentionally tries to set Americans against each other, to make us suspect, fear and hate each other for his own political gain.
These efforts began even before Donald Trump decided to run for president. Before 2011, Trump was a six times-bankrupt real estate swindler with a reality TV show. But then, in 2011, he inserted himself into the political debate by promoting the lie that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.