For Utahns who deplored Donald Trump, the national nightmare is over. For those who supported the guy, their glory is in the rearview mirror. President Biden has said that he would love to run against him. Biden won’t get his wish.

As regular readers know, I was never a fan of our former president. Actually,  most voters weren’t either. The 2016 election was a choice between a scandalous liar and a scandal-plagued Hillary Clinton; Trump couldn’t have beaten any Democrat other than Clinton or Bernie Sanders.

For those who doubt this analysis, look at how Trump won his party’s nomination. He didn’t do it through sheer force; he won it because the 2016 GOP election featured more contestants than the Utah Symphony.

Republican activist Peggy Noonan noted last month that there were 17 separate candidates. All of them took votes away from others. In the early primary contests, Trump consistently won only about one-third of the votes, never close to a majority. The 33% who liked him were mesmerized by this brashness; he handed out more insults than Don Rickles in a Las Vegas showroom. In Iowa he did even worse (24%) losing to Ted Cruz whose father Trump slandered as a criminal involved in the Kennedy assassination.

Unlike Ronald Reagan, Trump never built a foundation for the Republican Party. Reagan was a builder, assembling former Southern Democrats and rural Midwest farmers into a conservative movement. In contrast, Trump was like a little boy who saw a political structure, then kicked it apart as if it were a finely assembled Lego set. Reagan made people feel good about themselves whereas Trump turned Americans against each other.

I believe some of Reagan’s actions were destructive (i.e., emptying mental facilities and turning thousands of psychotic patients out on the streets). But Reagan believed in the Constitution, a document that Trump spits at and has attempted to override. Reagan was serious and knowledgeable about issues in contrast to Trump who his aides say rarely read the pros and cons of legislation and was quick to anger rather than being reflective. Reagan had personal dignity while Trump leaned in on crushing arrogance.

And as we know now from the issuance of Trump’s tax returns, he, unlike the fiscally responsible Reagan, told whoppers on his IRS tax returns and was littered with debt and business losses.

All of this has Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis smiling like a poker player with four aces.  He knows he can win against a weakened Joe Biden; all he must do is make sure other GOP presidential hopefuls remain on the sideline. DeSantis knows a Democrat could still come forward to make the presidential race competitive, but at this stage no one can point to one. If DeSantis chooses an esteemed GOP woman like Nikki Haley as his running mate, he can waltz into the Oval Office.

Unlike Ronal Reagan or John F. Kennedy, Trump will never go down in history as a respected “father figure” for his party. History will regard him as the obnoxious neighborhood bully, a feared carnival barker who cared more about spite than governance.