I firmly imagine that mockery is without doubt one of the strongest weapons we have now in opposition to thin-skinned tyrants — and it’s actually probably the most enjoyable. So immediately, I’m beginning a month-to-month restricted collection to match the (sadly) former and (much more sadly) incoming president of america to comicdom’s most notorious supervillains to see how he stacks up.
First: Lex Luthor, who additionally served as president.
Luthor was elected in 2000, a lot to the shock and dismay of Superman, who assumed the American folks have been sensible sufficient to not hand the nuclear codes to a self-obsessed, unrepentant prison (you candy, summer season youngster). Earlier than that, Luthor was a prison mastermind and a crafty and ruthless businessman. Whereas evaluating the 2 males’s enterprise acumen, or lack thereof, is past the scope of this text, I wish to level out that Luthor constructed on his fortune by utilizing mysterious alien tech to make issues like “repair spiderbots,” which, whereas scary, can also be type of superior.
The place does Trump’s cash come from today? Crypto scams?
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As soon as within the Oval Workplace, Luthor exhibits repeatedly that he’s an clever, worldly chief with a radical understanding of each international and home affairs. The primary Trump administration, other than being probably the most nauseating phrase within the English language, obtained off to a repugnant begin with the Muslim Ban in January 2017. Luthor’s administration? Began by funding the Justice League and better academic alternatives for all college students. He used his deep data of politics to push these initiatives by means of Congress…
…and right here he’s demonstrating that he is aware of find out how to navigate America’s fraught relationship with the nation of Bialya.
It’s tempting to distinction this second with the time Trump killed a outstanding Iranian normal for most likely made-up causes. Certainly, later on this similar situation, we be taught that Luthor despatched an murderer to, unsuccessfully, homicide Bialya’s human rights-violating chief. You would argue that this makes Trump higher than Luthor on this one respect, for the reason that assault he ordered truly succeeded, however contemplate this: Luthor acted with function. He totally thought by means of and understood the implications of what he was doing and, in sending Superman after the murderer, he needed to know there was an excellent likelihood the murderer would fail and that Superman would as an alternative convey him again to Luthor to face the results of his ineptitude.
In the meantime, Trump can’t even hold his autocrats straight. So whether or not you contemplate his strike in opposition to Iran a hit or a catastrophe, the end result can’t be attributed to no matter planning or management abilities he does or doesn’t have.
Positive, Luthor misused his authority to arrest folks he didn’t like and launched into a deranged plot to kill Superman that not solely failed however price him the presidency and his previous few marbles. However he additionally explicitly condemned a homophobic hate crime slightly than choosing one vice chairman who worsened an HIV epidemic in his dwelling state and one other who has repeatedly launched the stupidest, most transphobic payments conceivable.
And this was in 2002, when a majority of People nonetheless disapproved of marriage equality, and a strong two years earlier than real-life President Bush supported Congress’s first failed try to amend the Structure to ban homosexual marriage. That makes two horrendous presidents that Luthor is mechanically higher than.
Luthor’s VP was Pete Ross, a childhood pal of Clark Kent’s and an all-around respectable and cheap particular person. In truth, just about his whole cupboard was crammed with extraordinarily competent, if morally questionable, folks, together with Amanda Waller and Sam Lane (Lois’s dad). Luthor would by no means tolerate the ignorant instruments that Trump friends round with, like Robert “Fluoridation is impurifying all of our precious bodily fluids” Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi “I’m a propaganda mouthpiece for dictators” Gabbard.
Heck, for secretary of schooling, Luthor chosen Jefferson “Black Lightning” Pierce, a faithful trainer and hero. Trump’s secretary of schooling was Betsy DeVos, a conservative activist who had zero related expertise and gave each indication of hating colleges, lecturers, college students, and schooling typically.
Did life beneath President Luthor suck? Yeah, clearly. The person bought his personal daughter to aliens and would have let an asteroid destroy Earth to show Superman a lesson. (The lesson being “how dare you be nice,” I assume??) He shouldn’t be accountable for the jail library, by no means thoughts a rustic.
However did it suck lower than life beneath Trump? Sure. By orders of magnitude.
And that’s horrible.