The Lie of the “decent president” archetype
By Easton Martin | April 14, 2026
The lie of the “decent president” archetype persists because most people love to complain about how Donald Trump does not act presidential. They get themselves in a twist whenever he says something they find uncouth. It is time to stop acting like all presidents have been good people.
You do not get your way into the highest office in the land by being a saint. Everyone needs to stop acting like there is some imaginary idea of a “public facing good guy”. You should realize that they are all terrible if you have spent more than a day looking at politics. They have all done terrible things during their time in power, some publicly, some privately.
People think that Donald Trump calling someone a name is going too far. These same people were nowhere to be found when our military was committing atrocious war crimes in the Middle East. Those actions happened at the direct direction of George W. Bush. There are formal criminal complaints detailing the torture and the abuse that occurred under that administration. You should get off your moral high horse and look at the facts. The sanitized history you were taught about these so-called “decent men” is never quite the full story.
Donald Trump should not call people names in a public forum. He should not go around posting AI pictures that depict him as a messiah like figure. None of that behavior is morally acceptable for a leader, and I’m not endorsing it. You must not, however, pretend for a second that other leaders are any better just because their sins are less public.
Your own government has been complicit in the systematic slaughtering of millions upon millions of helpless pre-born babies. The CIA has tortured people in ways that are truly incomprehensible to the average citizen.
The military snuck in German scientists after the second world war. These were men whose work was responsible for the most prolific genocide in modern history. The government introduced crack to the streets of Los Angeles to further their own agendas. They have tortured countless innocent animals in the name of science. These were household pets like beagles that suffered for no legitimate reason.
You should not act for a second like having a nice guy in office is going to help the country. America is a great nation that stands far above many others in the world. We are certainly not perfect though, and we should stop pretending that we are. If history teaches us anything, it is that our government does not care about being decent or being your friend. As long as we are ruled by humans, there will be corruption, there will be evil, there will be darkness.
You could let this blackpill you, you could become cynical and bitter, participating in some sense in the evil that empowers the darkest corners of our government. Or, you could embrace the truth: that the only person who can solve this evil once and for all has already put that plan into motion and has demolished the spiritual powers behind this evil. Jesus says his kingdom is not of this world, and thank God for that. The kingdom of this world is filled with darkness, a darkness that we cannot even begin to fathom. While the world’s leaders and those subservient to them grasp at power at whatever cost, those who put their faith in Jesus and not in the powers of this present darkness can live victorious over the power of sin and death.
Do not put your trust in leaders, do not put your trust in those whose message even seems good or promising. Vote for them, campaign for them even. But do not rely on them. Put your trust instead in Jesus, the only one who has and will deliver on all of his promises.
