The daughter of President Ronald Reagan accused President Trump of “destroying” the presidency.
In an opinion piece for the Daily Beast, Patti Davis described dictators and Nazi authoritarians, arguing that Trump instills the same fear in those who work around him.
“They fear his wrath and his insatiable appetite for revenge. Those of us who are horrified at the dismantling of our democracy fear him because he may very well be destroying more than we can ever rebuild,” she wrote.
“We run the risk, it seems to me, of forgetting what the presidency is supposed to be. We are so bombarded with the crudeness of Donald Trump, his cruelty and wanton disregard for the tenets of our Constitution, that the image of a president who has a moral compass, reveres our democracy, and follows its laws is fading from our collective psyche,” Davis added.
She argued that the only way to “save this democracy” from the dictatorship she described is to hold Trump to the standards of decency set by other presidents, including her father. Davis is not the only one of Reagan’s children to criticize Trump. Ron Reagan Jr. called Trump “traitorous” and claimed that his father would “be ashamed” that he is president of the United States.
Davis, an actress and a writer, has never identified as a Republican despite the party’s adoration of her father. She previously called on Republicans to stop “using” Reagan when they defend Trump’s policies.
