"I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it."

Even at the time, those words were odd. Trump was casting himself as the only person in America -- a nation of 330 million people -- who could fix the problems with inequity? Who could bridge the gap between the haves and the have nots? Who could make the country more, well, equal?

Almost four years to the day since Trump made the "I alone can fix it" claim, it now appears more likely than not that those five words will be the lead of his political obituary.

See, the problem with very publicly claiming that you are the only person in the country who can fix the problems that face the country is that when problems arise in the country, people expect you to fix them. Because, well, you said you would. Literally.

Now, there's no way Trump -- or anyone else -- could have known that we would be dealing with a global pandemic the likes of which we haven't seen in more than a hundred years when he said what he said at the Republican National Convention in 2016.

But since at least January, it was clear that a) Covid-19 was dangerous and b) it was very likely to wind up in the US. Despite that reality, Trump spent much of the late winter and early spring downplaying the threat.

Trump's downplaying of the threat did not solve the problem. In fact, his resistance to wearing a mask and his pressure campaign on governors to reopen their states and, now, to reopen schools in the fall, have made things objectively worse.

Far from being the only one who can solve this biggest problem facing the country, Trump has proven to many people over these past few months that he was -- and is -- simply not the right person to lead America through this sort of crisis.

That realization might have doomed his reelection chances no matter what. But that Trump voluntarily put himself forward as fixer-in-chief makes his botched handling of the coronavirus crisis all the more stark, and all the more damaging to his chances of getting reelected in November.

Continued here:

These 5 words may cost Trump a second term - CNN