Donald Trump's legacy: A more divided America, a more unsettled world

When President Donald Trump delivered his inaugural speech on Jan. 20, 2017, he promised an end to “American carnage,” a bleak and dysfunctional nation he had promised that he alone could fix.

Closing out his presidency exactly four years later, Trump leaves behind an even more polarized America, where thousands are dying daily from the Covid-19 pandemic, the economy is badly damaged and political violence has surged.

Trump didn’t create the bitter differences that have come to define American life. Still, he seized upon many of them as tools to build his power base, promising to uplift rural America and the broader