Historian Niall Ferguson argued that President Donald Trump is already one of the most consequential presidents in a discussion with colleagues Victor Davis Hanson and Stephen Kotkin, all senior fellows at the Hoover Institution. “Donald Trump has transformed the nature of political discourse,” Ferguson said. “That alone is consequential. He broke up a post-war order, a set of assumptions, not least of which was that free trade should be the basis of U.S. international economic policy. No, he’s a transformative figure, and I think we can tell. Now, does it end in tears or in triumph? That we can’t tell, and that won’t be obvious until the end of his term.”

NIALL FERGUSON: We are in the fifth year of the Trump era, and I think it is not too early to tell that he is one of the most consequential presidents, certainly of the post-war era. Think of the transformation he has brought about in the way politics itself functions in the United States. Donald Trump has transformed the nature of political discourse. That alone is consequential. He broke up a post-war order, a set of assumptions, not least of which was that free trade should be the basis of U.S. international economic policy. No, he’s a transformative figure, and I think we can tell. Now, does it end in tears or in triumph? That we can’t tell, and that won’t be obvious until the end of his term. But it’s clear that he’s drastically altered the way that American politics works. And I’d go further. I think he’s even more consequential internationally. He’s broken the post-war international order. He’s radically altered it, and I think irreversibly altered it. And any European will agree with that. They don’t like it, but they’ll admit everything has changed because of Donald Trump.

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