Donald Trump Can Try, but He'll Never Destroy President Obama's Legacy

Donald Trump's policies are certainly going to be different from President Barack Obama's. We are not sure how many of Trump's promises he will be able to legally and conceivably pull off, but he will surely try. With a Republican Senate majority and a Republican-held House of Representatives, it might even be easy for him to enact sweeping change across the country, undoing much of the work President Obama put in over the last eight years.

There is hope for Obama's legacy, however. Trump cannot reverse Obama's push for the passing of same-sex marriage, as legalized by the Supreme Court in 2015. He cannot walk back the years of positivity Obama fostered in American values. He cannot reverse history and erase the election of our first black president. He cannot take back the fact that Obama's administration hasn't encountered a single significant scandal. He cannot change how respectfully Obama has dealt with opposition, how gracefully he battled the absurd notion, ignited by Trump, that he is not American.

Trump cannot take back Obama's impassioned speeches, which brought us to tears. He cannot efface all the times Obama made us laugh, even if it was with dad jokes.

Trump will fight against Obama's history as it stands on paper — the laws he signed, the bills he passed — but he will not be able to rewrite history, however much he tries.