Generally, in American history, Benedict Arnold is considered the epitome of a traitor. But I think there’s a better candidate than that emo, money-grubbing glory hound: a certain New Yorker.

The son of a powerful family, who from childhood to adulthood seethed with resentment over other people getting more attention or accolades, he became a sometimes-successful politician, who built a mere social club into a political organization so crooked, it became the avatar of political corruption in America, which he helped along by creating a shell company, ostensibly for one purpose, only turn it into a political slush fund making “loans” to business associates who would then support his candidates.

A power-hungry social climber who nearly destroyed the Electoral College in an attempt to turn a loss into a win, this ego-maniac thought he could kill a fellow New Yorker in broad daylight and not hurt his political fortunes.  And once those fortunes did tumble after one term, he conspired with foreign powers to set himself up as a kind of client-king in North America, beholden to the other strongmen who put him there.

He single-handedly stress tested the political experiment of our Constitutional Republic, blowing past norms and guardrails of gentlemanly patriotism in pursuit of raw power that he deemed was his by right, and it was only thanks to the incompetence of his co-conspirators that we didn’t end up with Aaron Burr the First, King of America.

Gotcha!

Yes, TFG emulates him in so many things, but let’s hope there’s one major difference: other than the political fallout, Burr got away with the rest, including two treason acquittals for playing a game of thrones with England and Spain. He got away with creating a clean water company that instead became a bank and gave loans to allow small business owners to have enough property to vote. He got away with creating Tammany Hall. He got away with lying to Jefferson as a running mate and trying to steal the election from underneath him via the Electors.

And he was never even charged for shooting that one guy who became a musical.

Now I’m the villain in your history.

Let’s hope that the knock on the door at Mar-a-Lago last week is just the first of many, and that Burr’s title gains an asterisk:  The Worst Traitor in American History*

*who got away with it