As we're recording this edition of Red Lines, Donald Trump has entered the final two hours of his presidency.

He's already left Washington to the strains of village people, and as he sees it, he was a distinguished

president, great president, who was robbed of a deserved second term in office.

For Trump's opponents, his time in the White House was an aberration and one

which his successor, Joe Biden, would do well to consign to the history books and the sooner

the better. So what is the legacy of Donald J. Trump and how has his time at the helm changed

American democracy? Well, one man who's well placed to offer a view on that is the former US special

envoy to Northern Ireland, Ambassador Richard Haas, who I'm pleased to say is with me now on

the line from his home in upstate New York. Dr. Haas, good to talk to you again. We've missed you.

That's generous, Mark. Thank you, my friend. You've written a piece about the legacy of President Trump, and even though you're a fellow Republican, it is excoriating.

You describe him as one of the worst, if not the worst, U.S. presidents in history. Why?

I think history will judge him critically or even brutally, first, because of the

inept handling of COVID-19. It was inevitable it would reach our shores. It was not inevitable

that 400,000 Americans would lose their lives on his watch.

Secondly, for his sustained assault on democracy, it culminated on January 6th, two weeks back.

But over the years, he violated more norms than I knew existed.

He's calling the media an enemy of the people, going after the independent judiciary,

not accepting the peaceful transfer of power, the election results, there's all that. And then on

terms of foreign policy, even though he got a few things right, I think overall, almost like his

health care plan, which never materialized, he was much more interested in disrupting or destroying than he was in replacing.

We'll talk about some of the accomplishments that you think the president achieved in a moment or two, even though you say they were dwarfed by his failures.

But I do want to talk about those three key areas of failure, as you see them, just one by one. You say he was a consequential

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