I firmly believe that mockery is one of the strongest weapons we have against thin-skinned tyrants — and it’s certainly one of the most fun. So today, I’m starting a monthly limited series to compare the (unfortunately) former and (even more unfortunately) incoming president of the United States to comicdom’s most infamous supervillains to see how he stacks up.
First: Lex Luthor, who also served as president.
Luthor was elected in 2000, much to the shock and dismay of Superman, who assumed the American people were smart enough not to hand the nuclear codes to a self-obsessed, unrepentant criminal (you sweet, summer child). Before that, Luthor was a criminal mastermind and a cunning and ruthless businessman. While comparing the two men’s business acumen, or lack thereof, is beyond the scope of this article, I would like to point out that Luthor built on his fortune by using mysterious alien tech to make things like “repair spiderbots,” which, while scary, is also kind of awesome.
Where does Trump’s money come from these days? Crypto scams?
Once in the Oval Office, Luthor shows repeatedly that he is an intelligent, worldly leader with a thorough understanding of both foreign and domestic affairs. The first Trump administration, aside from being the most nauseating phrase in the English language, got off to a repugnant start with the Muslim Ban in January 2017. Luthor’s administration? Started by funding the Justice League and greater educational opportunities for all students. He used his deep knowledge of politics to push these initiatives through Congress…
…and here he is demonstrating that he knows how to navigate America’s fraught relationship with the nation of Bialya.
It’s tempting to contrast this moment with the time Trump killed a prominent Iranian general for probably made-up reasons. Indeed, later in this same issue, we learn that Luthor sent an assassin to, unsuccessfully, murder Bialya’s human rights-violating leader. You could argue that this makes Trump better than Luthor in this one respect, since the attack he ordered actually succeeded, but consider this: Luthor acted with purpose. He fully thought through and understood the implications of what he was doing and, in sending Superman after the assassin, he had to know there was a good chance the assassin would fail and that Superman would instead bring him back to Luthor to face the consequences of his ineptitude.
Meanwhile, Trump can’t even keep his autocrats straight. So whether you consider his strike against Iran a success or a disaster, the outcome cannot be attributed to whatever planning or leadership skills he does or does not have.
Sure, Luthor misused his authority to arrest people he didn’t like and embarked on a deranged plot to kill Superman that not only failed but cost him the presidency and his last few marbles. But he also explicitly condemned a homophobic hate crime rather than selecting one vice president who worsened an HIV epidemic in his home state and another who has repeatedly introduced the stupidest, most transphobic bills imaginable.
And this was in 2002, when a majority of Americans still disapproved of marriage equality, and a solid two years before real-life President Bush supported Congress’s first failed attempt to amend the Constitution to prohibit gay marriage. That makes two horrendous presidents that Luthor is automatically better than.
Luthor’s VP was Pete Ross, a childhood friend of Clark Kent’s and an all-around decent and reasonable person. In fact, pretty much his entire cabinet was filled with extremely competent, if morally questionable, people, including Amanda Waller and Sam Lane (Lois’s dad). Luthor would never tolerate the ignorant tools that Trump pals around with, like Robert “Fluoridation is impurifying all of our precious bodily fluids” Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi “I’m a propaganda mouthpiece for dictators” Gabbard.
Heck, for secretary of education, Luthor selected Jefferson “Black Lightning” Pierce, a devoted teacher and hero. Trump’s secretary of education was Betsy DeVos, a conservative activist who had zero relevant experience and gave every indication of hating schools, teachers, students, and education in general.
Did life under President Luthor suck? Yeah, obviously. The man sold his own daughter to aliens and would have let an asteroid destroy Earth to teach Superman a lesson. (The lesson being “how dare you be nice,” I guess??) He shouldn’t be in charge of the prison library, never mind a country.
But did it suck less than life under Trump? Yes. By orders of magnitude.
And that’s terrible.