But instead of going back to fix the place from which he came, Trump appears to have brought its endemic corruption and pay-to-play transactional culture with him to the nation’s capital. His administration has been repeatedly rocked by scandals. Paul Manafort, his campaign chair, and Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, are guilty of a variety of federal charges. His first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was taking cash from Turkey without properly disclosing it, and pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. A former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, and implicated the president in a scheme to violate campaign-finance laws by using the National Enquirer to buy the silence of women alleging affairs with Trump. And that doesn’t even touch on the conspicuous corruption of Trump’s Cabinet, much less the various allegations of self-dealing facing the president and his family.

Queens today is a thriving, multiethnic community. It remains saddled, however, with a corrupt political culture that’s holding back its growth. If Donald Trump could clean it up, I suspect the public would then welcome him back on the national stage to show us how it’s done. It could use the help very badly; he can’t leave fast enough.

And if he’d like to resign his office and go back to Queens, I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements.