In March 2016, fresh off a series of primaries wins, candidate Donald Trump said that he would be more presidential than any Commander-in-Chief, with the exception of Abe Lincoln. Of course, no one thought to factor in that Trump’s conception of “presidential” was his alone. The wake up call for America was almost immediate. This is going to be like no presidency before it.
In just one sign, it appears that there will be no moderation in the President’s tweeting habit. Indeed, at least for now, Trump is keeping both his personal and official Twitter accounts active, where the @POTUS handle is more traditional, while the personal account remains as controversial as ever.
In just a week, President Trump has threatened to send the Feds into Chicago to stem the murder rate, alleged truly massive voter fraud by illegal aliens, vilified Mexico and embarrassed their president, while also taking time to slam the New York Times and Washington Post for being dishonest in their coverage and suffering subscription shortfalls as a result.
Many of the suspect views from the campaign endure, including an infatuation with tariffs and protectionism, “Putin-luv,” NATO ambiguity and the more unsettling notion that national interest can be defined by how well POTUS gets along personally with foreign leaders. The President remains an emotional and impulsive person in office.
Still, it would be a gross miscalculation to conclude that a lack of convention and norms implies a lack of purpose.
President Trump Means What He Says: Trump’s candidacy was fueled by Americans furious at what they saw as the broken promises of DC politicians and the lack of any meaningful action out of Washington. In this context, consider what Trump has done in one week:
1) Waived Executive rules on implementation of Obamacare, 2) Withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, 3) Signed off on Keystone XL and Dakota pipelines, 4) Announced talked with Mexico and Canada to re-negotiate NAFTA, 5) Authorized construction of a border wall with Mexico, 6) Ended federal funds to “sanctuary cities” and ordered actual enforcement of immigration laws, 7) Restored the “Mexico City” policy restricting US development assistance from international organizations that perform abortions, 8) Froze new federal regulations and hiring, 9) Ordered SECDEF to identify plans to upgrade the US military, 10) Directed that high priority infrastructure project approval be streamlined and expedited, and that US steel be used in pipelines.
These were just the official Executive Orders that were signed.
Trump created a diplomatic crisis with our southern neighbor by again insisting that the border wall will be paid for by Mexico, with the Administration even suggesting an import tax as a possible vehicle to settle accounts. Word also leaked about a draft Executive Order that would restore CIA “black” sites overseas and authorize “enhanced interrogation.” While not actually signed, the word was out. Both of these issues were core Trump promises during the campaign.
Additional Executive Orders temporarily halting immigration from certain countries on the DHS watch list in the Middle East until new vetting procedures can be put in place, and an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees could come as early as Saturday.
The actual impact of these collected actions is generally more symbolic than substantive. Executive Orders can only operate within existing law. On Obamacare, the border wall, military upgrades and immigration reform,Trump will need Congress. On hot button issues, there could be legal challenges. But that does not diminish the importance of these steps. By taking action on nearly all of his campaign promises in the first week, President Trump is establishing himself as a man of his word. While the pundit class will find that claim outrageous, Trump voters will get it immediately, and with satisfaction.
Trump is a Political Independent: this isn’t your father’s Republican party. While Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell look and act in a way familiar to conservatives, Trump is free of any ideological blinders. You need only look at his meetings during the first week the understand the breath of change.
On the President’s first day, Trump invited union leadership to join in the signing ceremony for the US withdrawal from TPP. This is the cohort that donated millions to Hilary Clinton and yet they were the first in to the White House. In a meeting with these officials afterward, Trump learned that pipelines built in the US did not always use US steel. He immediately modified his pipeline Executive Order, ordering the Commerce Secretary to find a way to require this. Not your traditional Republican president.
Then it was on to meetings with CEOs from across the American business spectrum, with focus reference to the Big Three automakers, to talk about reviving the American economy, repairing infrastructure and expanding growth.
Unlike his predecessor, Trump seems to like Members of Congress or at the very east understands how integral they will be to passing his program. The charm offensive began almost immediately with a White House reception. And while notionally a Republican, POTUS’ best (personal) friend in Congress is Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Trump is not seeking ideological purity – he is looking for a practical deal, which ultimately requires compromise. Expect legislation that contains sweeteners for both sides to foster bi-partisanship, and for Trump to oppose Members of his own party when their agenda conflicts with his. Trump will have no permanent allies, only permanent interests.
Trump is an Emerging Catastrophic Threat to Progressives: the Professional Left remains in a state of shock and denial; shock that Trump could win, and denial that eight years of Obama governance was mostly unilateral, lacking in political consensus, making its deconstruction straightforward and likely.
Worse, the primary vehicle for Progressive aspirations – the Democrat Party – has been beaten into a virtually regional political organization. The GOP holds the presidency and both houses of Congress. On the state level, there are 31 Republican governors. 67 of the 98 state legislative chambers across the country are GOP majority, with 32 states having all Republican legislatures. 24 of those states have a GOP governor, providing complete Republican control, and a vast state incubator of conservative policy and training for future leaders. Democrats have the same “trifecta” in only six states.
In addition to a legacy built on straw, the Obama years saw the greatest political rout of the Democrat party in decades.
But this is only part of the story.
Having served in the Bush 43 administration, I had a ringside seat to “Bush Derangement Syndrome” – an affliction of the Left that found no story line or “fake news” too preposterous, vile or beneath contempt to ascribe to Bush and his Administration.
But that was “small ball” compared to the liberal reaction to Trump. It has already reached Nixonian-levels in its vast contempt of and bottomless hatred for the President. Scrap Obamacare for something actually affordable? Trump wants to deny medical care to the poor. Green light jobs-creating pipelines? Trump wants to pollute the environment. Tighten immigration enforcement and vetting? Trump wants defenseless Syrian children to die.
And it’s not simply Progressive leaders, but rank and file Democrat voters. My Facebook feed was enlightened by a posts stating that anyone not opposed to Trump’s new policy on refugees could not a moral person. The exact content of POTUS’ Executive Order is debatable, but it is possible to proudly see America as a nation of immigrants, and a beacon of light for people around the world, and at the same time, recognize that the nature of evolving terrorism requires the US government to ensure that those immigrants or refugees admitted to the US are not security threats. Whatever the policy, the outrage is magnitudes larger than the actual impact. It makes the opposition look unhinged.
The outrage finds its fullest expression in its addiction to POTUS’s twitter feed. Be it inaugural crowd size comparisons or illegal aliens voting in the US presidential election, the Left energizes daily in fresh displays of indignation, resentment and pique that animates cable news. The tremendous energy being expended here is tactical and off-point.
Progressives have still not internalized that Trump is not your traditional Republican president. The playbook used against Nixon, Reagan and both Bushs is not going to work this time around.
Trump is the first “cultural warrior” president, a Chief Executive who never signed the service agreement for the PC rules of the Washington establishment, and particularly with the media. Republicans and conservatives have been complaining about the “liberal media” for half a century, but Trump is the first who seems intent on doing something about it, even if the actions seem astonishing, like branding CNN as “fake news” and refusing to entertain a CNN reporter’s question at the first presidential press conference.
No sitting president has ever done that.
Ever.
Washington, NY and LA are aghast. But mainstream America smiles in approval.
More substantively, Progressives seem to have badly underestimated Trump as he begins.
Notice Trump’s language in signing ceremonies and meetings. His pipeline order will create jobs. In his meeting with the CEOs, the focus was on jobs. At the sit down with the Big Three, Trump can be heard asking, what do I need to do so you will keep and create jobs here?
This is a tectonic shift from the Obama administration that was ideologically at war with American corporations, which were considered little more than selfish, polluting miscreants requiring punitive regulation. For Obama and the Left, putting corporate America in its place was a higher priority – and greater victory – than generating jobs-creating growth. Who cared if battery operated cars cost twice as much as a regular vehicle, well outside the purchasing power of the average Americans. America needs green cars, dammit!
It was a policy that only a “Limousine Liberal” could love.
Now comes Trump with the “radical” proposition that if you create a conducive business environment, companies will stay, firms will expand and new businesses will be created. And this is not a choice between breathable air, or new jobs, or worker safety or new jobs. Trump is simply putting American workers first.
In doing so, Trump is about to pick-pocket vital Democrat constituencies. It should alarm Democrats that top union officials were the first invitees to a Trump White House. At every event, Trump talks about infrastructure, a traditionally Democrat priority. And there is no small ball here. Trump is seeking a trillion dollars in infrastructure spending – dwarfing Obama’s ambitions in 2009 – which not only means more jobs, but better service, modern roads and an efficient electric grid.
When the GOP gathered in Philadelphia for their annual confab, a union local hung a banner across the street welcoming Trump. When was the last time you saw that for a GOP president? In DC, liberal hearts were aflutter on the same day over someone who hung a banner within view of the White House that said “Resist.”
Resist what? Job creation? Higher incomes? Better opportunity?
Bread and butter issues for working class Americans were once the heart of the Democrat message, but that has evolved into a hollow lip service exercise where today race, class and gender are the substance of the actual Democrat agenda. It is elitist and deeply out of touch with the vast majority of Americans who bear no animus or ill-will toward their fellow Americans, but prioritize providing for their families.
In sum, Trump is poised to outflank the Democrats on the Left by actually doing what Democrats have mouthed platitudes about for a generation. The threat to core Democrat constituencies is real, even if it is mostly unrealized by Progressives at this time.
Can Trump succeed? Can he ultimately reconcile all the promises within a budget that does not blow up the debt? Will companies willingly invest? Can all this be accomplished without a trade war? Will Tweeting catalyze an international incident?
Verdict is still out.
But the cornerstones of constructive progress have been laid, for anyone that wants to see. Democrats ignore them at their peril.