Realism About a Trump Presidency

livemint.com:

Donald Trump might be president again. What would he do? This question is a hard one because Mr. Trump doesn’t actually tell us and also because his opponents do, constantly.

I had an epiphany after the 2016 Republican convention watching ABC News on a Sunday morning. Ah, I said. Mr.

Trump is so disreputable that supposedly reputable journalists feel free to put words in his mouth, knowing they won’t be chastised by their fellows or employers for fabrication. But at least the nature of the last Trump presidency is recognized in backhanded fashion. Every “Trump is Hitler/dictator/end of the world" argument starts with the premise that, this time, he won’t be thwarted by his inexperience or appointees.

And indeed Trump pilot fish at a couple of think tanks have engaged in a self-pleasuring activity of making “plans" for his presidency, not unusual for the type. And yet this has nothing to do with anything. Mr.

Trump’s is a ratings-based politics. It’s not poll-based, much less policy- or ideology-based. His primary interest is in creating episodes using familiar props—NATO, the Supreme Court, Nafta—to show himself a dramatically effective actor in contrast to the established political class.

If he can’t get the results he wants, as he often can’t, he hands matters back to this establishment and turns elsewhere. His bad policies are mainly bad in a conventional, indeed overly familiar Remocrat-Depublican way. Protectionism for special interests.

Spendthriftism. Sanctimonious refusal to acknowledge runaway entitlements. But to borrow from a British prime minister, the presidency is primarily about matters that arise.

Tom Friedman in the New York Times credits Mr. Trump with out-sharking Bibi Netanyahu. Mr.