Donald Trump, an overview:
America continues divided into two groups. One thinks, “He is something that happened to us.” The tone is shocked, still, and bewildered: Did I live in this country all this time and not understand it? The other thinks, “He is something we did.” The tone is pride and, still, surprise: I didn’t know we could seize things back.
He happened because the American political establishment in the 21st century failed, to an epic and shattering degree—two long unwon wars, embarrassing in their execution and humiliating in their ending; the 2008 financial crisis, which no one in charge foresaw or took pains to prevent; a southern border open and overrun; and a destructive cultural revolution that seized the commanding heights of public and private institutions.
After those failures the American people stopped even pretending to respect the political, academic, media, financial and legal establishments. They saw them as self-seekers driven by no protectiveness toward the people at large or sense of responsibility for America. The nation said to its establishments: You’re fired. Mr. Trump, an outsider and rather unique individual, was both their revenge and their last attempt to right things.
This crucial beginning of the story is always in danger of being lost. Mr. Trump is so vivid he always seems the cause of things. But he came from something, and we shouldn’t forget it because it contains a lesson for all time: If you are given power, as establishments are, you must be equal to it; you must be protective, a steward, and care for the people. You can’t be selfish and look only to yourself and your glittering world, which is what our establishments did.
You know what they acted like? The new rich, that old American put-down. No one likes the new rich because they haven’t learned the lesson of the old rich, which is that you have to show responsibility for others. We put this down as “noblesse oblige.” We came to miss the idea of noble obligations.
Among Republicans, a decisive moment in the rebellion was March 18, 2013, when the GOP establishment, searching for the reason their party lost in 2012, announced in its famous “autopsy” that the party must be more liberal in its approach to illegal immigration. “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last . . .” Donald Trump slouched down the escalator a little more than two years later.
Now he has had his first hundred days in his second term. They confirm what we learned in the first administration. He goes too far. He’s a fearless man with bad judgment. He lacks internal calibration. I imagine him with an eager aide. “On this issue, Mr. President, there are two clear choices. We can make history by moving forward 6 inches, in which case we’re guaranteed to secure victory and improve America. Or we can try for 12 inches, but the opposition will be aroused, the battle long and bloody, the outcome uncertain.” Trump looks, blinks. “Twelve is bigger than 6, right? Go 12.”
He doesn’t spy what he can gain, move swiftly (silently!) and gain it. He declares war on all fronts.
He’s Berserk U.S. Grant. Gen. Grant wanted to wear down the enemy, stun them, kill them, use his armies as the steamroller that squashed them. He looked at the big maps, contemplated the field, the terrain, the gettable object (the train junction, the weapons depot) and decided to move or not move, with what divisions. What troops were rested and could get there, where the artillery was and where to place it . . .
Mr. Trump is presented the maps, he commands all forces forward and assumes the chaos will demoralize the foe, they’ll all run for the hills. This is not strategy but lack of strategy.
In many battles we haven’t yet reached the point beyond “they had it coming.” On Mr. Trump’s many fronts—against the universities, the big law firms, the illegal immigrants, old international allies, bureaucrats wasting international aid money, the tariffs, the boys on the girls’ team—he is still largely supported by regular people, who look at his foes and think, “They had it coming.” Which is why his polls, which are going down, are not really so bad. We haven’t yet reached the point of “Whoa, they didn’t have that coming.” We will. And if the tariff effort is a boomeranging disaster we will reach, “Whoa, we didn’t have it coming.” Which will be his danger area.
It is bad for Mr. Trump that he allows or encourages his cabinet members to praise him so fulsomely in public. It’s real “Dear Leader,” “Great Helmsman” stuff. It diminishes them: They look obsequious and frightened. It diminishes him: He needs the lackey’s subservience. From his cabinet secretaries at Wednesday’s meeting to mark the hundred days. “It’s been a momentous hundred days with you at the helm.” “Mr. President, your first hundred days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country ever, ever.” It is embarrassing. We let the world see this?
At that meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered the truest summing up of the administration’s actions and intent. “This president inherited 30 years of foreign policy that was built around what was good for the world. In essence, the decisions we made as a government in trade and foreign policy was basically, ‘Is it good for the world? Is it good for the global community?’ And under President Trump, we’re making a foreign policy now that’s ‘Was it good for America?’ ”
Asking if a policy is good for the world is a very good thing, especially in the nuclear age. The administration has alienated allies while not clearly impressing competitors and foes. In the short term our old friends will step warily, in the long term they’ll wish us ill. We are ruining an international reputation that took more than a century to build: that even when wrong our intent was to do good, that we were generous, long-viewed, responsible.
This reputation was a major force in maintaining world peace after 1945. That is a long time, and it is a big thing, whatever arguments in favor, to give up. Especially by those who never showed a deep understanding of what had been its power. Mr. Rubio said the ultimate aim is to make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. Those are necessary aims that, with creativity, heart and a sense of history, can be achieved without such damage.
Something impressive: The second term is different from the first in that it has a sense of what it’s about. The people in this White House believe in the president. They didn’t in the first term; they thought they were a political accident. This team sees itself as a political decision.
Here is the uneasiness of thoughtful people on all sides who watched things closely the past hundred days. They realize it won’t go back to normal when he is gone. Our politics won’t snap back to the olden days of carefully patrolled constitutional boundaries and expectations of right political behavior. Donald Trump is what he wanted to be, a world-historic figure, and we have entered a new time. It sounds dangerous. This is what it looks like when establishments fail.