Trump’s need for praise
TWITTER TROOPER: MORE SCANDALS THAN LEGISLATIVE VICTORIES
Presidency doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are – Michelle Obama.
The year since Donald Trump’s election has revealed a president thirsty for acclaim and – for better or worse – realising his promise to shatter the norms of office.
Former first lady Michelle Obama likely got it right: “The presidency doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are.”
Under the ferocious spotlight of the world’s highest elected office, with its relentless scrutiny and complex challenges, Trump has revealed much about himself and appeared to change not one jot in the past 12 months.
The man who claimed he “can be more presidential” than all of his predecessors – except Abraham Lincoln – has not embarked on a much-promised “pivot”, or holstered his Twitter account.
Each morning, his Cabinet ministers scramble to respond to the latest 140-character missive. Foreign allies and adversaries have looked on, wondering whether to take him seriously, literally, both or neither.
The man himself has rarely looked at ease with his new station, which he admits he thought “would be easier.”
“The truth is he was a better prognosticator than everybody else on understanding what Americans feel and how they feel,” said Eric Beach, a Republican political strategist who champions Trump.
But among the electorate as a whole, his approval rating, at 33% according to the latest Gallup survey, is lower than any other modern president.
While Trump can boast of presiding over a robust economy, the past year has been short on legislative victories – be it on health care or immigration – and long on scandals that would rack almost any other administration.
His campaign is under federal investigation for collusion with Russia, a probe that has chewed away at the heart of his administration.
Trump made a pregnant military widow cry during a condolence call and has fl irted with the racist far right in a way that had been taboo in American politics.
In consistently bashing the media or attacking veteran Republicans, the president has burnished his outsider credentials and has masked some of the chaos and inertia inside the White House.
About 80% of Republicans believe he is doing a good job.
Beyond the base though, opposition is so intense that his travel has largely been restricted to deeply Republican states, military bases or his own golf courses.
A trip to the United Kingdom has been put on ice indefinitely while other allies – worried Trump may rock the boat – rule out visits as “too dangerous”.
Perhaps no president has been more restricted since Lyndon Johnson weathered Vietnam protests from inside the finest public housing in America.
Inside the White House residence, Trump has seethed, his rage fuelled by binge-watching channel Fox News and anger-reading critical media coverage.
He exudes a near-Shakespearean craving for adulation, apparently not slaked by winning the votes of 63 million people.
His inauguration, the White House insisted against all evidence, was the most watched of all time. At the first Cabinet meeting, ministers took it in turns to praise Trump.
“I went to an Ivy League college. I was a nice student. I did very well. I’m a very intelligent person,” the president recently remarked, noting he has “one of the great memories of all time.”
But the tone has been set from the top by a president constantly on the offensive against an ever-changing gallery of opponents. These range from Republican leaders to federal judges, intelligence agencies, a Puerto Rican mayor, the “fake news” media, NFL players protesting racial discrimination and the comedy show Saturday Night Live.
The year-long frenzy of braggadocio, hyperbole and demands for recognition has fueled questions about Trump’s fitness for office. –
Travel ban: Out of the blue, on January 27, Trump signed an executive order imposing a 90- day ban on arrivals of people from seven Muslim majority countries and a 120- day ban on all refugee arrivals.
Trump sacks Comey: Trump abruptly fired FBI director James Comey on May 9, dumping the man leading a probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in an effort to defeat Hillary Clinton in the November election.
‘Pittsburgh not Paris’: Trump said the Paris climate change accord was bad for the US economy and American workers, and gave other countries an unfair advantage, framing the decision as part of his America First campaign.
Repeal and replace, not quite: On the campaign trail and once in office, Trump hammered away with a pledge to scrap the signature healthcare reform law enacted by Obama.
Revolving door: People come and people go from the Trump White House, but no tenure was as turbulent as that of Anthony Scaramucci – whose July appointment as communications director led Sean Spicer, Trump’s spokesperson and for many the face of the administration, to resign in protest. Watch out, ‘Rocket Man’: In his maiden speech to the UN General Assembly, Trump boasted of America’s military strength, signalled he was ready to rip up the nuclear accord with the “murderous regime” in Tehran and vowed to destroy North Korea if its nuclear-armed regime threatened America or its allies. –