Let Trump be Trump

If there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that he’s a people person. On Monday he said he’d “certainly meet” with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani if the Iranian leader was interested.

With that meeting, we will have run out of “Axis of Evil” heads of state with whom President Trump can press the flesh.

The president declared that he’d meet with the Iranian “anytime they want to.”

“I’ll meet with anybody,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with meeting.”

For his willingness to enter into a confab with just about anybody, President Trump has taken fire from critics from both sides of the aisle. Indeed, Barack Obama was lambasted by Hillary Clinton for suggesting that he’d negotiate with Iran without conditions.

President Trump does not care for the established political protocol in such matters and will do what he will do.

It is fair to assess that Trump the businessman built his success on establishing good relationships. To build a skyscraper in New York City, he would have had to negotiate with city officials, organized labor, vendors, interest groups and any number of factions in order to move the project forward.

Trump’s style is not that of a statesman because he is not a statesman. The people elected Donald Trump, so why not let him be Donald Trump.

He is the president, and if he wants to talk with foreign leaders we should let him. There is little risk. Trump is anomalous and his term will always be treated as such. Chances are, the next man or woman to be elected president will be a standard-issue politician and they can do things the old way if the Trump way doesn’t work out.

If he wants to talk to people, let him talk to people.