Trump has no idea how to be president: Stephen Hess
What amazes me is his total lack of interest in trying to understand the presidency.
“I have never flown a plane nor taken flying lessons. But I know I am destined to be a great aviator. Put me in the cockpit and I will take you on the trip of your life.”
Could anyone accept such an offer?
Yet this is exactly what Donald Trump expects of the American people.
Trump’s career has been in commerce, largely in New York City real estate, and he has been very successful. His devotion to his businesses appears to be total. Unlike some other billionaires who fund advocacy groups, such as Michael Bloomberg’s gun control network, he has not been involved with politics or policy except for campaign contributions.
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Most careers, even presidential careers, begin with an apprenticeship — climbing a ladder to governor or senator or perhaps even to general, if there is a just war. Trump rejects this approach to public service. Since all the people presently running governments are stupid, he tells us, it is his obligation to start at the top.
Certainly he is not the first narcissist to seek the presidency. The two Roosevelts did not lack self-worth. A sharp-edged ego is not a disqualification, even if it is usually politically wise to keep it under wraps during the campaign.
But senators and governors and generals learn useful things even if their histories do not guarantee success in the White House:
— General Eisenhower developed a highly distinctive leadership style in the military that was a great help when he became president.
— Lyndon Johnson, the former Senate majority leader, knew where the arm must be twisted to pass a civil rights bill.
— Movie actor Ronald Reagan spent eight years as governor of California to prepare for eight years as president of the United States.
— Bill Clinton's policy expertise, developed over many years as Arkansas governor, served him well despite a ragged first two years learning that Washington is not Little Rock writ large.
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Since Trump is without such opportunities, presumably he will seek other ways to examine presidential skills. But what amazes me from his catch-as-catch-can proposals and blowzy language is his total lack of interest in trying to understand the presidency, the complexity of presidential roles and how they fit together, and what presidents actually can do and can’t do, constitutionally and otherwise.
Candidates try to avoid promises that are so preposterous that they will be an embarrassment when elected. Trump apparently doesn’t care. How can he round up 11 million illegal immigrants and deport them? Candidates’ misstatements turn into lies when they are not withdrawn. Trump apparently doesn’t care.
You can see in other candidates the outlines of trying to learn. They find ways to make up for their shortcomings. Senators join committees on foreign relations, intelligence or the armed services. Governors whose experiences are domestic take exploratory trips to other countries. They commission papers, seek experts and tutors. These may be just boxes to be checked off, but still should not be discounted. Trump does not make the effort.
Trump’s opponents, at the moment, are mostly engaged in questioning his conservatism. Ultimately Republican primary voters will resolve this and he will or will not win the party’s nomination for president.
If he does become the Republican standard-bearer for the November election, this still leaves a fundamental problem that seems impossible to paper over: Trump is profoundly ignorant about the nature of the American presidency and this does not appear to trouble him.
My analysis, by the way, is based on studying the presidency since I worked on President Dwight Eisenhower's White House staff. But if I pitch an investment in Manhattan real estate, watch out!
Stephen Hess, Senior Fellow Emeritus in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, is author of many books on the presidency, including Organizing the Presidency, now in its third edition.
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