I just finished reading a column I liked very much, I recommend it to you. John Tillman writes at USA Today about how purists in both parties don’t like Donald Trump because he is a practical guy, not overly hung up on ideology. Mostly he sees problems, chooses among the potentially available tools at his disposal, and tries to fix what’s wrong.
My insight, as a management prof, is that he treats the presidency as a CEO job, and his particular role is as a turn-around guy, ‘hired’ to cut the fat, and whip FedGov into shape, make it ‘profitable’ meaning working for us ‘shareholders.’ He’s proceeded to do exactly that, to the best of his ability. Hence the blizzard of Executive Orders, term limited Trump 47 is in a hurry.
As long as a CEO has the Board of Directors behind him he can pretty much do what seems right. In Trump’s case, “the Board” is public opinion. No wonder he comes down hard on the popular side of 80-20 issues. He’s working our agenda.
As the article referenced above notes, he’s been more successful with some problems than others, which is what you’d expect to happen. If he’s done anything against which the entrenched supporters of waste, fraud, and abuse have not filed suit, it has escaped my attention. Fortunately he has prevailed in the appellate courts more often than not, suggesting he gets good legal advice.
I’d guess Trump doesn’t expect to win on every issue, nor does he need to. If he can win on a lot of the big ones, he’s done his job. He hands the country over to the next POTUS in better shape than he found it.
