Trump: the Man vs. the Chief Executive

Trump: the Man vs. the Chief Executive

– By Howard Sierer –

Over the past eight years, I am on record multiple times of disapproving of President-elect Trump as a person but being in favor a number of things that were accomplished in his first administration. Jim Smith’s articulate comment on my 22 September column explained why he feels the same way:

“In my view Trump is two different people. There is Trump the man and Trump the chief executive. Trump the man is an unapologetic, vindictive, petty, self-centered narcissist and it’s probably what enables him to endure the unrelenting attacks he receives from every source imaginable and his so-called lies are mostly about confusing his desired goals with reality.

“On the other hand, Trump the chief executive was an outstanding president who, when it came to policies, said what he meant, meant what he said, did what he said and followed through when possible to produce outstanding results which is a new concept in American politics.

“Also, Trump the man – at least by all indications so far – only went openly after individual adversaries with nasty words like any other powerless commoner on the street with a similar temperament would do – and – unlike Presidents Obama and to some extent, Biden – did not appear to use the power of the presidency to silently go after them with government agencies like the FBI, IRS, Justice Department or Intelligence community.

“The bottom line is as long as President Trump kept the ‘man’ separated from the powers of the ‘chief executive’ I didn’t care what he said (at least it was unfiltered and honest and hadn’t been scripted by an army of pundits, advisors, speechwriters and focus groups) but I did care what he did and I thought he did a great job.

“And in position of power, I would rather have someone addicted to him/herself rather than to power, as those who seek power seem to have the least compunction about using it.”

The media focuses on what politicians say while instead I pay attention to what they do. You may be surprised to learn that I haven’t listened to a State of the Union speech or to a television or radio newscast or press conference in over 30 years. I would not recognize the voices of Barack Obama, Donald Trump or Joe Biden if I listened to a recording.

Hence, media reports about the outrageous things Trump says and the lies he has told mean very little to me or to a majority of American voters. Their votes reflected what he did while in office as compared to what Biden/Harris did. Meanwhile the media spent this fall’s campaign season disparaging what Trump said.

Will Trump’s second term be as successful as his first? Only time will answer that question, but here are a few ideas that would get the ball rolling.

Return to the southern border policies that dramatically reduced the number of illegal (yes, illegal, not what the liberal media euphemistically calls “undocumented”) aliens entering the country.

Save women’s athletics by rescinding Biden’s transgender policies that allowed biological men to compete, and while you’re at it, keep biological men out of women’s locker rooms and rest rooms.

Work with the new Republican Congress to get back on the path to fiscal sanity by repealing the Democrat’s $1+ trillion green energy boondoggle misleadingly named the Inflation Reduction Act.

Finally, turn Elon Musk loose on the hundreds of unneeded and overly restrictive regulations promulgated in the Biden years. Hopefully Musk can identify some unneeded agencies while he’s at it.

Now that Trump can’t run again, maybe the media will spend more time reporting what he does and less time on what he says. One can only hope.