Running on empty.
Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/CNP/Bloomberg
Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/CNP/Bloomberg
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It’s not unusual for Republicans to be less programmatic in their campaign promises than Democrats. Still, President Donald Trump’s answer Thursday night to Sean Hannity’s question about his plans for a second term was perplexing:
Well one of the things that will be really great: you know, the word experience is still good. I always say talent is more important than experience. I’ve always said that. But the word experience is a very important word. It's a very important meaning. I never did this before, I never slept over in Washington. I was in Washington I think 17 times, all of a sudden I’m the president of the United States, you know the story, I’m riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our First Lady and I say, “This is great.” But I didn’t know very many people in Washington, it wasn’t my thing. I was from Manhattan, from New York. Now I know everybody. And I have great people in the administration. You make some mistakes, like you know an idiot like Bolton, all he wanted to do is drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to kill people.
Can you make heads or tails out of it? I’m normally inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt if impromptu comments don’t quite work, but it’s hard to make much sense of this at all. The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf tried to, and concluded that Trump’s “answer is basically that he's a Washington insider now and that should help.” But even that analysis explains nothing about what Trump plans to do, or even who he plans to be, in a second term. And in any event I’m pretty sure he’d deny being a Washington insider if asked.
He doesn’t offer up “transition to greatness” or whatever this week’s campaign slogan might be. Nor does he remember that he’s supposedly running on a “law and order” agenda in response to the protests against police violence from the past few weeks, let alone any specific policy ideas.
The question I’ve been asking myself when I watch Trump’s campaign events, including his rally in Tulsa last weekend, is: What’s he saying that might appeal to those who aren’t his strongest supporters? Especially since some 55% of his constituents disapprove of the job he’s doing as president? Over and over again, I’m stumped. He doesn’t even seem to concede that he has any work to do besides reminding his most diehard backers of why they like him so much. As Paul Waldman asks in a slightly different context, “why does it seem that Trump isn’t even trying to win?”
That’s something I’ve wondered for a while now. Trump’s actions, both with regard to public policy and now even on the campaign trail, just don’t seem to make much sense if his objective is to win a second term.
My best guess? He doesn’t understand the presidency very well, and he has increasingly hollowed out his White House and campaign staff, eliminating anyone who might’ve helped steer him in a more productive direction. There’s still time. But it’s hard to watch Trump’s 15-minute rant about the West Point ramp, or his incoherent answer about his second-term plans, and see how he’s going to take advantage of the next few months.
1. Julia Azari on the possibilities of a new political era and a Joe Biden presidency.
2. Dave Hopkins speculates that 2020 might be the end of the myth of the campaign guru. I’m not so optimistic.
3. Alan I. Abramowitz finds that Trump’s rallies probably didn’t help him during the 2016 campaign.
4. Molly E. Reynolds and Christian Potter on remote voting in the House.
5. And Anne Joseph O’Connell at the Monkey Cage on the firing of U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman.
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This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
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Timothy Lavin at tlavin1@bloomberg.net
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