Strategic Retreat
It would be most helpful to the country if President Trump used his summer vacation as a strategic retreat. A retreat from demagoguery. A retreat from nepotism. A retreat from the general war he has declared on Washington, the government he is supposed to be leading, the news media, Democrats, and the Republican Party he was allowed to hijack in the last election.
A poll released by Quinnipiac University shows the president’s approval rating at 33%. This should be setting off alarm bells even in a White House filled with true believers. If we accept the premise that Trump has surrounded himself with advisers who have been successful in the business world, then it should follow they are slaves to data, and the data should be showing them that it is time to change course. The value proposition is not being met, the product is not selling, a new strategy is required. As businesspeople, there should be no emotion halting the decisions that must be made. They include these:
The Use of the Bully Pulpit
It has been reported that a young Tip O’Neill once advised an even younger John F. Kennedy that he needed to be “less Harvard and more Boston” when campaigning. Similarly the president needs to be less bully and more pulpit when using the powers of his office to communicate with the American people.
The president’s recent speech in Huntington, West Virginia was dangerous in tone and substance. It revealed a president who feels under siege by low approval ratings, the failure to enact any major legislation, and the pressure of the on-going investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election — an investigation he has no power to keep from delving into the finances of his family business. Cornered, Trump desperately resorted to an us versus them strategy, presenting himself as a victim and suggesting anyone who questions him is the enemy of the average American.
“They can’t beat us at the voting booths,” Trump said. “They are trying to cheat you out of the future and the future you want. They are trying to cheat you out of the leadership that you want with a fake story(the Russian story) that is demeaning to all of us, and most importantly, demeaning to our country, and demeaning to our constitution.”
This rhetorical technique is plainly designed to rally a mob. After working the audience into a frenzy, the only step left to take is to direct that audience - that mob — to take action against the enemy the speaker has identified. Trump’s enemy, polls show, is most of the rest of the country and the institutions that are working to serve as a check against a president who lacks self-control.
The West Virginia speech reflects Trump’s basic instincts. His first play is always to stand his ground regardless of the evidence against him and fight. When he is losing the fight he tries to drag others in on his behalf. He is quick to form new alliances and he is almost as quick to dump anyone who no longer serves his purpose.
If there is a reset after Trump’s summer vacation it might begin with a simple list of things to do:
Healthcare reform(not repeal).
Tax reform.
An infrastructure plan.
A goodwill tour to put our allies at ease.
Around this list, President Trump should limit his public comments and public appearances in a manner that supports his agenda. He should never again mention the Russia probe until it is complete. He should never again mention Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama unless he is awarding them the Medal of Freedom. He should never again give a speech that divides America into those who love him and those who don’t.
This would be a strategy that could turn the Trump presidency around. Although he has done nothing to expand his base beyond those who voted for him in 2016, his base would quickly grow if he began to behave like a conventional president and if he began to make progress on behalf of the country. Even his most ardent detractors would be willing to acknowledge his success if he turned off the hate and did something that helps everyone.
Assume the Role of Chief Executive
By now it should be apparent to President Trump that being president is harder than running a family business, no matter how big, or how successful that family business is.
A person as successful as Trump must realize he needs help. He must realize he needs to rely on a team of advisors with expertise in areas he has never studied. Trump needs to let go of his hands on approach and rely on a professional staff to put issues before him ripe for presidential decision. He then needs to rely on that same group of professionals to carry out his decisions once they are made.
Voters did not elect Donald Trump to be Donald Trump. He was elected to be the president of the United States. He was elected because voters trusted that once he got into office he could conduct himself in a way that would produce results. So far, this is the great failure of the Trump presidency and a major breach of trust.
New Role, New Team
Donald Trump assembled a campaign and fielded a team that scored an historic upset over a political machine, led by Bill and Hillary Clinton. The Clinton’s had every advantage including a network of supporters and donors decades in the making. Trump should have had no chance. He proved everyone wrong. He must now let go of that fight.
It is time for President Trump to acknowledge that the people who brought him to the White House are not the people who should run the White House. Look to past administrations as an example. It is rare for an administration to include any more than one or two top campaign operatives on a White House staff once a new president takes office. Even then, those staffers most closely aligned with the campaign usually leave the White House after the first year.
President Trump is still surrounded by aides with no practical experience in government. Some are ideologues, some are family, some are no more than glorified body men. They have served their purpose and should be placed outside the White House, for the good of the country. There they can spend their time preparing for the next campaign.
The decision by Chief of Staff John Kelly to remove Anthony Scaramucci from his role as director of communications on Kelly’s first day on the job was a start, but the house cleaning needs to go further.
The smartest move Kelly and the president can make now is to remove Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump from the staff. Whether it is legal or not, whether they take a salary or not, they have no qualifications for the jobs they hold and the White House will lack credibility as long as they are seen as part of the operation. Their presence is a sign of weakness. They represent the president’s need to be coddled. They represent the president’s insecurity with being out-numbered by people who have expertise in government and experience in Washington.
Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Kennedy and Hillary Clinton are the most often cited examples of presidential family members who played major roles in past administrations. In all three cases, each had years of experience in or around government. They were deeply involved in the issues of the day. They had a basic understanding of how government works and how to build consensus. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump lack minimum credentials, and from what we know of their role in the administration to date, the advice they have given has been mostly bad.
As family, the president’s daughter and son-in-law will always have access to the president and always have the ability to express their opinions directly to him. Their presence as key members of the president’s staff however is a conflict of interest and a disservice to the American people. The president should return from vacation without them.
Compassionate Conservatism
Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller should also peel off on the flight home.
They represent ideology over substance. They were useful in helping Trump get elected by identifying and crafting a communications strategy meant to galvanize voters who think they are being ignored by their government, but now that Trump is in the White House there is little they can do to help make him successful. They are dead enders.
Their insistence on arguing philosophy rather than enacting policy makes any compromise look like a loss. They are unable to define winning half a loaf as a victory so they will always lose.
During the administration of George W. Bush a long-time Republican insider criticized the president for pushing compassionate-conservatism. The former Reagan adviser said he had no use for “hyphenated conservatism,” ignoring that Reagan did.
That losing attitude, represented in the Trump White House by Bannon and Miller, will kill the Republican Party as we know it. And let’s face it, people like Bannon and Miller would probably be fine with that, because they seek complete victory of their world view over the view of all others.
The Republican Party can not hope to maintain a leadership position if it continues to allow its policies to be tainted with the patina of mean. Do Republicans really hate President Obama so much that they want to take healthcare away from their fellow Americans? Do Republicans really hate outsiders so much that they want to make curtailing immigration the number one issue on the president’s agenda? Do Republicans really want to fight so hard for gun rights that they ignore the killing of children in our schools or the shooting of members of Congress in public parks?
The tragedy of the Trump presidency is the opportunity that is being squandered. The opportunity to make a difference. Trump is only conveniently a Republican and certainly not a conservative. He is only playing the role, because it was the only way to win. He won because people saw him as someone who could break the stalemate in Washington. Someone who could make a deal. President Trump was sent to the White House not to carry the flag for un-hyphenated conservatives like Bannon and Miller, but to use his business sense on behalf of the voters. Trump was correct at the Republican convention last year when he said, “he alone” can change things in Washington. Tragically, he doesn’t know where to begin, and he is taking advice from the wrong people if his goal is to change anything.
Focus on the Job Not the Leaks
In the New Yorker interview that ended the White House career of Scaramucci, he said there are some people in the administration who “think it is their job to save America from this president.” That is a chilling observation and explains why the Trump administration is plagued by leaks to the news media.
Many of the leaks coming from the Trump administration in the last six months have been meant to reveal the level of incompetence inside the White House. Combined with the president’s own public statements and Tweets, the information paints a picture of a president obsessed with his own public image and a leader without any guiding principles or policy goals. The leaks are a call for vigilance from inside the White House to everyone on the outside. Some of the leaks may be motivated by internal power struggles, but even those raise a level of alarm.
The way to end the problem is for the president to focus on his job. That work begins with instilling a sense of order and discipline in the White House. Success creates loyalty. Chaos leads to the opposite. So much of the success of the Trump presidency depends now on the ability of Kelly, as chief of staff, to define the purpose and goals of the administration and his ability to develop a plan to achieve those goals.
If Kelly’s tenure is short, it means there is little hope Trump can be tamed.There is much more riding on Kelly’s success than the president’s approval ratings. We can only hope Trump’s two weeks away from Washington will give him the perspective he needs to reset and return ready to lead as he promised he would.
