The Most Personal Presidency Ever

by

The fundamental difference between Donald Trump’s presidency and those of his 43 predecessors is that his is all about him. Not policy, ideology, or even rudimentary orientation. Him. Him and his interests, as he sees them.

Consider his criteria for U.S. support and opposition. Putin and his oligarchs have helped him, so they merit support wherever possible. Ukraine has been arrayed against Putin since it overthrew his puppet there, whom Paul Manafort was soaking for a not-small fortune. Manafort then told Trump that Ukraine’s new leaders were opposed not just to Putin but to him—Trump. The New York Times has reported that that was enough to enrage Trump, and then, with Joe Biden leading the Democratic pack, it was all but automatic that Trump would condition aid to Ukraine on its helping his own political prospects.

This pattern repeats itself in Trump’s domestic policies—most recently, in his threat to withhold assistance from California in the wake of its fire epidemic, because the state is home to more anti-Trump Americans than any other and he viscerally hates it. When California has fires, he tweeted, it looks, like every other state when hit by natural disaster, to the federal government for help. “No more,” Trump tweeted.

Such personalization of policy doesn’t mean that Trump doesn’t have a range of what appear to be policies as such—anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-science, as well as anti–his critics, be they real or imagined. These policies reflect his deep biases and insecurities; they are directed at those he believes are his political enemies, current or potential; and reward, at least at the level of symbolism, his supporters. But the degree to which the personal eclipses basic policy considerations is unprecedented. Kim Jong Un takes Trump seriously, so we’re OK with North Korea. California irks him; let it burn. By such criteria are matters of state decided.

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