Watch the Audience

Frank Bruni at the New York Times argued yesterday that the Trump presidency remains one big question mark. While certainly not a 'liberal mole,' he is a question mark.

“That [his tendency to bend to the crowd applauding him at the moment] was perhaps the most interesting part of the meeting, the one that makes his presidency such a question mark. Will he tilt in whatever direction, and toward whichever constituency, is the surest source of applause? Is our best hope for the best Trump to be so fantastically adulatory when he’s reasonable that he’s motivated to stay on that course, lest the adulation wane?  

The Trump who visited The Times was purged of any zeal to investigate Clinton’s emails or the Clinton Foundation, willing to hear out the scientists on global warming, skeptical of waterboarding and unhesitant to disavow white nationalists. He never mentioned the border wall. 

He more or less told us to disregard all the huffing and puffing he’d done about curtailing press freedoms, and he looked forward to another meeting — a year from now — when we’d all reunite in a spirit of newfound amity to celebrate his administration’s uncontroversial accomplishments.”

The characteristics that make Trump unfit and unprepared cut both ways. While the risk remains great and we need to balance vigilance with collaboration, there is more than a snowballs chance that President Trump will emphasize problem solving.

His enormous ego (not unusual for a politician, of course) drives him to be seen as a winner and as president this means legislative accomplishments. It is possible we will see one or more ‘grand bargains,’ that package legislation we will applaud (close the gun show loop hole) with legislation we will not (means test Social Security), for instance.

EJ Dionne in the Washington Post argued a day earlier that Senate Democrats seeking to work with Trump need to be very careful. I rarely disagree with EJ Dionne, but in this case I choose to applaud Senator Schumer for coming out early with a clear statement of a complex position: we will not back down when he is wrong, but we also stand ready to work with the president-elect to get things done for the American people.

“Charles E. Schumer, the incoming Senate Democratic leader, insists there will be no backing down when his party finds itself implacably opposed to Trump.

But the senator from New York defends the idea that Democrats should set tough standards on trade, infrastructure and other economic concerns and offer to work with Trump if he meets them. For example, Schumer says, his party is looking for a real plan on roads, bridges and transit and would not go along with Trump’s tax-break scheme disguised as an infrastructure proposal. 

Democrats will either win significant policy victories, Schumer says, or show Trump’s working-class backers where the new president’s priorities really lie. Refusing to work with Trump altogether, Schumer said, would be ‘to close the door. . .when middle-class jobs and incomes are at stake’ and ‘be unfair to our constituencies.’”

Contrast this with the Senator McConnell’s response to the election of President Obama: We will do everything in our power to block him at every turn so nothing gets done to help the American people.

Senator Schumer is offering a very real and significant olive branch at a time of civil war. 

My guess is that Trump is open to accepting it if he believes it will result in concrete results he can point to as evidence of his successful presidency…depending on the audience applauding him on any given day.