The article states:”But there is one thing he almost never does. “He very seldom asks how other presidents did this,” said John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff.”
So this 45th POTUS is taking us through an experiment.
I hope nothing blows up in the lab.
5
Agree with so many commenters here. The media continues to give some degree of credibility to this arrogant, fraudulent, buffoon by implying there is some plan to "reinvent" the presidency. He is debasing the institution by his very presence. On the rare occasions when he "acts" presidential, it is only because he was temporarily convinced to stick to the script. We all hoped he would sober up and make an effort once the weight of the office was upon him. But alas, one year in, he is every bit the crass, egotistical, and ignorant man-child that he revealed to us on the campaign trail. He is the best indication yet that we are sliding into an idiocracy.
7
History recalls the great leaders and the negative exemplars.
Trump will be recorded as one of the latter while making all other POTUSes look better.
And you know this is true based on how nostalgia for W warms the cockles of conservative hearts.
2
Ha! Reinventing the presidency . . Like a bull in a China shop reinvents the patterns.
8
What an absolute ignorance of history and other Presidents. The author and especially the Editor needs to read more about Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, William McKinley, Grover Cleveland, and my favorite Harry Truman.
Other Presidents have also defied past "decorum" shaken the WA DC status quo, used or abandoned the spoils system of political appointment, appealed to popular fears, used the bully pulpit to threaten business, ignored the Constitution, fought political corruption, and fought with the Press. Give 'em hell Harry!
Trump is a disrupter, who was elected by voters who wanted dramatic change. Sanders, was also a disrupter. Cruz was a disrupter. That was what people wanted in the 2016 Presidential election. The soul of this country wanted change and a President not like the most recent ones. To not understand that is to try to protect the status quo, which seem to be the perspective of this article and the NY Times editorial focus.
How can the NY Times so misunderstand Trump and portray him as so different and out of touch to other earlier Presidents. He is making change and those that embrace the status quo will find that frightening and wrong.
4
Can the DNC can find a 2020 candidate who is pre-American worker, anti-illegal, pro-economic growth and against men-in-women restrooms?
2
You boys opine endlessly how the dishonesty around Viet Nam, the complicity of the media (which has learned nothing in sixty years), the fraud that was Nixon marked a sea change for the worse in how Americans view what you like to call "their government".
Here we are again. No, not Trump. He's just the Rock 'em Sock'em blow-up Bozo du jour, fascinating to some in a train wreck kind way, the lone hope for the future to others, but forgotten once over.
The real change, the permanent change, is the confirmation that our legislature is unfaithful, true only to personal aggrandizement and Party.
That all those flaggy lapel pins, all that speechifying about "the American people", all that faux respect the institution of the courts and government are cynical tripe.
Regardless off who's next, they will be viewed with suspicion, always checked for the false move, the obvious tell.
Our representatives in DC have made clear that "nation of laws" is a nasty joke. Our courts are bought and paid for. Law enforcement operates at the whim of the locals with the biggest mouths, our intelligence may be able, or not, but they are also fully armed political entities.
The FBI runs the gamut from New York offices which lied and dissembled to elect this orange man to the investigation initiated by the Republican controlled legislature, now accused by the Republican controlled legislature of partisan political vendetta.
'Respect for the law' is a fading fanatsy. Chaos to ensue.
2
How has the Office of The President been devalued and cheapened ?
The media has had a hand in cheapening our views of the Presidency.
Trump is clearly an President without any moral core values and uses the
showman's tricks of being constantl commercial coverage ; daily publicizing
himself regardless of what a trail of wreckage ensues...The MEDIA gets
the viewership/ and Trump gets viewed...as well as all the media's commercial
revenues ensue.....People are watching the misbehavior or Donald J. Trump.
He is the media's magnet for advertising dollars....Every bad actor gets a lot
of attention....gets people to watch to buy what every is on the next news cycle
commercial....Big Pharma must love bad boy Trump.....BAD NEWS SELLS !!!
c
t
h
According to the left, the Trump Presidency was going to result in a global war and another great depression. One writer for NYT even predicted a stock market collapse.
Wrong again.
1
Who is responsible for approving and publishing the frequently awful headlines? The nyt has a responsibility to explore truth and meaning in these pages. This article basically attempts to normalize trump and his behavior. The use of nuanced language is inappropriate and ineffective to describe what has happened in recent months. Please be better.
6
You are you are way too kind. The present president is destroying the office. All for self gain, notoriety and vanity. We have ushered in the era of trash tv into the White House with him and his goons. Please wake me up from this nightmare. I guess we will wake up when some real crisis happens and there is no leadership. Welcome to America. Welcome to the horror awaiting us.
5
Joe Biden for President. There is an honest man.
4
By the way and just so's we know, Trumpists, the stock market IS up--as it has been upping since 2010.
And no, GDP isn't higher than ever under Obama: he beat the current quarterly rate about six times. And no, wages aren't higher: the contrary, in fact. And no, unemployment isn't down appreciably. And no, job growth isn't up at all, sorry.
You can look it up. I mention this because in the past, modern Presidents have at least WAVED at the truth. Or if they've lied--and this includes Bush--they stoopped, after they got nabbed. You can look that up as well, there are charts.
So congrats: your boy's indeed reshaped the Presidency. Into something where you lie, never apologize no matter what, and the suckers believe you.
Seems to me that's a mite dangerous.
7
I am concerned regarding the terms NYT uses to describe the current president. Words such as "reinventing" and "insurgent" (the latter had been used a few days ago) tend to cast a positive light on his activities; whereas, "bull in a china shop", "running roughshod" or "unthinking, uncaring" might be more accurate. How about "Alternative Presidency"
12
He's not a president. He's a legal excuse for traitors, thieves, and miscreants. As a candidate, he advocated violations of our Constitution and laws. He rode a platform of deceit, betrayal of American values, threats of violence and abuse, hatred, and inhumanity. He sold himself as a messianic demagogue with supreme ownership of truth, justice and loyalties. He swore a worthless oath on a book he's spent a lifetime betraying, to a constitution he's never read, and that he reviles and seeks to undermine at every opportunity. He swore to protect and defend a nation he's methodically damaging to its core, betraying our allies of, and supporting our enemies. He's supports life, liberty and justice for himself and his family. He passionately denies it to the people of the skin color, heritage, religion and values he says he values, but then consistently betrays and harms. He is president by fortune, not right. Upholding his win for the sake of The Democratic Process is like letting a driver drown save the far. We are losing our nations soul, integrity and power to pathologically greedy traitors. He is not a president, but a vile traitor of this country on every level. He's a president our Founders would deal with very differently, because they valued and understood what they created, and they knew treason and tyranny when they saw it. In the meantime, pray for the millions of Americans he's turned his back on, and is letting them needlessly suffer and die.
14
"The presidency has served as a vehicle for Mr. Trump to construct and promote his own narrative, one with crackling verve but riddled with inaccuracies, distortions and outright lies, according to fact checkers."
Does the NYT believe that fact checkers are any more neutral and correct than the media itself? Thinking people got over the fact checking nonsense a long time ago.
2
I love Trump and the more I read these negative and nasty comments the more I love him. He is in the White House and Hillary Clinton is in the dog house where she belongs.
What a breath of fresh air.
Pres Trump may be crude, but he has no history of being rented by other govts -- as has Hillary(100 mil from Russia, 12 mil from morocco, ____ mil from the Saudis, etc).
Obama left a North Korean mess, a vital and expansive Islamic State, a moribund economy, and national funk.
Trump is working on North Korea, killing Islamic State supporters and reducing the caliphate to zero, the US economy is growing with 3% GDP and maybe 4 % coming. Perhaps prosperity will be the "new normal" not suffocating regulations. Not a bad first year.....oh, and he "outed" beyond doubt the festering bias of too much of the media.
The Presidency was in need of reinventing in 2016. It would not do to approach the issues our nation faced with intellectualized, ideological or fantasy-based responses. All Americans understood this at some level, I believe, or at least those who gave the State of the Union a good, objective review.
Cyberwarfare had finally come of age by 2016, with its first volleys seen in massive hacks of poorly protected government and corporate networks. Whether Sony Pictures or the Office of Personnel Management, foreign actors were at work. Since the NSA keeps their attacks largely secret and unadmitted, we can’t know to what extent the U. S. is landing similar blows. But we DO know that foreign actors have been upping the ante.
The 2016 election had nothing to do with Russia, China, or any other govt wanting to “help” Donald Trump. Democrats need to recognize that Trump followed the rules and the law, and won fair and square under our electoral system. Trying to taint it or de-legitimize it is a waste of taxpayer money. Time to work with this president.
Most of all, the Mueller investigation gives false hope and is not, apparently, targeting what REALLY happened, what Russia’s REAL aim was; it was not to favor one or another candidate, tho they were hopeful of a thaw of some sort if Trump won; it was to create DIVISION by using incendiary Facebook, etc. posts via legit-looking “news” sites to turn up the enmity between liberal Democrats and Trump GOP. (Cont'd - "Marks 2"
I simply don't understand why the Times writes an article like this. Trump is a deeply mentally ill man who represents many of the worst aspects of humanity. He is an accidentally President, he is not re-inventing the Presidency, he is ruining our country.
13
Um, he's not my president.
7
I consider Trump to be a bad renter. He needs to be evicted.
4
Reading this article, where Baker swallows whole Trump's myth of folksiness, makes me think that Trump is not entirely wrong when he labels The Times "fake news."
4
Implying that President Obama abused Executive orders is completely dishonest. You have to go back 125 years to find a president who issues fewer EO than Obama. This in light of the most obstructionist congress in modern times.
They both do it is a lazy and corrupt argument.
2
Stop making him normal. He is destroying the country in a thousand ways.
6
No to normalizing this person in that office. Never. The sooner this Twilight Zone episode ends, the better. Then keep a record to consult for avoiding any repeat.
5
Meretricious, reprehensible, hypocritical, avaricious, and possibly clinically demented. Is that transformative? If so, then we have reversed evolution and metamorphosed into a lower life form. The presidency may need reformation, but it never should have been subjected to such ignominy it endures since the unfortunate accident of Trumpery ascended.
1
The problem is he wants to do away with the traditions he chooses to disrespect, but he still insists on all the perks.
If he wants to go back to the way Andrew Jackson did it, then ditch Air Force One, ditch Hail To The Chief, ditch the Secret Service, ditch all of it.
It's not a year, yet. I won't give this Trump character an inch he doesn't deserve. It's just as likely the whole thing will blow up on him in the next 3 weeks.
Woe is me, woe is America, woe is the entire world and woe is
the planet Earth with Donald J. Trump in the White House.
America was fooled by the slick sales pitch of a con man delivering
results for certain to the rich and scraps and promises to everybody else. Remember this was the same man who brought you Trump University
which was proven to be a fraud. Why anybody would be foolish enough to believe Trump's tactics will change just because he's President now
is beyond me.
Trump is an arrogant, blustering bully on one big continuous ego trip. Trump doesn't want to make America great. That was never the plan. Trump only wants to make Trump greater and richer and doesn't give a hoot about America or Americans---unless of course you're Republican. Venal, greedy. corrupt and totally self centered. A disaster and a disgrace. More indictments against Trump aides are forthcoming.
Woe is me, woe is America, woe is the entire world, woe is the planet Earth with Donald J. Trump in the White House.
I am ashamed to call myself an American. We have sold our souls to the Devil with bad orange hair for tax cuts and being "strong". America is more than just the bottom line and acting tough. America is much more than just another division of the Trump family business. America is great, always has been great and always will be great and doesn't need the help of a loud mouthed bully and fraud with bad orange hair who may be a criminal and traitor. No good can come of this ever.
3
The ignorant,incompetent racist, Donald Trump was placed in the White House by Republicans who systematically corrupted the electoral process. They did so with Citizens United dark money and most recently with Russian support. It is far more important to trll the story of our failed Democracy than to analyze the bumbling moves of Trump, the ultimate insult to the American people made by the owners of the GOP.
4
Trump did a favor for the Democratic Party: He showed the world what the leaders of the Republican Party are made of. Trump claimed that Senator Ted Cruz's father was part of the John F. Kennedy assassination and that Mrs. Ted Cruz was UGLY! Called Senator Marco Rubio "little marco" to his face, and said that Senator John McCain was not a war hero because war heroes don't get captured. Bad mouthed Senator Jeff Flake. And guess what? These guys all voted for his tax plan and continue to be Trump supporters. They are worse than Trump.
Trump and company are the lowest of the low. They do not represent the best qualities of America.
3
No thoughtful American citizen will ever embrace a two-bit thug criminal like Trump.
Prisons are full of sociopath's like Trump.
He has not "reinvented" the presidency. That's utter nonsense. He is only there because the law requires him to be there and ultimately he will be removed because the requires his removal. Let's not pretend that he isn't what he is: a criminal who should be removed from the streets and imprisoned for the remainder of his sick, disgusting, life.
5
If the Times wants to call what Trump has done "reinventing" the Presidency then I suppose it has the right to do that. I have several less complementary terms for the actions of this habitually dishonest, avaricious, intellectually deficient, self-serving, nepotistic, cruel, vulgar, autocratic lowlife.
Trump reminds me of Colin Ferguson, the Long Island gunman who fired his lawyers and represented himself at trial. As the circus-like proceedings unfolded, conventional wisdom was that Ferguson -- who had neither legal training nor a logical defense strategy -- was making a mockery of the legal system. But when the verdict was delivered (quickly, if I recall), Ferguson's conviction proved the system durable. He succeeded in makng a mockery only of himself. And... that trial was a one-off. There has not been another like it since.
I hope the same for Trump. When he leaves office, may the presidency rebound to its former dignity, and may we all be gratified that the institution is stronger than we dared imagine. And may Trump have made a mockery only of himself (and his accomplices and hangers-on).
4
This is shocking.
Debasing, not Reinventing, another integral element of white supremacy.
2
Aliens who descend on us to study the Homo sapiens mind will ponder the anomaly of how this man was elected president of the most powerful country on the planet. And they will come away from the inquiry in trepidation, wondering if their own civilizations could take such a turn.
Tru.p by signing his great tax fraud bill has fired the first shot in the civil war against the blue states. They pay the majority of the federal tax bill and will now pay more.
I heard a Republican congressman talking about a infrastructure bill but only giving money for it to the red states. It is time to start the real conversation on the state splitting up. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Washington, Oregon and New Mexico Would be the most powerful country on the planet. The red welfare states would go bankrupt.
3
Nice story - it represents the elites and media expectations/disapproval very well. The story also accurately portrays Trump as ubiquitously tweeting his views without filter, much to the chagrin of those who STILL don't understand his style.
AND I am one of those who thinks it's about time we had someone who didn't wear the "airs" of Presidency in such a aloft manner. I love it, no apologies, no defense, no fear.
It's clear there are plenty of those entrenched in the "old school presidency" who will claim what Trump is doing will upset the apple cart (at least theirs). BUT I agree with Martha, the Presidency, We the people, and the United States will be stronger for Trump's Presidency. It's about time we gave the Presidency back to grass roots of America, the people that make it all happen. Listen now or listen later, but you're bound to understand Trump's message at some point if you listen without bias.
Happy New Year America!
1
Trump is moving at the speed of business, not the speed of politics. That alone is a transformational change.
He will create the expectation that govt is supposed to respond quickly to the electorate, which may be difficult to match for future presidents.
He also seems to be keeping most of his promises, which may also be difficult to match for future presidents.
1
The framers of the Constitution were worldly people, who almost certainly saw the inevitability that demagogues would eventually ascend to office. The three branches of government were designed to control the other. We are hardly done with this incompetent leader, but he can't win another election appealing to only one faction of America.
1
Can't wait to see what great accomplishments President Trump will achieve for 2018. He has certainly had a successful 2017 much to the chagrin of his detractors. He accomplished much with more in store. They cannot find any fault with his presidency but still they try and come up empty. Happy New Year.
1
Trump will be seen as a transformational president. My entire family supports him. I myself have reservations, but have to admit I picked him over Hillary Clinton. I think he has a decent chance at re-election, and I will be watching closely to see who the Democrats put forward in 2020. Trump by no means has my voe locked up, but my confidence in the Democrats to put forward an appealing candidate is quite low at this point.
2
The office of the presidency needs to be reinstated, then maybe by the next election suitable candidates will join the process, something that was missing from the last election.
President Trump is a leader and a leader will never accept to lead the country as others claim. As Mr. Kelly said, Donald Trump is interested in getting to know all of the pros and cons of others to make the right decisions for the country's best interests. And, this is the duty of any president. In fact, it's the duty of any leader whatever he leads. We didn't vote for a president to be a doll drawn on strings that only approve the decisions made by "others". These "other", if they want to impose their decisions, will have to go through the fire of election and become presidents.
Critics create a majority more quickly and easily, which is why people have more enemies than friends.
Beautiful and Good does not exist in human society. Being concepts created by people are subjective interpretations imposed by social forces.
Even if the ideal of humanity is peace and well-being, we must constantly be vigilant, armed and ready to fight, because the enemy constantly watches the place of another. Whether it's countries, peoples, leaders, political parties, supporters, subordinates, the same principle works. No one is happy for another's success, well-being and prosperity.
1
Using social media should be off limits to the President. Any President. It is too dangerous. Communications should be tempered. In this case - with a President seemingly unable to delay impulses - the President should be forced to hold credible and open press conferences and dialogue with members of the senate and congress directly. Twitter for this President should not be a "reinvention of the Presidency" His access should be banned. @johannaclear
2
Reinventing means there is inventing going on. That doesn't seem at all like what we're watching. He's transforming it, perhaps. Deconstructing it, but that's too clinical.
Trump is unraveling our government, and rending the position of President impotent and unrespectable. I feel like he's breaking the presidency with his incompetence and fraudulence. He's dissolving it, and with it, the reverence we had for the position and the person holding it.
Is that overstating it? Am I overreacting? It doesn't feel like it. I've never listened to a president speak and automatically believed everything said was untrue. We're only one year in. If he isn't contained or removed, I can't even imagine where we'll be after three more.
1
Frustrated by opposition in Congress, where G.O.P has majority in both chambers?
It sounds like, as Tea Party movement suggested, Mr.Trump, and his base supporters, is directing his anger toward American politics -- blowing up the whole system.
Obama sought to "transform" America into what the progressives hoped would be a society even more controlled by government than we already have. Overreaching regulations with his "phone and pen," often stymied by the courts stilted the economy where it was declared 2% GDP growth would be the new normal. Obama perfected the divisiveness to his benefit, even though the Democrats lost over 1,000 state positions, the House, and the Senate.
Trump is a backlash against that type of government "transformation" and hope for a more free market society. There is a reason the 10 most wealthy counties surround Washington DC. Pay to play politics grew to outlandish proportions. Trump was elected on the promise of reigning in government and putting America first.
The media and political pundits cannot stand his exaggerations and hyperbole, but everyday Americans get it. We look to actions, not the words. The media loved the slick speeches of Obama, but actions were usually opposite of words and exposed only in "hot-mic" moments ("more flexibility after the election," "Shovel ready jobs weren't so shovel ready)" or reality "If you like your insurance you can keep your insurance."
As bombastic as Trump is, the people get that he means what he says and it is refreshing. Not many people like the tweets and personal attacks, but they knew he was like that when they voted for him. I doubt anyone thought he would change. Now he just has to keep his promises.
It will be up to Congress and the people to restore dignity to the presidency by pushing for and passing laws that make it more clear that the president must follow the laws of our nation. There must be teeth put into the conflict of interest rules and the Emoluments Clause must be reinforced.
The Trumpian paradox is that he has forced all the American cultural and political elites to spend significant portions of their lives searching for meaning in the detritus of his shallow existence. To understand him, we try to think like he thinks, and then of course he has won. Trumpology becomes a legitimate and respectable intellectual industry with its own code of professional ethics, lobbyists and trade associations.
All of American culture has become a valuable commodity. If it makes you rich, it must be wonderful. By definition.
Trump's trivial existence occupies our minds to the exclusion of more important things. Sure, it's occasionally amusing and bracingly displays to us our warts and blemishes in the national mirror. But on a more serious level, it's no way to run a country.
1
trump is dumbing down the presidency. It is hard enough to watch it every day. I don't need to read about it.
When I was a kid, every once in a while, an adult would give a reason or explanation for why another adult was acting incoherently, or vindictively, or childishly. It was meant to lessen any fear or uncertainty kids felt under the circumstances, but no one ever believed what was being said or honestly thought the offending adult would agree with the excuses or explanations. The NYT is playing the part of that reassuring adult, saying things none of us believe or recognize as valid when it comes to this train wreck of a president. And instead of making us feel better, it scares us all the more, because the adults are supposed to know better, and the adults are supposed to be our shield against the damages, and the insanity, and the fear. I don't know why the NYT is indebted to Trump, or why they won't call a spade a spade, but I do know it is time for me to find someone willing to tell the truth. This odd and unstable approach to the truth is depressing, eye opening, and horrifying.
1
Watching the shenanigans from afar and down under, one cannot but draw parallels to our own conservative government and its leadership. Yes, they are both uber rich but there is a line in the sand that no recent heads of government (including Silvio) has crossed in terms of separation of conflicts of interest and self enrichment.
The present set up in he USA feels more like an oligarchy, no marks to guess which great country is the leader in this regard. We are hoping at some point the American proletariat will demand full disclosure and voice their opinion over the apparent blatant gloss over and disrespect for such an hallowed office.
DJT has reinvented the office like hurricanes have “reinvented” the power grid in Puerto Rico.
It will take the people of this great country (and our votes) to repair the damage done, but a reality TV personality and failed businessman can only do so much!
I am thankful every day for DJT incompetence because it keeps him from doing any real and lasting damage to the office he holds and the nation he is supposed to serve.
In short, we will get past this and even though DJT is a stain on our democracy we will get over and past this bad time as a nation. Just like the lights will come on in PR once again- without the help of DJT.
I’ve come to appreciate President Trump more than I thought I would. In many ways, he's reminiscent of Jack Nicholson’s character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Trump isn't crazy. It's our PC society that is. He's just shaking things up.
President Trump is still our president and his enemies were not able to remove him from office. They certainly tried but were unsuccessful.
They talked impeachment from day one but could find nothing to cause his impeachment. I guess they are stuck with him for three more years. Isn't that just wonderful. With any luck he will be reelected. Certainly hope so.
1
There are two reason Why President Trump is different than his predecessors
1) Other become a president for two terms, look at his success, royal lifestyle for almost whole of his life. He is a whole life president.
America voted him as he is, there were leaked tape, rumors , controversies, attacking media but he defeated all these things.
2) He is not very political guy, he is a nice human being. The controversies arises when he tries to be a person who he is not. This actually applies to us all.
He had to save many women and kids in Syria from further Chemical attack that's why he allowed missile attack, Otherwise he is against war.
It become clear from his interview with Bill o really and the patience he has shown while dealing with the brutal dictator of North Korea.
1
What I find most disturbing is the way journalist and politicos insist on "normalizing" Trump and seeing him though the lens of their own past professional experience. So every personality flaw, every outrageous act, every bit of insanity is interpreted as a strategic move that's part of some divine plan.
The guy is a con man, more Bernie Madof than Abe Lincoln. So he gets points for appealing to the "forgotten rural Americans", but did anyone familiar with his background have any doubt that he would double cross them as soon as he got into office—take away their healthcare, increase their taxes, strip away environmental protection, and not provide them with any new jobs? His promise to revive the coal industry alone, again, praised in the media for "reaching out to Americans in pain" was nothing but cynical attempt to get votes with no foothold in reality. Was that even a footnote
Until we admit Trump administration is nothing less than a total breakdown in our democratic process — a failure of media, government, and the voters themselves—to serve an protect the nation.
1
What's the difference between Trump and an old-fashioned Latin American caudillo, or Huey Long? When constitutional boundaries are transgressed, traditions of civility and respect and compassion are abandoned, and government actions stem from the narcissistic impulses of one poorly informed and ill-advised man who brooks no opposition, are we far from a dictatorship?
1
This article starts with the falsehood that Trump is curious enough to ask for anything to anybody other than former Presidents. How many times he has said that he knows more about a given subject than experts on such subjects e.g. Genarals, CPAs, etc. and furthermore, he has reinforced that believe by challenging that he alone can do it.
A person so misguided like that cannot by definition be interested in learning from anybody else. It is a flaw in character - among many others. I believe he is so flawed that he simply would not have been hired to manage any publicly traded corporation.
Personally I want a leader who has an inspiring vision of the future. I do NOT want somebody who incites division and worst RAGE. How is that transformational?
The one good thing that has come out of this Presidency is that many of us have learnt the value of our vote and I for one plan to make it count in the future.
The main difference is President Trump isn't a politician he has substance, unlike obama & other career politicians who've never worked a real job in their lives. He comes from the private sector where results are expected & failure is a pink slip so I'm sure somewhere he has a business plan on how to get the country restored with jobs, wealth, security, & infrastructure that's his goal, not keeping his job but doing his job. If the American people reject having more money in their pockets, less government intrusion in their life, an era of getting things done that hasn't happened in 50 years then they will destroy the country by voting him out.
I hope President Trump continues the reinvent the presidency in 2018. I support the President. I support Trump! Thank you.
1
President Obama operated strictly within legal boundaries? How can that be the case when the Iran deal was not constitutionally brought before the U.S. Senate for ratification!
As I'm reading the comments section, I'm struck by the indifference towards the will of the American voter. The above article is a fair and largely accurate breakdown of our highest elected official - yet little regard is held for the desires and will of the people who voted for President Trump. Donald J. Trump was fairly and convincingly elected by those who knew exactly what they were getting when they punched the card. How anyone can gaze over the last two years and consider Trump incompetent or unsuccessfull, escapes logic and reeks of sour grapes.
So what? President Trumps policies, personality, or methods don't suit your view of the world? Should I remind you folks that elections have consequences? President Trump is almost exactly what his voters expected and these commentaries are merely confirmations.
If you're uncomfortable with the type of presidency we now find ourselves with - take a look in the mirror. It's most likely the confines of your ideological president that brought us here.
For too long, this Office has been occupied by Americans who were nothing special and not especially hard working.
Change was good and needed.
What is amazing about Trump is that he has never held an elected post. However, he decided to become President and beat all his challengers with years of political experience and got elected as President of the strongest nation in the world. I don't think there as an example of this happening in the world history. Despite all the negative press , the fact is that Trump has had a successful first year.
It will be foolish for his opponents in US or abroad to underestimate him.
Your suggestion that Mr. Trump has reinvented the presidency is dangerous, if only because the notion of reinvention has an implied positive connotation. Mr. Trump has dismantled the United States government agency by agency, and as result has left the country vulnerable to any number of negative consequences. He has no genuine respect for the office or the people he governs. Please do not elevate him by implying that his egregious behavior is a manifestation of a creative maverick. Yes...the government needs to be reformed. But it also needs to be reformed with intentions that are for all the people--not just rich white people.
3
This article pretty much hits the nail on the head. Danger to those who think an
"opposite" kick back will occur.......that is wishful thinking at best. Voters are more upset with conventional plastic presidencies than hopeful critics think!
That the 3 arms of government function at the federal level to serve the country and her people is Utopian. What has been functioning for too long, is a cabal of self serving politicians, with a handful of exceptions, whom gravitated to the gravy and icing of corruption fed by sponsors. These cabals are on the hook for too long and any suggestion of detox is both remote and unwelcomed. Trump, is deserving reward for the US and most apt a protagonist of what America is. He is not a disruptior but a 'messiah' of how corrupt the US has become.
We need to stop entertaining intellectual curiosity items about this guy and hold him to account for doing everything from obstructing investigations to enriching himself by refusing to divest interests. His henchmen keep trying to normalize the abnormality of his behavior. Nothing about his time in office has been normal and nothing about him has changed. He is grossly incompetent and proves it daily. He is using the office to enrich himself and his spawn, and proves it daily.
2
To me, the problem is our own ambivalence. The members of Congress don't have the guts to stand up to this guy, and Americans have lost interest in politics. Until now, anyway. Trump thinks he can bully and intimidate others into yielding to him, and so far he has been successful. He thinks he is supreme ruler, or the CEO of America. We, the voters, the public, have to hold him, and all elected officials, accountable.
I was so horrified by this headline that I almost cancelled my subscription on the spot. The idea that Donald Trump is capable of 'reinventing" anything, rather than merely operating in the moment to do whatever he thinks will sate his gargantuan ego or make him money, is stupefying.
To quote George Will when Trump voiced his support of Roy Moore, ""He completed his remarkably swift — it has taken less than 11 months — rescue of the 17th, Andrew Johnson, from the ignominy of ranking as the nation’s worst president."
Thank God that in the midst of this national nightmare, we still have free speech. I have little doubt that Trump would jail his critics the way his idol Putin does if he could get away with it.
3
The worst thing Americans can do is normalize the aberrations of Trump. Mr. Baker does just that with the word 're-inventing'. The tone of this article is distressing in its nonchalant reporting. Baker writes as if Trump's behavior is just another viewpoint or means of governing, equally valid to every previous model only expressed differently by Trump.
There is nothing legitimate about Trump. Wrong is wrong, evil is evil, treason is treason. Morality and decency are constants, not determined by the Electoral College. Trump may occupy the office, but he is unfit to serve and is incapable of representing a free people.
2
If we want to rid ourselves of the Trump nation we have accept that everyone belongs. In the last year, I've seen comments attacking Latinos, African-Americans, Men, Asians, Mixed race, White, Baby Boomers, Old White people, etc etc etc. We need to accept that every person belongs and has a place in society. Until this year I thought affirmative action was a good thing. Then I started seeing comments where people are thinking that they only got where they got because of skin tone. I know a lot people who have darker skin tones that are incredibily intelligent, motivated, and deserving. The comments that they didn't have the same smarts as someone with a lighter complextion really bothered me. United we stand, divided we fall.
1
Reinventing, or diminishing, or embarrassing, or patronizing, or ridiculing, or devastating?
1
Interesting. The key take away here is that Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump operated IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY. While Mr. Trump seemed to be frustrated by the Federal bureaucracy and the speed of change once he became President almost instantly, apparently it took Mr. Obama most of his first term to become exactly what Mr. Trump is today; only more quietly.
The big difference between Mr. Trump and Mr. Obama is that Trump is screaming out his opinions and actions, and Obama was quietly, sneakily perverting the Federal bureaucracy with his Marxist/Leninist appointees.
Thank you Mr. President! Keep up the great work and don't ever cave to the left wing media who seeks nothing more than to destroy your presidency.
1
Trump's narcissistic blunderbuss of a presidency is a good reminder of why the framers worked so tirelessly to establish a system of checks and balances. With democrats looking to take back the house and senate and the Special Counsel working hard to unravel this web of criminal activities, I feel positive that 2018 will be a year of new beginnings--or at least a return to some level of normalcy.
This article would have been a lot more accurate (sans the comments toward his being a populist president) if it had been written in 2009 and all "Trump"s were changed to "Obama".
Obama was the divider, his pen and his phone were the blunt instrument of the presidency, used to pummel Congress into submission.
On November 14 1817 the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES issues directives to the President Monroe, that private citizens can only meet the President within the WHITE HOUSE after 1PM Source Congressional Record.
Time to take a page out of history.(Profiteering and opportunities from within the cabinet and privateers seeking control in south America.
Upon Congressional urging President Monroe discontinues the practice of meeting with foreign ambassadors on Nov 7 1817, abandoning the protocols of President Madison in which records dates and substance were passed to congress.
IT CAN BE DONE!.
1
That is a new refreshing asppect of Trumplsm :say it as it is, do not mince words and if a lie is requested, for effect, do,except that Trump , courageously lie do make it and present it boldly with a straight face.
Nothing truly novel here, all past American Presidents did it BUT less boldly and less brazenly , except that Trump says it and does it in person and does make it through subordinates to lay any blame on them
Wether we like it or not, I do not, we agree or not Trump is a wisk of fresh air
Time to curb the power of the President and back to federation model.
For the rest of us, it has been a year of horror, embarassment, and fear. Enough of this. We've seen what happened in Germany in 1933. We don't need to go down this road again.
3
Reinventing?
Downgrading is more like it.
1
Peter, since we know how Trump won his election as yesterday's article in this paper clearly laid out the scenario.
It also spelled out how one of Trump's top campaign aides George Papadopoulos, whom Trump tried to discredit as a low level figure, confessing about Russia's help with thousands of Hillary's emails which appeared soon after on Wikileaks, Trump's election result should be nullified.
And we should be given fresh ballots to chose our real president.
But with the Republicans controlling the Congress that scenario is not only doubtful but absolutely out of the question.
So it is utterly disgusting to see a thoroughly disgusting man who uses profanity at the drop of a coin, mincing no words to describe subjects of his ire, be it the Black N.F.L. players to Kim-un-Jung calling him a "Rocket Man" although we never see north Korea firing off rockets but only missiles.
And with the same illegitimate president who wouldn't be in the White House if not for the help from Putin and employment of his entire Russian Intelligence officials Trump has the gall to describe our Democratic Senators and our Dem Congress members with different monikers like "crazy","Psycho" et Al. like you've mentioned here.
As with another year heralding into a New Year and with Trump still sitting in the Oval Room, it's really heart wrenching to see a man like Trump who should not even hold the job as a janitor, is going to sit there until the current Republicans are thrown out of office.
1
Dear news organizations, it's 2018, a brand new year.
How about instead of writing articles about Trump supporters voting in a fake-reality show celebrity and failed trust fund kid as president because they're disenfranchised, ask them why for the last 25 years they voted in and will probably vote in again the same House and Senate representatives who continually make them feel disenfranchised?
Now that many of these Republicans aren't seeking re-election they're not even trying to hide their fleecing of this nation. People like Grassely, Coryn, McConnell, Hatch are the ones who openly show their distain for struggling middle of this country, yet voters continue to elect them into office. Why?
We can pontificate on Trump the disruptor, wanting to change Washington, but why is it the media never asks the simple questions? Why do voters continue to vote along party lines for all these decades? If they're so disenfranchised why do they still vote the same people in local government? Do voters understand how laws are created? Let's get back to the basic questions of an educated electorate first.
1
If you truly want to understand the Trump Presidency you have to understand the allure of reality television. From the early days of MTV's Real World to Big Brother to Trump's own Apprentice, you could argue this genre showed America as its worst. Primetime television would serve up all of our character defects while its audience would watch with anticipation waiting for the next train wreck to hit during May sweeps.
Nonsense. He did not "reinvent" the presidency any more than a radical terrorist reinvents religion. He simply hijacked the institution as it attempting to paint it in the tawdry, second-rate, odious colors he has painted everything he has desecrated thus far. The office will survive, as will the Republic because we still have ideals, institutions, and people with integrity. This is just a fever, not unlike the fevers we have survived in the past, from the Civil War to Vietnam and Watergate. Trump, and every vestige of Trumpism will be cast onto the trash heap of history -- a source of shame and embarrassment for sure, but hardly of any significance sufficient to wreck the presidency. He may be doing us a favor by calling attention to the fact that the office will need some serious disinfecting when he is gone.
2
We must never again allow a disastrous man like this to be sworn in as president.
He’s degraded the office, not reinvented the presidency.
1
All tribes have leaders, and the American tribe has its Alfa male as Donald Trump. I think security for tribe is great, secure our borders, throw out illegals, and respect for the tribe. That's the whole point of a tribe versus the other tribes. The USA is a proud nation and we demand strength and the elimination of our enemies. We see Donald Trump having great leadership qualities, charisma, and a genuine love for the American people. He wins on all points. Sure you can have a veneer of civilization, just as we sell meat in the supermarket, but don't forget you make a kill to eat meat, and that supermarket meat is stale versus a fresh kill. Let us not become too civilized, lest it turn America into the decadence of "the Emperor has no clothes". Donald Trump has been a much needed course correction for America which was almost headed towards the lunatic left wing's agenda of Extreme Globalization. No, we want to remain a powerful and separate USA. Happy New Year folks!
God bless Donald Trump! He has completely surprised me, with a delightful presidency. He's the first president in over 8 years that truly LOVES America, and is not embarrassed to tell the world. His court appointments have been fantastic, and it's a relief to see him pushing back against the leftwing media.
"The office has become a blunt instrument to advance personal, policy and political goals. Will that change the institution permanently?"
The answer to that question is entirely in the hands of we the people, within the framework of the Electoral College unfortunately. The majority of individual voters in our country recognized Trump for what he is and rejected this amoral, corrupt and intellectual dark hole.
If this sad travesty has not been a wake up call to a sufficient number of purple voters, in particular States, who flipped parties in November of 2016 and still either can't see or don't care or don't believe what Trump and his administration loyalists are busily destroying then going forward all bets are off as to what manner of individual occupies that office.
2
He has not reinvented but destroyed its integrity both here and abroad.
I didn't understand the headline, "Reinventing", really? Trump doesn't invent unless you're thinking of the second definition of the verb:
• make up (an idea, name, story, etc.), especially so as to deceive someone: I did not have to invent any tales about my past.
A better headline would have been: FOR TRUMP, A YEAR OF TRUMPERY
1
He is hands down the worst President in our history. It's time for the Guinness Book of Records to begin considering whether he may already fairly lay claim to being our worst President of all future time. Fair is fair.
3
In my opinion 45 has brought nothing but shame on the presidency and the country.
"Reinventing" the presidency?? DESTROYING is more like it. In the short span of a year, he and his administration have horrified our allies, disrespected our citizens, made open bigotry acceptable, frustrated the press, given encouragement to violent extremists of many stripes, made a mockery of democracy and the Constitution, and made the culture of government at the federal level even more corrupt than it was. This man and his vision have impacts far beyond our borders. I think I can safely say that 2017 was one of the worst years for all humanity in the Western World. May 2018 give renewed strength to those out there in influential places to fight this administration - and its blindly, willing, toxic supporters.
1
Let's face it, we've elected P.T. Barnum at 11 years old.
This president spends the majority of his time at his properties. Last night on New Year's Eve people paid to access him for one night for $750.00 per person. Tax payers paid the Trump family to wine and dine at a Trump property. There is no access to visitors logs. He doubled members' annual dues when he became president.
And making huge cash profits at Mar-a-Lago. He pockets the quarter of a million dollar dues and monthly fees from that one property, the cost of hotel rooms, food and golf---and he refers to it as the winter white house. Add in also cash revenue from his other properties.
People are pretty upset the author seems to slam Barack Obama for a less accessible white house. That is factually untrue. And it is revisionist history.
I missed that insinuation on my first read.
What's happening now involves constant violations of the Emoluments Clause by Donald Trump. People are purchasing access to his presidency, and the money goes directly to him. The same goes on at Trump Hotel in DC and on his golf courses. Blatant use of public office for private gain.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/5/2635.702
1
the system has sunk to the level of electing an unabashed conman, and the politicians of his party are happy to go along and the opposition actually frets that one of their own will suggest impeaching this lout. if i didn't have to live in this country i would right it off immediately.
Yes President Trump’s flaws are obvious. Does the media examen its treatment of him? No prior president has had an enemies list? No other president has denigrated a cabinet member? What would Sec of State Dean Rusk have said on this issue? Yes Trump has maintained his business. But haven’t you noticed since Truman most of the presidents were such good money managers they came out of office wealthier than when they went in. It must be all of the book sales. And yes the monsters who live among us should be condemned. But I have read and heard some pretty nasty anti Semitic comments coming out of the liberal community that the media accepts and does not condemn. As for lies ah come on... is he the first President to use alternate facts? Tonkin Gulf résolution? Chemical weapons in Iraq?
I wouldn’t say he reinvented the presidency. Rather, he disintegrated and disgraced it.
Let's be clear. Trump did not win. Hillary lost. Democrats lost because of its condescending attitude towards working class Americans in the rust belt.
Now, we witness daily an unhinged man destroying the fabric of the society while angry, poor, middle age whites cheer on. They don't know, perhaps they don't care, the upcoming Republican cuts to their welfare and medicare due to the big deficit hole created by the giant tax cut to the rich.
We live the consequences of our own action. Sad.
1
“Reshape” is absolutely the wrong verb. Mutilated, disrespected, warped, vandalized, desecrated, twisted, and similar terms would be more accurate. I live in hope that Bob Mueller will prove that this entire administration is illegitimate and should be removed from offices. Yes, plural.
Trump has been directly responsible for one of the worst of my 66 years. I will not let him abuse me so any longer.
1
If you consider demolition reinvention, maybe.
1
While I'm not a fan of Trump, rather than inventing a new form, he refined, perfected, and steroidized the type of presidency created by Barack Obama.
He hasn't reinvented it. He's polluted and poisoned it. I just hope it can recover.
The innovative leadership thing by refreshing, sympathetic bluntness is myth building. Trump's crassness is compensation for poor coping.
Trump and his sycophants confuse the act of bullying people with less recourse to monied power into subordination with leadership, requiring the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Trump groped only rudimentary of those. Leadership is about inspiration and infusing true gratitude for the gifts of knowledge, wisdom, skills, and loving, soulful kindness that you share, it is not abusing gullible others into dependency on your money and power tokens.
There's a distinct lust he seems to carry to arbitrarily chop people's heads off. His leadership style is to get as close to that craven result as possible by any means. Look at the full page ad inciting to a public lynching, and no reflection, no correction, not a word of excuse after the human beings who had been falsely targeted for lynching were proven to be innocent. Ah, 'sweet', 'great' leadership, wielding that axe of prejudiced ire, relying on the impunity of privilege and power!...
A comment cited Steve Jobs on Obama: "He is having trouble leading, because he is reluctant to offend people or tick (them) off." Yes, that's what you internalize if you're black and have two brain cells. Same goes for women. It enhances and elevates (female) leadership though. Yet no, Obama was not too reluctant to use executive orders, nor to explicitly dismiss stupid as it comes (to the Al Smith dinner).
1
We've lived through the reinventive presidencies of Carter, Clinton, and Bush 43. The press appears to be recycling old opinion pieces about the unheard-of constitutional horrors each represented. Nowadays, tho, journalists get to print them on page one and treat them as news.
The press's reinvention of itself is likely a greater threat to the presidency than the court jester who recently stole the crown.
Beverly Buys of Hot Springs, AK says, "I know I am not alone. I so dislike how a person wholly unconnected to me, a person that I would avoid at all cost because of his sheer tackiness, has affected my daily life. That a person who is disruptive and unsettling and, frankly evil, has taken over our country leaves me infuriated. I hope I live long enough to see the end of him."
Take action, Ms. Buys, and everyone else who feels this way:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/WomensMarch2018USA/events/
https://www.facebook.com/Womensmarchonwashingtonstate/?hc_ref=SEARCH&...
4
Reinventing? How about destroying? The Con Don and his Robber Baron brethren are nothing but inherited/stolen wealth crooks.
There are news reports today that North Korea is willing to participate in the Olympics - the Robber Baron Good Old Boys' piggy bank where they spread the wealth to other "dictators". Boycott the olympics and other major sports events until they become real "people" events. The demented, insatiably greedy Robber Barons destroy everything in their paths and it's time to knock them down to size.
January 20/21 is International Protest Weekend. A second Women's March is planned for January 20 and there are myriad other protests planned. Contact the organization that represents the thing you love most about democracy in OUR United States of America and urge them to plan/join an event. Let's give the press/media a 300 MILLION person protest they cannot ignore.
Here is a sampling of groups that protested in 2017:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_protests_against_Donald_Trump
Sign up below to join the Women's Marches:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/WomensMarch2018USA/events/
https://www.facebook.com/Womensmarchonwashingtonstate/?hc_ref=SEARCH&...
3
The problem is not the office, the problem is the person in the office. At some point, hopefully sooner than later, he will be gone. But the flaws in our system that allowed an angry, ill-informed minority of the electorate, manipulated by cynical propaganda, and probably also by foreign adversaries, to inflict this disaster on the country will remain. That is our greatest challenge. I hope we are up to it.
42
Far from being a case of reinventing presidency, it is rather a serious devaluation of the office by Trump. For, the way Trump has turned the presidency into an instrument to promote his personal and family interests neglecting the primary task of governance, it will be a while before the pivotal office of the US presidential system is restored to its position desired by the founders.
50
The eerie photo on the front page of the black suited Trump standing alone in a ray of light captured the deranged man as very few articles could. In silence, almost in mourning, was the personification of anger, racism, misogyny, dishonesty, vulgarity, divisiveness and self-promotion delivered upon us. We are saying goodbye to an awful year circa Trump. The New York Times photographer, Doug Mills, captured the loneliness of the madly manic man in the wrong place. We'd like to see him quietly walk into the darkness. We'd love to see the year ending with him in the past. Might his light be dimming with overuse; repetition of a very bad thing and truly very little for his base but bad faith?
61
America made a very bad and stupid mistake on November 8, 2016.
Anyone who watched Trump on TV or read any of his books, knew he was a really ignorant and hypocritical man.
On the campaign trial he proved it. And since he entered the Oval Office, he has only brought shame, dishonor and ignorance to the office.
Everyone on his staff will bear the shame and wretchedness of Trump Presidency, for the rest of their careers and the rest of their lives.
His election was a self-inflicted wound to the country, and I hope that our democracy survives this vicious attack, and remains a free country. Neither of these things are guaranteed.
101
It wasn't Americans that made a bad mistake.
The people voted overwhelmingly against him. It was the spinless Electors who made the bad mistake.
I think the one positive thing about the Trump Presidency is that it has exploded the liberal myth that the criminal personality, exemplified by pathological lying and other sociopathologies like overt rascism and sexual predation, are not just personality tics that can be treated through rational discussion, but are rather hardwired into the individual’s genetics passed down biologically from grandfather to father to our current President.
20
I never knew there was a "liberal myth" that criminality is a behavioral problem, as opposed to a genetically transmitted trait. I must have missed the Fox News coverage on the issue. But now that the Trump family has conclusively demonstrated the criminals are genetically hard-wired to break the law, the only logical response is to lock up everyone in the Trump family before they are able to defraud another hapless victim. What in God's name are you talking about?
1
Yeah, the idea that crime and immorality are genetic--now there're ideas that help with racists.
1
Patrick, don't blame the liberals for the myth that brings on the horrible qualities you list. That is conservatism all the way. Republicans live on and promote racism and misogyny.
1
Why ever in the world would I think of the 1829 Andrew Jackson Inaugural Open House? You know...the one where Jackson supporters totally trashed the White House in a drunken brawl? Some historians say the damage was exaggerated....no one denies it happened.
DJT is a nightmare for people who understand the concept that the United States is a union held together by bonds of Enlightenment aspiration and not racial, religious, class or regional loyalties. We are bound together first and foremost by the belief that "All men are created equal..." is a vision to be realized rather than a slogan for political fund raising.
Nothing will satisfy me short of DJT and his family members in orange jumpsuits and manacles...and the confiscation through civil suit of all the wealth they've stolen from the American people and other investors. Nothing will satisfy our thirst for justice short of seeing the GOP leadership stripped of their positions and in the docket defending their self-serving abuses of power before a jury.
These vandals haven't redefined...they have defiled.
54
Where are your Democrats that will challenge your Mr Trump in 2020?
Does the possibility exist that Mrs Clinton and Sen. Saunders could go on a joint bus tour across America to encourage young people to register and vote?
He is not currently in office and surely she has sold enough books so they both must have time on their hands.
Doing this for the good of America could do much to help heal your country.
17
Joseph Biden is the answer. He has cross party appeal. Any thinking Republican who claims Biden is too "liberal" to vote for must be living on the moon. Trump was a Democrat, voted as such and contributed as such until realizing that any political future he might have would be thanks to the "undereducated," as he so eloquently put it. Naturally, that necessitated a switch to the Republican party. There is a primary season, after all. And to those who think Biden is too old, I give you Trump. The man has to ride a golf cart around the links because his obese body can't make the walk.
Bernie Sanders continues to be senator from Vermont. Getting people registered to vote is not the only problem - you have to have adequate voting places so people don't have to wait in line for hours, then don't turn people away because poll watchers aren't sure you are who you claim to be. Then you need to make sure that the vote tally is done properly. I will never be convinced that certain voting machines in key states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan weren't tampered with via Kaspersky software.
They did this last year, you know.
Trump is everything outlined in this article. He is on-stage in his own drama made for television prime time. There is no doubt he is and has been in this for himself filling his pockets. He is a man beholden with debt and bankruptcies past and future; the presidency saved his dwindling bank accounts. That is all he is interest in and we'd better figure it out before it is too late.
27
The issue isn’t the presidency, or it’s transformation. The real danger of Trump and a Congress that won’t stand up to him is the dismantling of our very democracy. And after all, that is what Bannon has on his agenda. Once you destroy the institutions that have served us well from the start of this great experiment in democracy (with all its bumps along the way), you destroy hope. It is the hope of potential and possible change in people’s lives that set our country apart; that made us a role model. That is the danger Trump presents: unmaking the America that was always trying to live up to its promise.
32
Some of the comments in this section hint at the control exercised over the national government by oligarchs. What most people fail to realize is that the United States has always been controlled by an oligarchy. When the economy was primarily agricultural it was an agricultural-based oligarchy. When the economy was overwhelmingly industrial it was an industrial-based oligarchy. Now that the economy is in the early stages of post-industrialism it is a post-industrial oligarchy. Oligarchs have always and will always control this country.
13
That is very a depressing view. I thought America was a democracy.
I appreciate this good review of the subject by the NY Times. I am a Republican who voted (reluctantly) for Mrs. Clinton, but am pleased that Mr. Trump won because Washington was in need of disruption. I see too many people in this country who are hurting but ignored. We will see over the next few months if the federal tax cut brings them hope.
6
You do understand that the few dozen dollars per paycheck will be wiped out by higher health insurance premiums or actual uninsured health expenses, right?
"We will see over the next few months if the federal tax cut brings them hope".
Have not tax cut and trickle down economics more or less been the ruling constant in the States for the last 20 plus, plus years? Has it brought "them" hope? Is it really the next few months that will determine whether or not "they" will start to hope?
Query- in the context of this article and the Trump presidency, what does "authentic" mean? It boggles my mind that authentic can be detached from (fact based) reality.
18
See Lionel Trilling'd book, "Sincerity and Authenticity." In this case, it means that Trump really is the awful man he plays on TV.
"We the people " LOVE TRUMP!He is just one of us with our aspirations , ambitions our follies and frailties.He is not a politician,therein lies his strength,and likes to talk straight and direct to the people and not through other news interpreters and political pundits. He says what he means,talk just like "us the people" ,unlike politicians who say one thing and mean something else,sometimes even the opposite what he/she said. The world political leaders and media is thrown off balance and taken out of their comfort zone by Trump who is setting a new world communication order and not just economic oder.Trump's presidency is going to be a watershed affair not only in american political horizon but in world political firmament.The world is getting to know and understand the sterling worth of a human being like Trump holding high political office instead of some figure head representing not the people,but vested interests business and corporate interests,all presented and sold as favorable to the public when its just the opposite."Smile and smile and be a villain ",is NOT the style of honest straight forward Trump who has the courage of conviction to call a spade a spade.He is the right man to be the right POTUS at the right time who calls the bluff of all other politicians and heads of state. All politicians are therefore his enemies and all people all public are his true loyal friends. He is truly the people's President.PRESIDENT OF THE PEOPLE OF UNITED STATES (POTPOUS).
5
Problem is, he's not honest or straight forward. He is passive-aggressive, blaming, self-centered, and will say anything to make himself look better.
1
This is nothing more or less life imitating art. I suggest you read “It Can’t Happen Here” and “A Face In The Crowd”. Even Trump’s domestic puppet master only gives him a 30% chance of completing his first term. The election cycle is not designed to elect just an plain-speaking rube, it is intended to find the best qualified person to lead and represent all that is good and permanent in us (to quote a well-known conservative). Trump has duped a majority of Republicans and a minority of US voters. Remove two independent no-chance candidates, Putin’s operatives and Comey’s blunder, and he’s just another bloviating real estate failure licking his wounds and bleating about how everyone else is wrong and he’s the only smart person. Problem is, he won the contest and he’s still acting like the losing, wounded party, bleating about how everyone else is wrong...
35 percent does not represent “people.”
A President with narcissistic personality and an unrealistic view of his greatness, an obvious lack of ascertainable intelligence, with a stilted view of kleptocratic and authoritarian leadership and the world, is neither good for the country, nor the world...let alone his bombastic tweets in lieu of real diplomacy for the benefit of the country.
Further, since ascending ascending to the Presidency, he has spent 2/3s of his time playing golf, visiting his businesses and watching television news, and 1/3 of his time, at doing the work that every other President before him has done. This is not a tv show. This man has spent less time being and doing the work of the President, than any other President in our history.
52
The relatively short periods of time DT spends on actual presidential 'work' is not necessarily a 'bad thing'. Of course the president need not tire himself with the work of the country. He has people/so many people who are anxious/willing to write the 'documents' DT signs. We don't need to know who writes those 'documents' (do we?). He gets a folder and a Sharpie, scrawls his name-holds it up to much applause by his groupies.
Then we lose some national monuments-coal comes back as a major energy source-public schools lose funding-the richest Americans become richer-health insurance is taken away from the sickest and the children-lakes and wetlands are allowed to be polluted/drained- What is the thing you most hate to lose?
/This man has spent less time being and doing the work of the President, than any other President in our history./
Be thankful for small favors.
1
Trump is nothing more than a thug; he has learned how the gangsters in his Queens neighbourhood act and is applying these tactics to his presidency: bullying, lying, blackmailing, evasion of debt, grabbing every last penny from the US govt, dividing his opponents, etc The only thing he hasn't done is "whacking" his opponents but that may yet come about against North Korea.
He cares nothing for precedence since he doesn't know what that is; his only motto is "Winning" no matter how.
64
Happy New Year, Mr. President, and thank you for all you have done for us. MAGA
8
Just what exactly has he done FOR the American people?
1
Incredible. So many commenters are posting Hillary had 3 million more votes. So what??? The electoral college vote is what matters not the aggregate popular vote. Guess the ever so brilliant, competent, experienced Hillary did not know that.
7
Of course Hillary knew that! Incredible that it doesn't matter to you that MORE people voted for Hillary than Trump. That matters in it's own way. Majorities have a way of getting it right. There are more elections to come.
10
That's a tight. Russia and Trump prevailed.
13
Yup, the People chose Hillary, so don’t whine that Trump represents the will of the people. He does not, he represents the will of the global 1%, led by mob boss Putin...
20
To use words like “revolutionary” to describe the vulgar man posing as the president of the United States is a joke against the nation. Giving this man any sort of credit is simply paving the way for more vulgarity.
The man is a nightmare; an ill and chronic liar whose ego is the first thing he thinks about when he gets up in the morning and the last thing he thinks about when he goes to bed at night.
My real fear is that just because trump has been ALLOWED to behave the way he has, lie the way he has, attack people with lies the way he has, civil behavior will no longer be expected of politicians.
Every time you use words like “revolutionary” you - the main stream media - are calling for more political figures to parrot the most vulgar man elected to office. Case in point: Roy Moore!
58
Just because Trump is President and does something, does not at all mean that the Presidency has done it. Trump has no knowledge, much less respect, for the office of the Presidency, because he is a stupid narcissist whose knowledge of the world begins and ends in himself. Therefore Baker's question as to whether Trump has changed the Presidency, whether what he has done will shape the Presidency of the future, misses the salient point of Trump as President, which is that Trump is not, cannot be, doesn't care whether he is or is not Presidential. By failing to distinguish between the office and the incumbent, Baker has accepted Trump's narcissistic premise that whatever he says or does is Presidential because he happens to be President. That is not true.
38
The US is no longer a democracy. It is a reality TV show and those that don't agree don't matter. Oh well.
19
Our democracy is an illusion that the powedul has created for people to believe so to make them believe they have control.
I wonder if these platitudes were part of the Schmidt interview conditions.
11
Trump should be on Mount Rushmore for saving the country from Hillary. The tax cut, securing the borders from illegal aliens, telling our deadbeat "allies" e.g. dependents to pay up for our providing defense for them is the icing on the cake.
7
China will eat your cake, icing and all...
20
"Trump should be on Mount Rushmore..."
The sculptor could never carve his hairdo onto that mountain.
7
You have yet to see the net effect of the tax cut, as with Reagan don’t be surprised if his presidency sees a net tax increase when the theoretical benefits don’t work. The border is no more secure, as no changes have been made yet, and our allies don’t pay us for common defense, something that you and he both fail to understand.
"Reinventing" as in destroying.
18
Reinvented? Reinvented the Presidency? Is that what you call it when the person doing the reinvention has no respect for the office they hold or the citizens they are supposed to be representing-and I don't mean just the ones that voted for him.
No, its not reinvention, more like demolition.
37
I saw one of these Hindenburg documentaries the other day.
What struck me most was that 4 years into Hitler's reign, America was just perfectly cool with having Nazis fly luxury flights back and forth from Berlin to New Jersey.
80 years on and we're still just sitting around, knowing that this is bad news, but unwilling to do anything about it for some reason.
22
Your reflection on the past 80 Years does bring to mind the inaction of Democratic Presidents who did nothing while atrocities like the ethic cleansing in Bosnia went unchecked or permitting the deplorable conditions in Haiti to continue. Let’s not forget the outright thievery by the Clinton led charity dedicated to help the Haitian people but instead helped themselves.
Lastly the Obama led administration that tripled our deficit and accomplished nothing. All in the name of liberal causes or more correctly, entitlements run amok! How can the murder rate in Chicago, Obama’s hometown go unanswered for the past 8 Years? History is truly insightful.
All of Obama's goals were personal. But his personal goals aligned with yours so you said he was great.
3
What do you mean? This makes no sense to me at all. I have no clue what you’re getting at. Please explain and provide some concrete examples based on verifiable facts.
25
It's hard not to see the headline, tone and photographs of this article as a misguided attempt at journalistic balance. We have a lying demagogue in the White House who demeans our democracy daily. That is not reinvention, it is subversion.
52
Just a word on the "dead factories, no jobs" complaints that seem to have got Trump elected. It is indeed sad when factories close and small towns shrink - but we have a full-employment economy. The jobs are there. If you are a white American, at some time someone in your family looked around, found no economic opportunity and crossed an ocean to find work. That's what my husband's parents and my grandparents did. My parents moved up and down the east coast as job opportunities shifted. My husband and I did the same thing and also spent years apart when his job was in one place and mine in another. If jobs leave, you need to follow them instead of whining for the federal government to build you another factory.
But -- as a liberal Democrat, the phrase that rings in my head concerning the Trump presidency is "Cry the Beloved Country". It is time for us to take our country back - and hope that our democratic institutions can be re-knit.
31
He hasn't just discarded "conventions and norms." He has discarded credibility, the respect of the world, trustworthiness, facts, laws, the Constitution, peace, our allies, and 99% of Americans.
31
To be fair, Trump can be compared to our worst presidents as he has eclipsed even their depths, but can't be mentioned as worthy of comparison to even those that were less than average, much less than to our finest. Bellicose? Like in Pol Pot? Many negative things were mentioned, but the why's were not; no mention of scandals, Russians, even the why of Bob Mueller. The intimation that Trump has anything to do with American values or direction by edict via sycophants is offensive. Trump is the puppet propped up by a kompromised GOP led congress, & the billionaires exchanging America for a combo of domestic feudalism & a managed democracy by the point one (.1) percent of the wealthy 1%. Can't even compare him with a bad joke.
13
Donald Trump is only the first permutation of American "Presidents" who think they can govern by fiat. Beware, someone intelligent, will one day, I fear soon, take this mantle to a level from which the democracy of the US will be irretrievable. What is worse, that person will do so with the gleeful admiration of followers who fail to understand the cost.
8
What "mythology of a magisterial presidency"? Our recent Presidents have been effective or not, but hardly magisterial. They've been, with the exception of Nixon, approachable in their public persons at least since FDR. And Trump is hardly "reality-show accessible" -- who would want to be near this volatile, irrational, would-be autocrat?
11
So what's next for the NY Times: "Harvey Weinstein: a year of reinventing workplace relations?" The sleazy cowardice of your title would be hard to match.
42
One thing that still mystifies me is how Trump, in all his fabled ignorance, managed to pick a cabinet staffed by people who are so uniformly unsuited or antagonistic to their jobs? Even the supposedly "sane" John Kelly turned out to be a Confederate general wannabe. Trump surely had no idea who these people were while running, so who was calling the shots?
21
The shots were being called by the same socioeconomic class responsible for Trump in the first place. The capitalist oligarchs play the tune and Donald J. dances to it.
13
Reinventing? Downgrading and destroying is more like it.
20
Trump is nothing more than a tool of the reactionary forces who have sought- and now have gained- control of our government. His buffonery is tolerable to the Federalist Society, the many-tentacled Koch Brothers, creeps like Sheldon Adelson, white nationalists, frightened denizens of flyover country, and aggrieved white people, because he gives them cover. Trump doesn’t understand federal policy, nor does he care. His ridiculous, click bait performance of the Presidency allows the real villains free rein to loot our treasury, our institutions, and our honor, as they wish. #resist.
34
Wondering-could Covfefer allude to Kefauver. He was Chairman of Judicial Committee and wanted to dismantle Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. Kefauver died in August 1963 right before Kennedy and Birch Bayh took over and authored 25th Amendment after Assassination. Seems mental illness clause needs readdressing and just maybe Trump tipping hand..
7
This is the last place we need to see more middling non critical articles on this old gas bag. I am supporting your newspaper financially because the rest of the media seems to want to soft ball this con man. Let Fox News stick to the yay trump agenda
22
President Trump is one of a kind and a very interesting character. I say this as someone who voted for him with reluctancy but now has no regrets. He has been what our country needed at this time and we have seen a big improvement in our nation. The stock market is soaring, employment numbers have been rising, jobs created at a steady pace and illegal immigration numbers are down. The country is once again on the right track and people are more optimistic then ever before.
President Trump is his own person and will not change at this stage in his life. Rarely anyone does beyond a certain age. This is who he is and he is unique. He certainly is not boring and keeps Americans in suspense. He is able to get away with this behavior because he has been very successful in his presidency. if he had not succeeded to the degree in which he has, people would not be as understanding of his unorthodox behavior. They forgive his occasional gaffes because he is proving he can make America great again. He just needs to continue improving our situations and getting more bills passed that will benefit all Americans.
4
I have a really nice bridge to sell you...
30
Trump is our President. If you don't like it, you can leave. And, if you don't like it, I'm glad. Happy New Year.
6
Nope. If we don’t like him, we’ll vote him out and you can leave.
33
Yes, he was criminally placed into the office. Only 1/3 of the country can stand him - and they are brainwashed by hate radio and TV. Proud of ignorance, hey?
25
I do not like it, and I neither want or need to leave. Trump cannot understand what “the will of the people” means. Nixon made that same mistake.
13
If Trump combined an all new style of governing with an all-new set of policies, he could be a leader to reckon with. But his policies are nothing but foolishness. So his use of twitter, his off the cuff decision making, and his endless contentiousness amount to nothing more than a foolish man promoting foolish policies.
11
Until people rid their minds from the intellectually debilitating echo-chamber mentality of D.C., academia, main-stream media and the political establishment, they’ll never experience the independent thought and genuine intelligence that underpins President Trump and his supporters.
After 8 years of destructive lies, fraud, corruption, doubling of U.S. debt, diminished U.S. security and credibility in the world, a horribly weak economy that widened income disparity and crippled the middle class, excessive liberty-robbing regulation by an arrogant president unwilling to work with the proples’ elected representatives through the democratic legislative process and race relations diminished by the race-baiting class-warfare and identity politics of the Obama-Clinton democrats, any president who does what he campaigned on and takes necessary actions to repair the extraordinary damage done to our country by the Obama-Clinton regime will be well-regarded by real Americans and despised by those who derive power and wealth by lying, cheating and gaming the big-government system.
6
Seems you have your head stuck in an echo chamber. The popular vote went to Hillary very convincingly, and Trump's tax heist on behalf of the 1% will only increase income disparity. You know when Trump is lying when he opens his mouth... Academia intellectually debilitating? That's what they said in Nazi Germany...
36
Great summary Anna!
6
I am impressed to see somebody cram four astonishing lies into as many words: "independent thought and genuine intelligence."
I spose that "and," is true, to be rigorous, but bravo. Remarkable achievement.
If anything he’s been very weak. Under Article 2 powers he could have declared restrictions on inward migration a matter of national security by proclamation and have ARRESTED any jurist who stood in opposition to his order. He’s allowed the left wing judiciary to get away with murder.
Had he been more educated as to his real powers from the outset the judge in Seattle would be sitting in Guantanamo.
But, he appears to be a fast learner
2
You'd prefer a president who jails his detractors? Sending a judge to Guantanamo for upholding the Constitution??? Are you sure you wouldn't be happier in the Philippines, Venezuela or perhaps Turkey?
a year of dishonesty, ignorance, racism and lies
27
Corruption and incompetence in politicians. Perhaps americans and iranians are closer than we think!!!
9
Congress is complicit in Trump's hijacking of the presidency for his own personal gain.
20
The dangerous imbecile currently in residence at the White House has not reinvented the presidency. Rather, he is hell bent on dismantling the institution and replacing it with his homegrown version of authoritarian rule. Trump has pronounced fascist tendencies. Every possible measure to oust this cretin from power must be employed. If not, the future of this country and the entire world will be grim indeed.
24
What he is presiding over is the revolution that Republicans have been plotting and advancing step by step for decades. He is their perfect figurehead and useful fool. He entertains the masses while they destroy everything good that generations of Americans have worked, struggled, suffered and sacrificed to build. Workers' rights, civil rights and women's rights, Social Security and Medicare, public health and safety, public education, environmental protection and public lands, consumer protection, and more. Without a Republican Congress, Donald J. Trump would be just a spoiled, rich, aging playboy with a big mouth, a small vocabulary and an empty head strutting on the stage for four years. He is not "reinventing the presidency" or inventing anything at all. When he does anything at all, he tears down but builds back nothing. The tragedy is that while he struts and preens and blathers, the barbarians are inside the gate and burning down the "shining city on the hill."
45
By exposing and embracing them, Trump will hopefully excise some of the long-resident American ghosts - racism against blacks, Latinos, Asians and Muslims, sexism, nativism, fear of pluralism, culture bullying, unconstrained capitalism, imperialism, and faux religious values weaponized in pursuit of economic goals that benefit only the elite. His presidency will offer future presidents a touchstone against small, local, me-first actions that caused our great country to nearly lose its world leadership, before President Sanders/ Warren/Gillebrand saved it.
3
You prescribe Trump as a homeopathic treatment for democracy’s ills? It’s quackery, you know. Studies consistently show that like does not cure like.
There is a big difference between disgracing and reinventing.
19
The Year of Living Moronically. Period.
24
It has been a long and exhausting year, not all bad, but tiring. It has never been all about Trump for this American, and towards the end of the Presidential Elections when asked by a friend for a forecast, I replied that it would not be a Landslide and that there was a chance that Trump could win.
Stepping back and looking at 'Our Reaction' is what has been holding my attention. First, I note that I am feeling downcast for being labeled as a racist because I am white. Most of my friends (I have maybe 8) are not American, but African and from the Islands, or European. When in the company of black Americans or Minorities, I am trying not to feel self-conscious, worked or awkward. This never happened before, and then there is all this religious babble.
A close look at 'The Real America' leaves one with reflective thoughts of whether one wants to be an American. New York is a World of its Own and there is nothing to match it.
The moment there was mention of our receiving a helping hand from Russia, even if these are allegations, the Elections and Outcome, Right or Left, should have been canceled and declared void. We were not that desperate a year ago. There are plenty of long faces today and a lack of joy in the air.
True, Trump does not bring out the best in people. But this is one weak G.O.P. and that's being kind. The Last American President I saw was Barack Obama, and whether America can navigate on its own, is a question for tomorrow.
7
Clearly 25th Amendment must be "Reinvented" to counter Trump's "Reinvention".
7
The Times readership is voting for the comments that point out how hateful and childish Trump is. I agree. But are you all pining for someone "more in the middle", someone like Obama? Forget it. Obama was not a friend to the dispossessed or the workers. There is no returning to the responsible middle of Obama/Clinton. This is a teaching moment. We need to undo the economic order that Democrats and Republicans both espouse--Times readers must get this right---an order that denigrates workers. I just pray the next anti-establishment leader is someone who respects all races and creeds.
7
Spot on Sir! How about the Dems give us a reason to vote for them! Obama decimated the party in 8 years due to his corporatist, neo-liberalism.
7
More lies and negativity about our democratically elected President. Well, it's NYT. What can one expect. Happy President Trump is keeping NYT miserable.
6
Clear evidence a Trump fan cannot spot a "lie".
15
Shows the character of a man, or lack there of.
10
Trump is not re-inventing the Presidencey, he is restoring it. And in this restoration he is returning us to a proud, strong country that leads the world, not one that goes around apologizing to the world for our greatness. In so doing, we are already winning again like we've won in the past. Case in point, ISIS is systematically being destroyed. Our economy is returning to a prosperity never even dreamed about in the Obama years.
4
In case you haven't heard, Trump is acting as an isolationist...no world leader. And the last 8 years were prosperous, particularly when viewed against the disastrous prior 8. T is riding coattails in that regard.
22
A few points to link your comment to facts
1. Returning us to a proud, strong, country that leads.......
The proud country you speak of was fully engaged in NATO, the UN, peace talks that led to peace between Egypt & Israel, etc. Trump is using tactics that are the opposite of those that made us U.S. the great nation you speak of. America did not apologize. America led by giving, by negotiating, by having leaders (military/diplomatic) who were well prepared/knowledgeable. We spoke softly to everyone, but carried a big stick. We are now simply loud, bombastic, stingy, & ignorant.
2. Prosperity never even dreamed of....
You forget that in 2007-2008 the Great Recession stripped our economy of $13 trillion dollars in wealth. (BTW that explains the deficit ballooning....a tanking economy that sat still until about four years ago. ) It took eight years of modest government stimulus to start getting the economy moving & Janet Yellin's leadership at the Fed to keep rates low bringing the U.S. & world economy out of a horrible economic disaster. That disaster was the fault of big banks that you & I had to bail out with our tax dollars. We bailed out Chrysler under Obama as well. Corporate America's contribution was to cut jobs/close factories allowing what was called a balance sheet recovery characterized by the best profitability profiles in years. What you call a dream was created by decisions made 8-10 years ago. Trump cannot take credit for the current economy.
If we wanted business as usual, Hillary would be President.
5
I question Your Title, it should be:
For America, A Year of Reinventing The Presidency of Donald Trump, a 45th President of a Democratic country, changed to unruly Autocracy, more he stays on, more damage he will do, without any regard to the Parties.
5
Such fallacious logic and lack of knowledge are what got us here. It is not-as people often assume- merely that we disagree with it. It is, in itself, mostly utter nonsense. And very troubling. Why would the NYT publish it?
4
If Trump gets us into a nuclear war with North Korea, he'll not only change the presidency, he'll kill millions of people and change life on earth for the worse. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, says Trump has brought us to the brink of nuclear war and he doesn't see a diplomatic way out.
Nothing else Trump changes will mean a thing if nuclear war is in the future of his presidency. A guy who couldn't go to Vietnam because his footsie hurt doesn't seem to mind grinding the rest of us into dust.
19
Although their ideologies are completely different, Trump and the Venezuelan strongmen Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro Moros have similar styles, breaking institutional norms and appealing to their bases with a kind of direct populism that eschews decorum and protocol. Venezuela has become an international pariah, and with Trump’s decisions on climate change, the Iraq deal, trade policies, recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the Korean peninsula, we are rapidly following the same path. Given the robustness of the US economy and our longer democratic history, we may be more resistant to economic collapse and authoritarianism, but daily Trump threatens those pillars of American society too. If Mueller cannot find the evidence and Republican members of Congress are unwilling to check the president, our only hope is to limit the damage by flipping either the House or Senate (or both) and then giving Trump the boot in 2020. That cannot come too quickly.
13
The presidency has morphed into this unitary branch of government simply because the congress morphed into the corporate congress unconstitutionally giving war powers over to the president. This had always been a questionable abrogation of congressional responsibility to the constitution and especially to "we the people". Now we have an unhinged person in the office who seems to be on a mission to create "ordo ab chao" (order out of chaos) by ordering an illegal airstrike on a sovereign nation just so he could prove that he is a "tough guy" which he's obviously not! He, by his fiat to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, has once again fanned the flames of strife in that region of the world- an egocentric match in search for gasoline!
Ultimately, trump is not the actual problem. WE ARE THE PROBLEM! Because we, and all our institutions have failed to realize that the office of the presidency is no better that the person who wields its power. So we can keep pretending that this is just another D.C. soap opera. However, truth has always been stranger than fiction. And as long as the likes of Donald trump remains in office the possibility of something going catastrophically, and irretrievably, wrong will remain high.
8
It's that very contrariness that will contribute to bringing him down. No, his only permanent contribution to the presidency is that Americans are now wide awake and will never again allow us to slip this close to the abyss.
7
This whole thing is an aberration, and his fans and followers are allowed to appreciate their own delight. As it stands now, there are no checks and balances, his party controlling and allowing for everything he does or wants to do.
If I were a betting man, i'd say the presidency is NOT reinvented but rather knocked off the rails for 2 to 4 years. I can almost guarantee that people will be clamoring -- clamoring -- for the old school Presidential pomp and pageantry.
8
Terrible headline. "Reinventing" connotes fresh thinking and creativity. Trump has done nothing but degrade the office.
21
Could not agree more. Reinvention takes thought, of which Trump is incapable; a plan, of which Trump has none; and intention, of which Trump is bereft.
7
Say what you will, his policies are all legal, and within the bounds of existing constitutional power. If you want to discuss issues of the executive branch exceeding constitutional authority, let's talk about the Obama presidency.
7
Nope, Obama was within constitutional authority. Depends on interpretation anyway. And where are Trump’s taxes? Oh, and treason is always unconstitutional...
10
Mr. Baker has a right to his opinions, without a doubt. However, American democracy is being threatened by a coarse, vulgar and ignorant man named Donald Trump, placed in office by the Republican leadership with the help of corrupt election practices and Russian support. If the media has ever had the responsibility for accurately informing the public, that responsibility has never been more critical than it is now.
Republican tyranny is not a subject for debate. Deliberate lies by Trump and his partners in Congress must be exposed for what they are ..this is not a matter of “Well, on the one hand...” so called “Fair and Balanced” disagreement. We are witnessing inflammatory speech like that of Germany in the 1930's spewed from the mouth of a man who is charged with leadership but pursues racial division. We are witnessing the a massive shift in wealth from the poor and middle class to the very rich who own the Republlcan Party. The media and voters cannot remain neutral. There is far too much at stake,
The question of the 60's becomes relevant once again: "Which side are you on". Mr. Baker has made his position clear. Where does the NYT stand?
14
The New York Times is the paper of record. The record of this president in his first year is not reinventing the presidency, the office of the president is to lead. This president has a record of how to fail at leadership. Leaders are followed ......no one follows this man, congress keeps its distance, our allies are wary, our enemies laughing, his administration scrambling, his poll numbers dropping and the paper of record calls this changing the presidency....really!
13
"The office has become a blunt instrument to advance personal, policy and political goals. "
When you say "personal" do you mean financial? Because he is turning the office into his blunt instrument for enriching himself and his family at the expense of our country.
9
Donald Manes comes to mind .
Trump boasted this past week that news outlets such as the NYT needed him to be in office if they were to survive. It would seem from the tone of this piece the editors at the paper agree with him.
8
God help us. It’s much more serious than we could ever know at this point. Pray for this coming year to go fast. We’re being led by a madman.
18
My Prime Minister, Mrs. Erna Solberg, will visit the WH January 10.
She is a large woman.
She has a brain.
The majority of Norwegians thinks she does a good job, hence she was reelected last October.
I would not be surprised if 45 would happen to make some condescending remark about her body or weight in front of the cameras, or for an open microphone.
It would come as no surprise to me at all.
On the contrary, I will be highly surprised if he manages to NOT drop a condescending remark during her stay.
9
Like I Haven’t heard condescending remarks on my two stints working in Scandinavia.
The offices there were as sexist as anywhere else. Maybe worse.
5
Absolutely not worse than in the States!
And you came visiting as The Head of State of your country? Ever heard about "context"?
7
Thank you, Norway. Your prime minister does do a good job. I wish your prime minister were our president. Most Americans believe our president is a miserable person and an incompetent president. We apologize for the unhappy, idiotic things that he might say or do. Norway is a great friend of ours.
"Reinventing"? Actually the word is violating the President's oath of office and the US Constitution. Trump is the first president in 228 years who owes his presidency to a foreign power; his subsequent deference to Putin shows all the hallmarks of a compromised asset---a spy.
Trump is not "constructing his own narrative" as the US President, he's constructing as always for Trump, Inc. We already know that Trump wanted to start his own channel if he failed in the 2016 election. Please be more accurate, Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million; he won the Electoral College. Keep in mind, Trump's NSC Michael Flynn resigned after only 25 days---barely three work weeks into Trump's presidency. The crown jewel in all of this? Special Counsel Mueller was appointed only 155 days into Trump's presidency. Mike Flynn is going to offer the top hits of 2018, and Trump will not survive. Trump will soon learn that the law is mightier than Trump Inc.
15
sounds like what Obama was doing without being obnoxious i.e. Obama will go down in history as a lead from behind failure who excelled only in campaigning and moving his liberal supporters too far left of center
4
Yes, indeedy. What a shame that nothing got done about the massive economic crash, climate accords, health insurance for millions, detente with Iran, a new trade pact corralling China, killing Bin laden, and so on.
Of course your guy's beavering away at all that stuff, but it seems a tad unfair to blame the good guys for that, don't you think?
14
Obama moved no one left, this is why the party shrunk in his term. He governed strictly from center right. If only he was a lefty...or was half the change agent he pretended to be.
5
Uh, reality shows let in pretty much anyone to sit in the audience. All of Trump's events are open to those invited -- the only true "extreme vetting" this administration has managed to implement. Trump never, ever faces the public. How "accessible" is that?
5
A year of dismantling the presidency.
10
Well, Happy New Year from Germany - it's 3:17 PM and I'm bound for bed.
But i have to say one thing about 2017.
I bought fireworks this year. I normally don't. And I used them to ward of the evil spirits that haunted 2017 and expel them from 2018. Guess what name I was saying with each firecracker I lit...
20
Thank-you for that. We need all of the help we can get.
1
The o the only thing that has reinvented self in the last year is responsible journalism. Having enabled a mentally unfit and criminally oriented person to become President, it continues to deludge us with endless stories like this one in which the irrational becomes rationalized, the abnormal normalized. The real crisis is in the reporting that can’t even call a lie a lie.
18
Whenever I read that Trump voters like him because they see him as authentic, I cringe a little. It strikes me that there is a big difference between impulsivity and authenticity and that perhaps they are failing to make the distinction. It seems to me that Trump's impulses, as his Twitter missives have demonstrated time and again, are mostly self-serving. How is this authentic? And his policies, the ones he has implemented thus far, are also self-serving, as is obvious in the tax cut he is "authentically" telling people do not advantage him in the slightest and in the environmental policies designed for nobody's welfare except his cronies.
Authenticity is synonymous with sincerity, and the only thing I can ascertain that Trump is sincere about is helping himself in whatever manner he can. And even if his impulsivity sometimes gets in his own way, that impulsivity always appears to be a form of manipulation, one that is anything but sincere.
18
Trump has not reinvented the presidency. The presidency's DNA is immutable-protect & defend the Constitution & govern by the rule of law.
What we are witnessing is the malignant result of Citizens United where the legislative branch does the bidding of wealthy donors first & ignores Trump's actions that clearly indicate that he, his family, & wealthy cronies are above the law. The most outrageous act to date is Congress's failure to investigate Russian's intrusion into our electoral process. Followed only by the recent calls by Republicans to shut down the investigation into Russian influence in the Trump campaign, possibly fueled by tainted political contributions that may be traced back to Russian operatives.
The Republican failure (1) to call for an independent investigation into Russia's attack on our electoral process & (2) failure to check Trump's statements proving that he firmly believes DOJ serves only to him rather than the Constitution & the law, border on treason & corruption.
Welcome to the United Banana Republic States of America.
12
I agree with everybody else commenting who is outraged by the use of the "R" word here, the basic Trump-is-discarding-conventions type flattery of this sad article.
Why?? What's up, Peter Baker? You're a writer, you understand the value of words!
Would it have killed you to toss off an honest headline, like:
"For Trump, a Year of Destroying the Presidency and Everything We Stand for in a Democratic Society"?
I'm very worried about the tack the NYT is taking. Peter, Maggie, Micheal - they all want these interviews with DJT but what IS the point, if they result in flawed/biased analysis? FOX would be proud.
No doubt Dear Leader is gratified and feeling further emboldened.
Resist, NYT!
18
Oh, you know the Times. Some namby-pamby notion that their mission isn't to be Pravda, but to report the news and sometimes, separately, on the editorial page that represents different points of view.
I'm sure they regret impeding the Revolution, though it does occur to me to wonder why "leftists," want a paper that acts just like FOX.
2
I love Donald Trump. Even though he built a building that blocked my million dollar view over the Hudson River, I think he is turning in to a great president.
1
How very sad and pathetic you see it that way. But in a democracy not only are you allow to hold this opinion but to let others know about it. Pity.
7
Sarcasm detected.
3
Mr. Trump has not altered the presidency - he has taken something wonderful and beautiful, strong, but in need of constant care, say a Faberge easter egg (since he seems to give Russia and Putin, apparently his model leader, more aid and praise than our historic allies, dashed it to the ground and stomped it with the steel toed boots of the US Nazis and Klansmen he adores.
Apparently either without thought or fearing what Russia and China could expose about his financial self-dealings, turning government regulations and the tax code things beneficial to him and his friends; lying to Congress and the FBI, obstructing lawful investigatio, and taking ultimate glee in tearing apart a he accomplished mishmene
6
“Reinvented”? Surely you mean “destroyed”? He’s destroying the presidency just like he destroys everything he touches.
He and his patron Putin share that personality trait, one reason why they’re “brothers from another mother”, quoting Harvey Weinstein, another destroyer; why Putin did everything in his power to assist his presidential campaign in 2016.
Putin seeks to destroy the United States, and if he can’t accomplish that lofty goal from without he will certainly attempt it from within; Trump, his American Fifth Column. In Trump he sees a useful idiot cut from the same amoral, avaricious cloth as himself. Two lawless, pitiless, amoral, avaricious men who seek the same things, both willing to pervert the power of their respective states to further their corrupt personal ends formed a natural alliance of convenience. As much as each man already possesses ($200-billion looted from ordinary Russians through the Russian state, in Putin’s case) they want more. So it’s less about nationalism, historic national rivalries, Russia vs America, than unslaked greed — and avoiding justice for criminal acts.
Because Putin hides his looted wealth in the West, including the United States, he must neuter their legal systems like he destroyed Russia’s.
And vengeance. Like organized-crime bosses everywhere Trump and Putin are extraordinarily vengeful. They destroy those whom they regard as enemies, and rule by fear. Pablo Escobar would have understood both well, were he still alive.
9
For all its theoretical checks and balances, a Presidency of the sort found in the United States of America or in the Russian Federation, in which so much formal power rests in the President, still may be transformed into a tyranny. Trump and Putin each has power that is formally denied to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. How ironic that a constitutional monarchy like the UK better limits the overreach of a megalomaniac than a republic like the USA.
14
It’s not as if Trump’s behavior was a surprise. He has always been awful. We have only ourselves to blame. I don’t understand the rancor towards Hillary. She may not be your heartthrob, but she is honest and competent.
20
Honest, please. I believe the Clinton’s NOT.
WHat proof do you have of competence. Her campaign was a disaster. She was good at colluding with the dnc against Sanders.
When I see headlines like this, it makes me so glad that I canceled my subscription to the Times. I have to believe that a lot of other people who counted on the Times to be a beacon of truth during troubled times are awfully disappointed by this spineless sycophancy too. What a disgrace.
17
The NYT previously published an article on how Trump is so different from other presidents in changing this office.
I disagreed then and I disagree with the conclusions drawn from some partisans here about the POTUS demeaning the office.
Though I am a Republican, but did not vote for the POTUS.
Yet, over these 11 months, I have come to admire him as he has taken on the "establishment" that tried mightily to deny him the office.
Having triumphed, he feels no need to put up appearances that others have.
I admire him when he publicly admonishes the 44th for not inviting guests to the oval office for a photo op.
This POTUS invites any and all who call on him because he knows what the office means to all Americans.
I admire this POTUS when he shouts out to folks to stand up and even come to the podium to say a few words.
I admire this POTUS when he displays his displeasure with Ms Merkel by not shaking her hand.
I admire him when he goes off the script to speak colloquial language. I will never forget or forgive the 43rd when he used typed up notes to tell the nation about 9/11.
Whereas, this POTUS in his remarks on North Korea with his hands folded came authentic.
I have lived overseas a lot in my career in the oil industry. The foreigners for most part like Americans because we are so authentic.
So, this POTUS may not give lofty speeches like the 44th, but list any lines from his speeches that folks remember viscerally.
This POTUS is Americana, period.
3
Wait until we can no longer breathe our air, wait until we see the semi starved and families living under our bridges, wait until we are lumps of nuclear ash and our planet is not the planet we once knew.
This POTUS is NOT Americana. I watched presidents from Eisenhower down to Trump. I may have heartily disagreed with some of them, but never in my life have i feared a president until Trump came along.
Independent
12
Only the worst Americana. Get a grip.
10
Americana?
So's the Klan.
9
"Will that change the institution permanently."
Yes. Trump has degraded the office beyond repair, imo. His blindered followers accept or rationalize his nonstop daily embarrassing, inappropriate, ignorant, buffoonish behavior/remarks. Consider it the new normal.
The Office of the President of the United States was once revered and respected. It has now become the territory of the playground bully about whom world leaders laugh.
No more, and never again. Trump has degraded and disrespected both his office and the United States and brought both down to his abhorrent level.
14
Stop trying to make him something that plans or thinks. Your trying to be "fair" degrades thoughtful discourse.
15
Do you mean "destroying" the presidency? as well as the United States? or the world?
11
Despotism is the antithesis of Democracy: so the fight for saving our democracy
should be as crucial as the fight to become the United States of America....once
more....a renaissance of the Declaration of Independence from despotic rule
which has taken place in the US Congress....
When we are once again a nation ruled by representational governance;then
we will no longer have despots ruling our governance.
Let's start with overturning Citizens United...the tool of US would be despots.
14
Scalia must have hated the US. He gave us Bush43, Citizen’s United and an insane version of the 2nd Amendment, which should have been repealed long ago.
10
It almost seems as if the headline for this article is a ploy designed to get Trump to read it.
"Reinventing" is not something Trump does or can do. He's not creative, far from it. Destruction is his forte. As this article points out, he can lie, terrorize, threaten, insult, humiliate, con, bully, crash, trash, crush, burn. That's what he can do. This hardly makes a great leader. It certainly does not make America “great”. Yet when he looks in the mirror, he sees the sexiest, smartest, strongest, winningest man alive.
Autocrat? Yes. President? In name only.
21
"Under Mr. Trump, it (the Presidency)has become a blunt instrument to advance personal, policy and political goals."
From what many of us have observed, Trump is by far the most concerned with advancing his own personal goals to the detriment of our American democracy. Sad!
4
Anyone who has been paying attention would not call what Trump has done to the presidency "reinvention". That word implies thought and planning, something Trump is incapable of. Why not call it was it is? Destruction born of extreme ignorance and egotism.
22
Trump introduced criminality and treason into his White House. There is nothing inventive about this and nor a need for celebration. The Constitution needs to be amended whereby the People can recall the President Directly through the States if checks and balances fail in the legislative, executive or judicial branches of government.
11
Given that I can find out other place to put it, I'll record this here. Like many, I've had serious doubts about President Trump. My greatest concern is that he is under qualified in several respects for the job. Hopefully all my Physicians have graduated from Medical School and when I see framed documents I am admittedly comforted. Likewise, I'd rather lend my automobiles to licensed drivers with years behind the wheel than my grandkids whom I love but who would leave me in petitions of prayer were they to catch me in weak moment. Thus, I've clung to the hope that Mr. Trump would become bored, over worked or plain out angered enough that he'd create a faux health issue he could use to get out of the job. I reasoned that being unaccustomed to hearing anyone say "No" it might be more than he could take. I figured he wouldn't last the first year out and we'd be discussing his health problems and how Mr. Pence would handle things. Obviously I was wrong.
I don't hate President Trump, this is however one time I hate being wrong. I ask those of you so disposed to join me at midnight in prayer for America. Happy New Year. -CN
1
If reinventing the presidency means preaching fear and hate, calling the fourth estate the enemy, acting childish and stupid, being a bully then yes Trump has done a great job of reinventing the presidency.
13
No Majority.
No Mandate.
Know Nothing.
24
"Reinventing" reminds me of people who said they voted for Trump to "shake things up". I want to tell them cutting off your left foot would also shake things up. Any takers?
10
No, this was the year the world got to understand how dangerously ignorant and careless Americans really are. All of you and not only the nuttjobs in “the Trump base”. Can only hope the decline omes early because you truly are a dangerous nation.
12
Most people understand the idea of reinventing something to be a modernized improvement on what went before.
The headline and tenor of this article is very troubling as it paints the occupant of the White House as a revolutionary, a maverick.
Disturbingly, the opposite is what is happening. We are watching a grossly mentally-ill individual destroy the work of thousands over the past 70 years. Our world-wide reputation is soiled, our trust is dishonored, our people treated like peons whose only role is to support the wealthy.
17
For all the loyal opposition who are unhappy with Trump... Thank Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC. The country could have had a President Biden, or Sanders or even O'Malley or Webb or Warren. You can thank Hillary too when she did not step aside after the revelation of her private server and then repeatedly lied and lied and lied about it. For someone who lies as much as Hillary does one would think she would be better at it.
1
Yeah, Hillary cannot hold a candle to Trump on lying, that’s why gullible idiots voted for him.
4
This headline is enough to make me want to reconsider my subscription.
16
Reinventing? Really?
I know you probably couldn't go with sullying, defacing, squandering, corrupting, defiling, dishonoring, tarnishing, perverting, disgracing, profaning, poisoning, violating, maiming, etc.
But reinventing isn't neutral either. Why not just call Trumps first year "eventful" or "interesting"?
11
Congress has to flip.
15
NO! Our long, long national nightmare will end some day!
6
Blah blah blah. The rule of law is on trial, people. Plain and simple. I'm all for out of the box--we could use a freshening up and dusting off, but I am not for upending our laws and deep moral values (Roy Moore? Seriously???) This man Trump is a Putin-wannabe. Plain and simple. I'm no longer depressed about the election (well yes I am...but I'm not scared of Mercer/Bannon/Trump). I'm disgusted by the Repubs - all of them - and ready to work in 2018. Also to support the art, literature, poetry, theater, soup kitchens, under privileged schools, safety net clinics--in short, I support love. The war on love must end.
24
Lest you still have any doubts about Trump's agenda and methods, watch NARCOS on Netflix. The only essential difference between Trump's usurping power in the U.S., with Russian assistance, and Pablo Escobar's power grab in Colombia is that Escobar actually gave his own ill-gotten drug money to directly bribe the ignorant peasants (while lying and promising them fables as Trump does) while here it is done with our own money via the Republican Congress. Escobar bribes and kills, Trump coerces. lies and demands personal loyalty while using his Republican henchmen as shills and distractions.
We are becoming a country devoid of morals and democratic principles, run by crooks. Is this what you want?
16
Assigning this troubled and self-numbed man consistent agency feels like a big, fat lie.
16
No, he hasn't changed the presidency nor has the presidency changed him. Being in office has shown the entire world who and what he truly is. Some descriptors, alphabetically: arrogant, boastful, crooked, deranged, egotistical, felonious, gluttonous, horrifying, ignorant, jealous, knave, liar, maniac, needy, obtuse, pernicious, quack, racist, shameful, thug, unstable, vulgar, wretched, xenophobic, yokel, zealot.
20
Trump's over the top tendencies, no uncontrolled impulses, are not a sign of reinventing the presidency. They are absolute proof that he doesn't understand the office, its powers and limitations and the fact that presidents must, almost always, lead by persuasion rather than by dictating. We did not elect a king. No matter how much they are deeply in love with Trump, we did not intend for him to act with complete unilateralism.
In a sense, this article and indeed the nation is in awe of Trump, but much of the awe is negative; we are dumbfounded by his lack of concern not just for the niceties of the office but for decency, restraint, modesty, concern for others with less power, and general rudeness to anyone who doesn't sing the discordant Trump music night and day.
Trump has won mixed if sometimes major success in life by bluffing, by convincing others that he is great and he is now bluffing his way through the presidency. This is not good. He is a bully through and through. The Trump lovers around the country think, hope, this might lead to some good results, but they aren't going to be happy with the negatives from Trumpism.
There is a reckoning a'comin'. Trump is at the controls of a 747 without a pilot's license and the awesome majesty of facts and circumstance that cannot be denied are headed straight in his direction. Don't be fooled. He can't change because he is utterly in love with The Donald till the sad and necessary end.
13
The gods are laughing. A country that touts democracy as the highest and best way to govern gets a screaming narcissist for a President who came in second in the popular vote. The President is certifiably handicapped in his cognitive abilities and should be and would be removed - but the GOP just keeps pouring gasoline on a rogue campfire.
18
The Founding Brothers (Fathers) were profoundly skeptical of political power, having observed its abuse for most of their lives. And then, there was slavery, too, which tainted every compromise the 13 Originals' confabs could devise.
If the Constitution was the state of the art in 1798, it certainly isn't now. While the rest of the world, and especially China, is looking ahead to the future in terms of physical and virtual networks, cleaner energy, ways to make their economies hum along, we're stuck with the usual litany of obstruction: no commitment to our citizens to maximize their potential through the cheapest, best education they can qualify for, no commitment to the States that they will be treated fairly, no commitment to businesses and especially startups that the infrastructure of public utilities and transport will be there for them. Congress hasn't done anything much for the People - notable exceptions the ACA and Medicare Part D - for decades. But the corporate sector, especially Wall Street-connected players and Congress people who've passed through the revolving door to be lobbyists, have feathered their nests more thoroughly than even their wildest dreams could have foretold.
Trump is just all of the above in spades.
For the top 1% it's anything you want. For the People (the 99%) it's you're a bunch of greedy slackers and takers. Suck it up.
8
True.
2
What kind of person would intentionally harm millions, quite possibly billions of other people? There is your answer about the super-rich who are taking tax payer money for themselves and the GOP that are taking money from the super-rich while they make laws to harm the millions, possibly billions of other people.
What is happening now is a Republican Genocide. Genocide is the deliberate, systematic and intentional actions to destroy a people (usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, sex or religious group) in whole or in part.
Are the actions of Donald Trump, his administration and the GOP the actions of someone who loves their country or someone more seemingly wanting to destroy this country. Do you treat people, any people, the way that Donald Trump, his administration and the GOP are if you care for those people? If you treated your family the way Donald Trump, his administration and the GOP are treating this country, would that be considered to be a loving family? This country is not a business…it is a gathering of people who have come together to live this life, with all of its meaning, until we pass on.
Donald Trump, his administration and the GOP hate this world and hate living this life and show their desire to destroy it all.
When do we start to hear the number of deaths caused by a handful of the super-rich and the GOP’s actions? When will they be held for crimes against humanity or war crimes?
11
Hare Psychopath Checklist. A person cannot evaluate themselves.
Evaluate Trump
"On each criterion, the subject is ranked on a 3-point scale: (0 = item does not apply, 1 = item applies somewhat, 2 = item definitely applies). The scores are summed to create a rank of zero to 40. Anyone who scores 30 and above is probably a psycho."
These are the 20 criteria:
- Exhibits fluent and voluble but insincere and shallow superficial charm
- Has a grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
- Has a constant need for stimulation
- Compulsive liar
- Cunning and manipulative
- Lacks remorse or guilt
- Has shallow, short lived emotional responses
- Insensitive and cruel disregard for others, lacking empathy
- Intentional, manipulative, selfish, and exploitative financial dependence on others as reflected in a lack of motivation, low self-discipline, and inability to begin or complete responsibilities
- Poor behavioral controls
- Sexually promiscuous
- Displayed early behavior problems
- Lack realistic long-term goals, no sense how actions carry out into future.
- Poor impulse control, can’t resist temptation
- Irresponsible
- Fails to accept responsibility for own actions
- Have had many short-term marital relationships
- Have a history of juvenile delinquency
-Released from an accused or convict from custody or imprisonment, under conditions which bar him or her from certain activities or associations.
- Takes great pride with getting away with a crime
13
He wins, with an almost even 40!
The rest of us lose.
7
I give Trump a score of 32.
2
This piece is a disgrace. We are in the midst of a battle for our democracy and the Times prints this wishy washy nonsense? What a gross mischaracterization of the grand heist being perpetrated by a senile, narcissistic con man in the WH and his accomplices, the crime syndicate formerly known as the GOP. NY Times, you must do better.
33
Trump is the democratically elected president. If you don't like it, you don't like democracy.
1
You got it absolutely right.
A favorite video for Republicans to watch on YouTube has the title “Trump Can’t Win; One year Anniversary Gloatfest”. Pairing that with reading the emotional outpourings of liberal Democrats on this particular Comments section, makes for the best Christmas ever. Merry Christmas, everyone!
3
With trump is our president does that make me a Russian citizen?
12
Sad to say, from my point of view: Yeah, kind of.
3
If religion was to be my reference in how to care for people, I would choose Jesus's political platform to follow...
Feed the poor
Heal the sick
Fight the money changers
Treat man, woman and child equally
Didn't preach any particular religion but instead a connection to God
How’s Trump and the GOP doing in comparison to Jesus’s political platform?
17
That is religion at its finest.
2
Oh WOW! As others have commented, I find this article very flattering to Trump. What’s up NY Times? Even Schmidt’s recent interview was softball.
10
According to Amy Cuddy, a Harvard Business School professor who has researched first impressions for more than 15 years, everyone (consciously or subconsciously) asks two questions when they meeting someone new: Can I trust this person? And can I respect this person? [RD]
From the moment of him entering the race to this moment…how do you answer these two questions about Trump? Then just carry on with the questions about his administration and the GOP.
6
"...Reinventing the Presidency..."???
Perhaps INVENTING A U.S. DICTATORSHIP is closer to truth.
22
When you use the word "reinventing" to describe the destruction, degradation, and misuse of the presidency, I know that it is time to get rid of my New York Times two-day a week subscription. As a publication, you have single-handedly set out to normalize the end of America as we know it. I use to love the Times and read it daily. During the 2016 election, I cut back to two days a week because of your anti-Hillary antics. Now, I just wonder where the hell you think you are going? Are you hoping to be one of the state propaganda outlets when Trump takes over the free press and remakes it in his own image? You're sure kissing up to him these days and frankly it scares me to death. I'm giving myself a night to sleep on it, but I think in 2018 my subscription will gone. I don't want to support what I see coming.
24
Do you not see the constant anti-Trump editorials? Your comment indicates a total lack of awareness.
1
Oh, I see the editorials--and they do call him out on some subjects. But a soft editorial piece like this one that uses euphemistic language is pretty much at odds with the Anti-Trump editorials as you call them, that for me it calls into question what the Times position on the Trump Administration really is. Tyler, do you not see the possible or probable ambivalence of this publication? I surely do.
1
And Jeffrey Dahmer reinvented Milwaukee cuisine.
27
Trump does NOT have a view of what's better for America as Kelly suggests. His decisions are based on
How can I discredit the previous president. His entire presidency so far has been to undo all of the good that the previous administration has done for the betterment of this nation, and its population. Legislation passed solely for the protection of the citizens of this country have been thrown out, out of pure vengence towards Obama despite the fact that the nation suffers when doing so. Consumers are now less protected, we have an environment under attack, minorities threatened, and so on. He satisfies his base by going after the Obama legacy, they shower him with praise, and being the narcisist he is, he basks in this.
This con-man has no view for America at all. He is like an inspector Clouseau ( probably spelled wrong) fumbling along day by day, constantly screwing up,making a fool of himself while defiling this nation.His only view of his office, is to see how much he can glean from this nation to enrich his own empire. He could not care less for this country, or for that matter the condition of the world because of his actions.
HIs sole thought with every decision made is "What's in it for me ?" Paying off donors with a tax plan for them, destroying the environment for his corporate buddies, it all makes sense when you understand the immorality of the man. A foreign agent, wishing to destroy this nation could not do a better job than Trump is doing.
13
The word you need is not "reinventing". It is "defiling".
23
After years of being a loyal New York Times subscriber, I cancelled my subscription in 2005 over the Judith Miller WMD debacle. After ten years, I re-subscribed in 2016. I may have to cancel again.
10
Don’t cancel. Let’s see what comes out of our comments. I think this piece may have been written to see where people stand.
2
There's long been a class war going on in this country, with the working class increasingly being disempowered and ignored by establishment politicians and the Wall Street banks and megacorporations they represent. Donald Trump set himself apart as the 'anti-politician,' someone willing to take on the establishment and reign in its powers. To a certain degree he has done so, which offends the Times and other organs of that same establishment. That's why despite his outsized vulgarity and narcissism he continues to have solid support from his working-class base.
Interestingly, nowhere in this article is there any mention at all of this class-war dimension to Trump's presidency. It's a blind spot that caused establishment pundits to not foresee Trump's election and is now causing them to misunderstand his presidency.
2
Ok, so now incompentency, corruption, and bigotry come under the heading of "reinventing"...just like the way Dillinger "reinvented" banking.
17
Most women hate his behavior and speech. He's like the kid in class who has no ability to achieve, so he focuses attention of everyone on himself by acting out.
He doesn't know how to do anything. I doubt he could negotiate the aisles of a supermarket on a shopping errand. So he grandstands.
One can read him and his patterns after a while. When he attacks someone personally, you know he is afraid of their ability to focus attention away from him or their political threat. One should count his attacks as an indication that he or she is actually causing him to worry. John McCain knows that and realizes that Trump's assaults are a badge of honor.
He plays to the ignorance and outrage of the most negative American voters. He is not intelligent; he is crafty, like many strongmen. But he is having difficulty imposing his control over the political world because our constitutional democracy has built-in fail safes. It's the party system that is allowing him to remain in power, because the Republicans have allowed an alien virus to infect and decimate them: the dissaffected Trump voters.
The only way to get rid of a tin pot would be dictator like Trump is to resist and defeat his attempts to achieve any objective. His charisma will melt away if he can't make good on his promises, leaving his supporters to rage and carry torches and denounce their enemies, as the gang at Charlottesville did.
Sic transic Trump.
13
Charisma: is that what it's called.
1
At some point, Kelly is going to have tell Trump that he was elected president, not absolute monarch.
The hardest thing to understand is about Trump's lies. Every time he lies, someone in his orbit knows it's a lie. I certainly don't expect them to call him on it. But I'd sure like a peek into how they justify it, either in their own minds or in conversations with people who are not drinking that Kool-Aid.
Of course Donny Jr is never going to come clean and tell the truth about contacts with Putin's emissaries. I would, however, like to hear what he tells his wife and kids or his hunting buddies about it though.
The stupidest part of it is that there probably was never any active collusion. All his life Trump has been a bottom-dwelling opportunist. So yeah, when Putin's minions whispered about hidden Clinton gold, they were talking his language. But Trump keeps backing himself further into corners and doubling the ante at the same time.
A lifetime of bullying tenants and contractors, of buying legislators and judges, and screaming that something that he doesn't like is automatically unfair...is going to come crashing down on his head, his family, and all those who sail in him.
I don't wish that, I hope it never happens, but I fear it will.
3
I hope he, his family and his minions get what they deserve.
5
Donald Trump is a mass of contradictions, a braggart needing constant attention and deference, a failure in everything but selling himself because he has no shame or conscience about who he hurts. He needs to win but has to constantly reinvent himself due to failure. He has no problem with telling lies even when it serves no purpose. He has everything anyone could want. yet is unfocused and unfulfilled.
So no, I don't think he will change the presidency because I can't imagine there are many more like him. (A perfect horror movie, cloned Trumps.) Time changes the presidency, world events and innovation. Each president brings something and takes away something. We get the government we deserve; hopefully the self-centered complacency that allowed this to happen has morphed into activism.
9
I join with numerous other commenters to speak against the idea that Donald Trump is reinventing the presidency. There is nothing new here. The end game is thousands of years old and it's called monarchy or, if that's too refined a term, dictatorship.
The title of this article suggests that there is something exciting and positive about this activity and that Trump has a well thought out plan. Not.
12
He has no leadership qualities. A leader brings everyone together, builds teamwork, looks out for the good of all. He has no leadership qualities.
10
The Times normalizing the Trump presidency.
Are we done for?
15
I sincerely hope that Robert Mueller and his team put together a case against Trump sufficient enough to purify the White House of him, his nepotism and crony capitalists. We must do to the Trump administration what he and they did to the legacy of President Obama, who carried out the mandate of the majority of the voters in the 2008 and 2012 elections. Only then will the Presidency of the United States be returned to a true democratic administration.
Nothing less.
20
Recently, Governor Mike Huckabee compared Donald Trump with Winston Churchill. Although many historians of modern Britain descried the comparison, there are some similarities. Churchill was grandiose, impulsive, made some terrible decisions (the invasion of the Dardanelles in World War I, restoring the gold standard in the 1920s, the raid on Trondheim in 1940), and was distrusted by friend and foe alike. Many believed that Chamberlain was a steadier and more effective leader.
There are many differences, of course, between the two politicians. Perhaps the most crucial in regard to this article is that while Churchill challenged the British political system, he never sought to overthrow it--as did his friend, Sir Oswald Moseley.
The question for us in the next year is whether Trump will try to overthrow our system of checks and balances--whether he will fire Robert Muller, disregard rulings of the Supreme Court, reject subpoenas from Congress or the special prosecutor, or otherwise create a "Constitutional Crisis".
7
Do you even have to ask whether the "I can do whatever I want"- 3 year old, will try to overthrow your system? I am beginning to believe Americans are "a bit" slow.
Slow is one thing. Spineless is another.
How can American journalists, amongst others, let the 3 year old get away with his ridiculous responses in interviews with him, or during WH daily press briefings? How can you just sit back and take it?
Talk back! Do not losen the grip! Do not allow him/Sarah H.S. to change the issue! Provoke him if necessary. Drive him over the top. Perhaps the cameras will catch his true colors. The amount of respect American journalists show him compared to the respect he is showing American journalists, is completely out of proportions.
I count my lucky stars I live in a country where we still tolerate far, far, far, FAR LESS from our politicians when they "go astray" than you seem to do in the US.
8
Churchill was a truly great man. He was one of the leaders that would never have attempted to bargain with Hitler. I take great pride in the fact that my grandfather, one of Queen Victoria’s thin red line of hero’s , a private in the Lincolnshire Regiment , shared three battlefields with Churchill, two in the Sudan in 1898, and one in South Africa during the Boer War. And like my grandfather, I was shipped “somewhere east of Sues, when I served in Vietnam.
2
Normalisation of pathology is not why I subscribe to the The New York Times.
20
Please stop saying this being has reinvented the Presidency. He has done nothing but diminished the office, the nation and eroded the Constitutional mandates which he is totally ignorant of and indifferent to. This facsimile of a leader; not to mention a human being, is nothing more than a grifter whose election was nothing more than a reflection of the hatred of the erudite, poised, respected and admired President Barack Obama, not to mention the help of his puppet master Putin.
18
When history views Trump's Presidency, he will be viewed at the best for the middle class, jobs, and economic growth, hands down! God Bless our President!
4
Melissa...I don’t intend to be rude, but, please dig more deeply into ALL news about this man Trump...what he’s trying to do, what he stands for. If , after doing that, and using your God given intelligence, you still support him, then, you and I are not fellow countrymen.
21
What economic growth? Any results that happened are a result of Obama’s careful handling from the 2008 Collapse, which, by the way, was a result of Trickle down economics espoused by Reagan (a Hollywood actor who was well into Alzheimer’s by his second term), and George Bush (who was puppet to Dick Cheney, who made millions through Halliburton). The stock market? That’s just a reflection of the rich getting richer. Your life ain’t worth peanuts to Trump or his rich cronies. And wait until that tax bill kicks in! When the US defaults or looks like it’s in danger of defaulting, all social programs will be cut wily-nilly, including Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, etc. Hope you aren’t old or have family using Social Security or Medicaid. That’s what Republicans and Trump intend: after all, they are only interested in pleasing the 1% and lining their own pockets.
7
Please, share your crystal ball.
1
Trump reinvented the Presidency alright, as fire reinvents wood into smoke and ash.
One term.
24
I really wouldn't call it reinventing but with aversion to truth, constitutional precedent and common decency he is leaving his mark. It'll take decades to fix it. Hopefully the country can survive it.
8
Jamie, We don't have decades to fix it. The time is now!
I suggest that the Democrats hold contests to find strategies for out trumping Trump and the Right. They blew it, but there may be some theatrical tricks to hit back at Trump.
Trump is not OK, not OK, not OK!
=========================
You can't fool all of the people, all of the time!
8
I honestly believe that if we had Lloyd from "Dumb and Dumber" in the White House the country would be better off. At least Lloyd wasn't venal, bigoted, self-serving, vindictive and megalomaniacal. He would surely "reinvent" the presidency but probably in ways far less destructive than Trump is doing. It's sad, but I am not trying to be funny: I'd rather have Lloyd.
11
Can we get Harry to replace Pence?
2
I don't want to sound like a nit picker, but "reinventing the presidency" is an exceptionally poor choice of words to describe Trump's destruction of our institutions, including the presidency. Calling it reinvention legitimizes what he is doing.
36
More like defiling the presidency. November 2018 can’t come quick enough so that Democrats can finally hold Trump accountable...
10
Americans are so numb with the daily onslaught of illegal, un-presidential behavior that there was no visible reaction to yesterday’s tweet saying that Amazon should be required to pay higher postal costs than anyone else. Anyone who doesn’t recognize that as retaliation for Amazon’s owner, Jeff Bezos, isn’t paying attention. Bezos also owns the Washington Post, which is responsible for the most critical coverage of the criminal in the White House. Not to belittle NYT’s coverage, which has been very strong, but sometimes not as strategically damaging to the Trump agenda.
This regime considers the presidency a weapon to punish or reward as it benefits the occupant. And that seems to be just fine with about 40% of Americans.
16
You hit the nail on the head!
4
Stop saying Trump is "uncoventional." It makes him sounds as if he is daring and innovative. Instead, he is ignorant and self-serving. It is apparent that this president doesn't care, nor even consider, the ways his predecessors did things because he has a shallow understanding of history. He lacks intellectual curiosity and sharpness. He is power drunk and not used to paying consequences for any of his bad behavior - so he just plows forward, with the barest of thought of the ramifications of his action - today or in the future. He has always had enablers and now it's the shameful Republican Congress. Yes, I do believe the public will tire of it all soon. People can only withstand being "on" at full blast for so long.
16
Trevor Noah nailed it when he said that Trump was an outstanding president, but that the was just on the wrong continent. Trump would have made a classic African president in the mold of Idi Amin or Robert Mugabe. In other words a hideous despot.
24
Agreed!
4
Trump and his sycophants confuse the act of bullying people with less recourse to monied power into subordination (as practiced e.g. by mafia bosses, psychopathic oligarchs, Mussolini, Stalin, Putin) with leadership requiring the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Trump groped only rudimentary. Leadership is about inspiration and infusing true gratitude for the gifts of knowledge, wisdom, skills and loving, soulful kindness that you share, not about abusing gullible others into dependency on and with (the tokens of) your money and power. Check his sorry wives to see how much 'leadership' he really commands.
There's a distinct lust he seems to carry to arbitrarily chop people's heads off. His leadership style is to get as close to that craven result as possible by any means. Look at the full page ad inciting to a public lynching, and no reflection, no correction, not a word of excuse after the human beings who had been falsely targeted were proven to be innocent. Ah, 'sweet' axe of prejudiced ire wielding 'leadership' that relies on the impunity of privilege and power.
Fellow commenter John Smithson cited Steve Jobs on Barack Obama: "He is having trouble leading, because he is reluctant to offend people or tick (them) off." Yes, that's what you internalize if you're black and have a brain cell or two. Same goes for women. It enhances and elevates (female) leadership though. Yet no, Obama was not reluctant to use executive orders, nor to explicitly dismiss stupid as stupid.
10
Indeed. 'You're fired' was TV. In the real world we live by laws.
Donald J. Trump, Beware! The mills of justice grind slowly; but they grind exceedingly fine.
2
The only thing that will "change permanently" is the concept of checks and balances. Trump isn't the greatest threat to democracy - it's the radical right wing cult formerly known as the Republican Party.
23
You have a point, and think who is behind that Party and that creature who sits in the White House: why some 1%ers. I think we will continue to see this problem because rich special interests twist things as much as they can to their wishes: they just need to find those willing to sell their souls to them.
2
Who is the audience for this story?
8
This is not a news article and this is the NYT normalizing aberrant behavior. Stop it!
43
Trump can’t help being who he is. He’s hard wired to be this way.
The NYT, etc. should focus more on the ones really responsible...the so called base. They have empowered Trump, McConnell, et.al. And they continue to do so. A person can call the base “stupid” and some of them probably are lacking in brain power. At the root, though, they are selfish or uninformed and intellectually lazy. There simply is no excuse for this. But, the base would rather just be angry, just spout off . That takes no intellectual work.
The base, if they continue, will be the undoing of this Nation. The parallels with France in the late 18th century are becoming eerie.
16
Where will -- as humans -- 50 years from now? Are we teaching our young how to deal with the damage that is being done to our home on earth, and to humanity itself? It's time to come together and make 2018 THE YEAR WE WAKE UP. Future generations will thank us -- if we do make an effort!
3
Reinventing?!...More like smearing the office & dismantling the rule of law & order that has existed for everyone but apparently shouldn't to him & his minions!
7
Once again the NYT fails in its mission. You attribute thought, reflection and mission to this man who is clearly mentally impaired. Shame on you for ignoring former Governor Palin’s truism about lipstick and pigs.
9
This article contains more euphemisms for "Trump breaks the law and lies" than might have ever appeared in one place before:
"he has bristled at the restraints imposed on the presidency"
"defying the conventions and norms"
"He has kept a business on the side"
"crackling verve"
"expressing frustration that he is not supposed to use the F.B.I. as he sees fit"
"He has revolutionized the way presidents deal with the world beyond 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue"
And in one of the only parts of the article where Trump's lies are called lies, the author negates himself by saying "according to fact checkers".
17
The only thing I care to learn any more about Trump is how to remove him from office and how long must we wait. It would be especially gratifying to humiliate him in the most acute way in the process.
14
Trump is a sociopath. He is a one man wrecking crew determined not to reshape the Presidency, but to become a King, an Emperor. The Republican held Congress has given up their position as an equal branch of government with equal power. They're allowing an imperial Presidency occupied by a bigoted, sexist, greedy little man who if not stopped will destroy us all.
24
Being rude is not the same as being truthful. Speaking without thinking is not the same as being honest. Arrogance is not the same as competence. Expertise should be valued, not denigrated. Decency is not a weakness. It is so much easier to destroy than to create, especially when you neither understand nor care about what you are destroying.
26
"...one with crackling verve but riddled with inaccuracies, distortions and outright lies..."
Just like most presidents since mid 20th century--JFK, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush. Boldfaced liars all. The Vietnam and Iraq war ones were also mass murderers.
Trump is just a more brazen liar with contempt for his followers--they will follow him even if he murders on 5th Ave.--he says; so they are to be bilked and milked for his personal profit.
The travesty is hardly his alone. Trumpies are human embarrassments.
And so are a long line of American pols for letting the country sink so low--in critical thinking, knowledge of issues, concern for neighbors, communities, the world and even the physical planet.
When will Americans stop self advertising as "this great country." It's a disgrace and has been for centuries. Perhaps better than Nazi Germany or Stalinist USSR--faint praise.
6
Some commenters here seem to believe Trump was an inevitable choice, one driven by the turmoil and despair existing today in much of the United States. But they forget several significant elements in reaching that conclusion. First and foremost has been the impact of right-wing media, notably Fox "news" and "talk" radio. These voters have been listening to unrelenting attacks on democrats, liberals, and anyone else who does not ascribe to their viewpoint. If not for Fox and talk radio, it is doubtful Trump would ever have won. And lets not overlook James Comey and the "reopened" e-mail investigation of Hillary days before the election. Add Russian interference, a host of lies promulgated on the Internet, and too many potential voters sitting it out and we had a perfect storm of falsehoods sufficient to give rise to a manipulator and prevaricator of the likes of Donald Trump. So what do we do next time? Take a lesson from Pete Townsend...and don't get fooled again.
8
Out here in fly-over country, we are so sick of being pushed around by the mainstream media, Democrats, RINOs and Washington elites that we will tolerate a great deal from someone who is actually willing, after so many promises from others, to make these groups uncomfortable and do what he says. We value your discomfort more than the pain we feel that someone like Trump had to be the one to stick it to you. Would we prefer Jim Jordan or Trey Gowdy to carve you up? Sure. But, we're happy making you painful with a dull instrument. Happy New Year!
3
When Trump starts a stupid, avoidable war - and he will - it's primarily the children of folks in fly-over country who will go fight and die in Donald Trump's wars. Your battle against "elites, mainstream media and RINOS " is at the expense of your children and your communities.
How's that for discomfort?
12
Trey Gowdy? Seriously? The man who spent umpteen millions of your dollars and mine trying to flip cockroaches into lying under oath? For how many years he kept coming up empty?
What? You say that was Hillary's fault - she refused to roll over, and stonewalled him? Mebbe so, mebbe not...but if you want to keep pouring our money into a scheme that, to the rest of the world besides you at least, is never going to pay out....Trey Gowdy....hah.
7
If you feel so inferior move out of the flyover.
2
President Trump is doing an outstanding job, too bad many fellow New Yorker's are too stupid to admit it. How embarrassing. Trump 2020!
2
I think trump is doing an outstanding job of
Undermining the constitution and enriching himself.
11
Colorado isnt a Trump state either.
3
He hasn't "reinvented" anything. That would require awareness and understanding of what was already invented and in place, as well as conscious, informed consideration of what to construct in its place. His reptilian brain is not capable of "reinvention."
10
You say "transformed", we say "destroyed". The GOP isn't coming back from this, either.
16
Peter Baker is too intellectually assessing. We have a mentlly ill person occupying the White House.
24
Reinventing is not necessarily positive or negative. People are seriously unhinged.
1
"The office has become a blunt instrument to advance personal, policy and political goals. Will that change the institution permanently?" - The New York Times.
I would suppose that if you consider the people of the United States "political goals", then maybe we rated 3rd. I suspect we are much farther down the list.
1
A person who has been a liar,
has cheated others, has borrowed exorbitant amounts of money and not paid it back, and
Has sexually assaulted women does not make a good president.
22
Has some conservative gazillionaire like one of the Koch brothers bought the New York Times on the down low? Some kind of off-shore shell corporation or something? This is not normal.
Hello? Control of the zeitgeist, people. Seriously, it's happening again.
Could Peter Baker have been hit by a bad pitch? He's just not making any sense. How many fingers am I holding up?
6
Trump is "reinventing" the president in the same way that a bored, angry 4 year old smashes his toys.
That boy might grow up and out of such behavior. Trump hasn't, and won't.
21
He is destroying the presidency, the country, and the world.
Super Dubois.
14
Reinvents the way a Bull in the China Shop "Reinvents" a Shop. So yeah. Not in good way hence not good use of word. Missed his calling as in Reduction Chef and not Reduction President.
4
Dangerous stuff, are you encouraging the narrative, or just helping it along?
7
A year of reinventing the presidency?
REALLY? YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT.
How about... a year of tolerating a nightmarish narcissist who hijacked our beautiful and kind country?
How about... a year of bigotry, insults, GASLIGHTING, living on the edge of nuclear war, LIES... straightforward-outright-lies, donor ransoms, belligerence, criminality, indifference, immorality, revenge on voters, admitted sexual assault, cover-ups, and plain old ignorance?
Perhaps try this: 2017 The Year Trump Hijacked American Values.
For next year? 2018 The Year Americans Took America Back.
If you want to survive as a newspaper, you will need to TELL THE TRUTH. This has been the most demoralizing year for American citizenry in history.
18
The country has seen worse. Andrew Jackson comes to mind
But I digress.
Trump was able to reshape the Presidency because he did NOT run on the contribution of large donors. A masterful manipulator of the media and a billionaire he ran on his own nickel. Not for him the parcourse in front of the Uber-Rich, begging for approval of your policies, before you run.
Not owning anyone, anything... so there he goes...
That both the Republican (Parvenu) and Democratic (thoughtless Populist) Establishment hates him just spurs him on more...
3
Trump DID run with the help of large donors.
Top Contributors, federal election data for Donald Trump, 2016 cycle
This page shows contributions grouped by contributor to the candidate's campaign committee plus any super PACs or hybrid PACs working on his or her behalf
https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/contributors?cycle=2016&id=n00023...
4
Trump is right now raising money from the Mercers and Koch brothers for his next run. You bought snake oil.
4
Since Trump likes to take personal responsibility, or credit, for the policies he vaunts so much, perhaps he should be personally indicted -- for Crimes Against Humanity.
That charge, rare as it is, usually arises in relation to crimes against some section of the human race but the nature of the alleged crime is of sufficient seriousness and character that the acts involved are deemed to be against the very conception of a shared humanity.
In Trump's case he has deliberately set out to sabotage global action on global warming and has deliberately fostered policies which contribute to global climate change, thereby endangering further all of humanity. Given his unique postiion and that of the USA, his personal criminal responsibility may therefore be regarded also as unique.
Since the Republicans are unlikely to impeach him even for any alleged crimes against the American people which may come to light, perhaps it is time for the global community to bring the far more serious charge against him. There would be little doubt about the verdict.
11
“One way he’s changed the institution is that most presidents see themselves as trustees of the democracy,” said David Axelrod
And he sees the Presidency as a way to make money and have lots of people cheer for him. He doesn't give a rat's behind about anything or anyone else.
16
Al Gore has made hundreds of millions of dollars selling his religion. Bill Clinton was paid $30 million per year in speaking fees and consulting fees by people who had business before Hillary. [That is in addition to billions in "contributions" to the Clinton Foundation, none of which money managed to make it through to philanthropic purposes. It paid for a nice wedding for Chelsea.] Obama is being paid tens of millions in thanks from his cronies who he granted favors to while in office.
Trump enterprises are making less money since he took office.
What are you playing at, New York Times?
Why the glorious series of ennobling half page Trump photos?
Why the valorizing language: "reinventing", "insurgent"?
The man is a feckless spoiler, without strategy or vision. A wrecking ball seeking out only personal enrichment and satisfaction of his two-year-old's impulse for destruction.
Yet you insist, have insisted all along, at finding a noble, if objectionable, rationale for his acts. Something beyond undoing everything that uppity black fellow tried to do even though they made it clear he shouldn't oppose the Republicans.
It's as if the Spirit of Dowd has invaded the editorial office, and looking for a ray of Trumpish hope is the only way you can see to counteract the left, now slipping from your favor.
It's a long term trend, by now. It's subtle and insidious, but unmistakable.
You want explore the psyche of Trump? You want to attribute a grander vision to help us understand the inner workings of that enigmatic mind?
Here's what I'd like from you: a thoroughgoing, well researched explication of the thinking, a blow by blow account of the strategizing and decision making, that led the old fool to bestow boundless cash, endless logistical aid, and the title "heroes" on the people of Florida and Texas while literally abandoning Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to their fate.
I lived in NYC for years, I know the mind and the history of Trump, but that one baffles even me. Little help would be nice.
19
You make baseless allegations about Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands not receiving sufficient support after the storms. Check your facts. The reason 50% of Puerto Rico does not have electricity has nothing to do with not having received sufficient federal aid. The reason Houston and Florida have made a better recovery is because the cities and states have competent governments.
Right. Which is why local zoning encouraged building in flood plains and on the water in reservoirs, which assured intense flooding downstream. Responsible local government...
What an excellent analysis. The people spoke. They voted in who they wanted and now the people are getting the temperamental, disruptive, non-conventional, brash President they had hoped for. He did not disappoint.
But for me there are a few things that I find intolerable in him, things I also find intolerable in any human: brazen frequent lying, embellishing and distorting the truth; name calling and bullying; never apologizing; scapegoating; and a lack of humility. Perhaps having a disruptor is what the system needs now and again; however, having a man of such poor character as a role model for the country's children is unfortunate.
Around the world people from the USA have had the bad rap being seen as the "ugly American". Unfortunately, Trump is the personification of this. Whether this reputation will improve, I cannot say. Let's hope your democratic institutions can survive this course correction.
12
Did it. Just cancelled my NY Times subscription.
12
Your loss, dude. Readers should not expect Trump bashing every day in the NYT. Read the op-eds for more of these opinions...Paul Krugman, Thomas Friedman et. al. The NYT mandate is to report news, and has to reach beyond the strict anti-Trump choir. Resubscribe with more tolerance. Peter Baker's piece today was highly critical, by they way, as most of his reporting has been.
3
Reinventing the presidency? Not even close. The definition of "reinvent" is simple. It's to "change (something) so much that it appears to be entirely new." "Change something" implies knowledge of that which is to be changed and making modifications so that it looks new.
Trump is not "reinventing." He's ignorant of the original definition of the presidency and what it has become over time. He is just creating a presidency based on his personal desires and his life experience - unfortunately, we know what that looks like.
20
Error -- the statement by Kelly that Trump "never" asks how other presidents did it
He obsessed about everything Obama did and then deliberately does the opposite. If Obama had hidden his taxes, Trump would put his up on billboards
He exists to be the anti- Obama. He cannot stand that an uppity black guy won by a bigger margin, |ad higher approval ratings, is STILL most admired man.
35
I agree. Kelly is almost certainly not telling the truth. Again. Mr. Trump's obsession with President Obama makes it very unlikely that he has not asked about him. How else could he know what to undo?
Wow NYT hillary bias still baked in. I think Trump is doing really well and I hope NYT closes in a year.
5
What, so ol’ Rupert can be the source of “news”?
2
Is this article a New Years appeasement piece by the Times to pretend that they can be “fair and balanced” toward Trump? Am seriously reconsidering my subscription if this continues. I can go to the FOX website for free, thank you.
21
Fox is free, as you say, but perhaps that is because they recognize the true value of their product.
2
Go watch Network.
Whether Trump's demagoguery and desire to foment discord for the purpose of self-aggrandizement will serve as a paradigm for future Presidents depends on whether the Times and the rest of the mainstream are able to adequately inform his base about the effect of his policies on their lives and whether politicians of more refined and traditional sensibilities will earnestly address income inequality and the need to restore a sense of security in the lives of the average American citizen. For politicians it's about electability and the acquisition of power. Only an knowledgeable electorate can constrain future Trump wannabes.
11
I wouldn't say Trump is reinventing the Presidency, as much as he's Dumbing it Down.
17
This is like writing an article dressing up the fact that a Mafia Don has taken over the neighborhood from the elected officials and remarking on how the crime family head has changed government in the neighborhood.
16
"President Trump has cast aside the mythology of a magisterial presidency removed from the people in favor of a reality-show accessibility that strikes a chord in parts of the country alienated by the establishment."
Next article in this series: "Nigeria has brought vast riches to millions of Americans through the generosity of its many princes."
12
If Trump becomes the norm of American presidents our nation is done.
23
Reinventing? Discarded the conventions? Is there something wrong with you at the NYT. Must you always miss what is important so you can report on the sideshow? Recent academic studies suggest that with regards to Trump you can't see straight. You gave him a pass during the election and tarnished a hard working and knowledgeable woman (HRC) like she was a criminal--my God the emails AND Benghazi! You are partly to blame--more even than FAUX news--for serving him up. Will the entire Republic be brought down and will he start a Nuclear War with NK. How much must we endure so you and other media can sell papers and make money?
How about this: don't talk about his side show tweets and keep your EYE ON THE PRIZE. Stay on the real issues like glue and don't be distracted. Please O try to begin to tell the truth about this man and what is happening to our lives and our system of government (such as it is). Can you do that without letting him buffalo you again?
A Plague Year for the Nation and for The Presidency,
Fixating on the antics of this juvenile delinquent, the media (NYT included) now takes its share of blame for the election and tries now to come to terms with the fact that it has failed to notice the deadly disease he has brought to our system of government and to future of the world itself.
29
Louder. I don't think the New York Times can hear you. Shout it out, brother.
9
You mean destroyed the Presidency, not reinventing. Like hitler reinvented Poland.
29
d trump did not redefine the presidency. The media redefined the presidency, exactly as they did with Richard Nixon until WaPo made it no longer a viable editorial policy.
The media have normalized this presidency, and so redefined what it means to be President of The United States.
Various opinion writers have sought to proffer alternative conclusions on the efficacy of the d trump presidency, but in all the editorial policy of The New York Times, The Daily News, The Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, etc., etc., have all served d trump's purposes rather than any attempts to thwart those purposes.
I will allow that there may be some misguided attempt to maintain the office regardless of the human inhabiting the office, but that attempt was wrong headed; and, as the country slides into 2018 the aforenamed media outlets, as well as newspapers not named, and their corresponding television news editors, will now begin to find all the reasons why the d trump presidency is NOT so different than other presidents, and why his actions, though individually alarming, do not point to any general aberration or unfitness for office. They will seek to assure us that d trump is just another not so good president, like Woodrow Wilson, not the single most destructive force ever allowed into the Oval Office.
7
Don't normalize this madman.
32
Poor choice of words: Invention is the result of creativity. Trump is only capable of senseless destruction
25
Reinvent? You mean destroy? I am all for unconventional, effective innovative approaches but this man is an ignorant dangerous loose cannon. The use of the word “reinvent” makes it appear as though he is thoughtfully planning things out for the betterment of the country. Far from it. Please get us to November!
23
What on earth? "Invigorating" the office? Really? The man is an obscenity, and the only thing he does to the office is demean it—and the entire country. If you and others at the NYT don't stop trying to normalize his demented behavior, we will never be rid of him. Had Hillary Clinton behaved even fractionally as offensively as Trump, you would have pilloried her.
26
Trump is reinventing the presidency in the manner of jalopy drivers I used to watch on TV 60 years ago. They would drive as fast as they could on a figure-8 course, doing their best not to crash into one another. It was silly, potentially dangerous and fun for a 10-year-old to watch. Trump holds the wheel of our nation, and the danger he poses is far more severe for us all.
17
To add to the discussion of liberal elites, I've read that some people believe that these elites look down on the so-called "flyovers". I probably qualify as a member of the elite living in California and having graduated from an excellent law school. I practiced law for more than 30 years. I never heard any of my friends and colleagues mock or belittle fellow citizens. In fact the discussions I heard were sympathetic to the difficulties experienced by the unemployed and dispossessed. The Bar encouraged us lawyers to engage in pro bono work and help people who needed legal services but couldn't afford our fees.
4
I still want to know who these "elites" are that generate so much anger from the right. I work at a prestigious university and know some of the brightest people in the world (in their own fields). But, none of them have any influence over government or public opinion in the slightest way. The people with power are sure as hell not Democrats. They're like the Koch brothers, or even Donald Trump: people with money. I think "liberal elites" are a straw man created by the right to let the lower income classes express their anger while following the rich right wing to their own doom.
24
I know right? I wonder what Peter Baker was even thinking, with all the glorification of the so-called president's so-called "reinvention".
What is he even on about with "take on smug elites"? Dude, he nominated the Thief Justice to Garland's Fenced Seat, turned the EPA and DOI into land-stealing pro-petroleum-boss climate destroyers, and signed the Job Cuts and Taxes Act to give the wealthy even more money! Now covfefe hopes his GOP will cut even more basic government programs and civil rights, presumably before the GOP get repealed and replaced in 2018.
The elites at KochAddledsonMercilessCo have never smiled so smugly in years. covfefe has recognized The Forgotten American by ensuring they won't just be forgotten by America, but erased from history and priced out of their homes.
5
This is a perfect example of why I cannot rely on the NYT for news reporting. This is a thoroughly opinionated hit piece. If Mr. Baker has given up all pretense to objectively reporting the news as a good journalist should, let him write for the op-ed pages and replace him with someone who shows some respect for the profession.
7
He says he will "hire the best". Oh, he's had a staffer last 10 days, he hired his incompetent caddie Dan Scavino who had no prior experience in social media, govt, but was a trusted caddie. To date, Scavino has used social media to daily put 120 characters of lies out. He should be fired and our tax dollars are being used to pay his salary. Sad! We are also paying for Ivanka's travels while she flaunts her horrible clothing line and has the nerve to publicly speak on taxes, women's issue and manufacturing while she makes her crappy clothing line overseas in China and Tawain. To date show us all one single job they have created, how they have improved American lives, and created good relations around the world.
11
This pariah has desecrated the presidency. He will have a virus named after him.
20
Ugh, another NYTimes articles trying so hard to negotiate "both sides". You should have stopped with "blunt instrument" or "another weapon in a permanent campaign of divisiveness"!
8
In many ways America has always been a land of make believe, it's citizens deluded and full of pretense. So, it's probably about time the country has a president who reflects these qualities.
America is an empire in decline anyway, what with its waste and corrupt political process.
President Trump is the right man at the right time to oversee it's demise. Don't blame him. He's simply presiding over what Presidents since Lyndon Johnson set into motion when they decided to hand over the reigns of power to the military industrial complex and supported Supreme Court justices who treat corporations as people.
But hey, at least we have our tech sector and our smartphones.
3
You are correct in that Trump is a reflection of parts of the US, but not the majority. This is not the time to become cynical. It’s the time to get the majority of us out there voting this weasel and the other Repub weasels OUT OF OFFICE.
"Unconventional?" This is why we're all dumping our NYT subscriptions. These breathless pieces about our wild and crazy president are an absolute abrogation of journalistic responsibility. There is something important and newsworthy going on with this president but its not "unconventionality." Its something far more destructive. Fortunately there are other news outlets actually covering it.
12
This is my country. It does not belong to Donald Trump or any of his little pals. It does not belong to Russian oligarchs, Goldwyn Sachs or a re-invigorated fascisti who've been told that someday, if they pay off the 'right' people, it can. It may not, it shall not be destroyed by fourth-rate shysters, grifters and conmen who prey on the suckers. This country belongs to We, the People - and we're taking it back.
7
Why does the NYT glorify this man? Aren’t (some of you) students of history? This creature, who has no moral compass or compassion, with the assistance of many Republicans in Congress and wealthy 1%ers like Rupert Murdoch, is a demagogue-in-the-making: look at the rise of Stalin or Hitler, or any other demagogue. I care about the rule of law and the institutions that have made America great, those which our Founding Fathers set up. Why is our Congress, which is supposed to represent us, not stepping up? Every day that passes with this awful man in the the White House is another step in the degradation of our Nation. As for his “base”, why do you perpetuate THAT myth? Trumpites, unless they are the 1%, are fooling themselves if they thing Trump cares about them. Trump gets his real support from the likes of people like Murdoch, the Mercers, the Kochs, at the moment....until he’s served his purpose in their demonic journey. They are the demon princes, and have carved up the world to run as they see fit, after all. Where are the 1%ers who care about the rule of law and justice for all, as envisioned by our Founding Fathers?
15
Show me the glorified prompting of Trump. It is responsible reporting, albeit draped by an horrific subject.
1
Doris Kearns Goodwin is an example of something to be discarded - the industry of "presidential historians". Say bye to Goodwin, Gergen, Beschloss, etc.
1
Why, because they maintain the facts that prove what an utter failure and disgrace your ignorant idol is?
9
Au contraire, Mel Plontz.
Just because you don’t agree with their assessments does not for one minute invalidate presidential historians and their work of putting this administration in perspective.
Your cooment shows just how much the advent of Donald Trump has marginalized history and objective scholarship, which in and of itself proves why we need people like Goodwin, Gergen, and Beschloss now more than ever.
We don’t need a cult of personality, which is what Trump apparently wants. We need cold, hard truth.
5
Trump has exposed the major short-comings, imperfections and inadequacies of our Constitutional 2 party system.
There were far too many things that could not have been foreseen, e.g.when -"Lifetime" appointments to the Supreme and Federal Courts were viewed as desirable, at a time when the average life-span was probably @50 years. -The vagueness of conditions for removal of an incompetent, malevolent, disturbed president.
-A corrupt, self-serving Congress made up of the same party as the president who act as enablers because they share a common, self-serving and self-enriching agenda.
-The vague language surrounding "pardon power", the "emoluments clause" using the office for "self-enrichment, the meanings of "collusion" and "obstruction" as it applies to actions of the president
There are far too many such obvious areas where our Founding Fathers failed to set limits, because their primary focus was on preventing the tyranny of rule by a foreign power, a King.
4
Trump is the horror that keeps giving, the judges now being given lifetime appointments will forever change our country now and for decades to come.
7
Your choice of the word “reinventing “ makes me sick to my stomach.
23
I strenuously object to the title of this article. Donald Trump is debasing the presidency, diminishing the presidency. Reinventing? Not even remotely close. Where were the NYT editorial wordsmiths on this one?
19
He called various targets of his ire “crazy,” “psycho,” “short and fat,” “crooked,” “totally inept,” “a joke,” “dumb as a rock,” “disgusting,” “puppet,” “weak and out of control,” “sleazy,” “wacky,” “totally unhinged,” “incompetent,” “lightweight” and “the dumbest man on television.” Among others.
A man with those words uttering out of his mouth should not be allowed to push hotdog cart in Manhattan. Sad; that he was allowed to the highest office in the country.
14
I smiled reading your comment.
Let the Democrats take the House & Senate in next November. We all know how any WHY Bill Clinton was IMPEACHED in 1999.......in much less abuse/ lies than 45th.
1
Many of the Times readers demand more strident propaganda. This article is definitely critical of Trump but I guess it isn't over the top enough.
2
Seriously some lawyers say Trump’s abuse of power is within constitutional bounds?!? You must be kidding. No attorney I work with or know believes that — at least anyone with a brain. Trump literally stole the election and you and the rest of the media continue to act otherwise. He lied, cheated, colluded and committed treason to STEAL the election. The majority of the people understand this in our Country but we have no voice. Our media was our last chance and you are owned by the same Billionaires and Oligarchs that corrupted and now own our government and politicians. We should have had a new special election; instead we have to spend/waste OUR taxpayer monies to deal with an illegitimate, corrupt, delusional, Pathological liar. Impeach all of them. Need a reset button!
8
I don’t think the NYT is owned by the Oligarchs and Billionaires. It’s still family-owned, and even if I disagree with an article published in their newspaper, they bring in a range of opinions and analysis. Compare that to Fox News.
1
I often wondered what would happen when conservatives actually started to get the things they want. Over the last year we've seen it. Forget Trump, he's just a useful idiot. He'll sign a pizza menu if they put it on his desk. What they want, and what Trump is enabling through his singular bully pulpit, is a plutocracy where they are the privileged and the rest of us are on our own, there's no social safety net and no public lands, Medicare & Social Security are for profit entities, the courts are stacked with extremist right wing activists who will subvert the Constitution for their own ends, LGBT people are forced back into the closet, there are no environmental regulations, everything has a toll and the Bill Of Rights is null and void.
The US is currently ruled by a conservative cancer of traitors who want a theocratic, fascist, white supremacist, science-denying, polluted, unregulated dystopia. Stop pretending they're just Americans with a different opinion. They're not. They're an exponentially greater threat to the Republic than any jihadis or despot foreign rulers, and 2018 must be the beginning of their end.
11
if by reinvent you mean Frankenstein's monster. Pap.
2
Voting them out of office would be good. And getting people to vote would be helpful. Look what happened in Virginia and Alabama when people voted!
1
Ever since Eisenhower and a brief interlude with Ford, both honorable men, Republicans have played dirty. They lie and they cheat and they are in thrall to their wealthy donors. This is not the America I was born into 81 years ago. This is what you get with ignorant evangelical bigots.
5
Hi NYT,
I'm paying for a digital subscription and you've had the same articles on front page (of the NYT app) for 3 days??? I love long form, well researched content but seriously? Nothing newsworthy in 3 days...
6
Trump should be on Mount Rushmore for saving the country from Hillary. She would have been a DISASTER. The only reason she ever got anywhere in politics was because she was the boss' wife. Years ago her failed Hillarycare caused the Dems to loose control of the House of Reps for the 1st time in a generation*. (Just another Hillary accomplishment, Bonsia snipers, Russian reset, etc...) Too arrogant to even campaign in Mich, Penn. and Wisc. Talk about a dodged bullet. I hope so badly the Dems rig their primary again and Cankles Clinton is their candidate again.
*Had she not been the boss' wife and a woman that debacle would have ended her career. She has gotten free ride after free ride for decades for being a woman. And she claims misogyny was a cause of her defeat. What lunatic. Maybe not campaigning in Mich, Penn, and Wisc. had something to with it.
2
Man, you don’t like Ms. Clinton! But this article was about Trump, and some of it seemed almost complementary. Why did you harp on Clinton? Because Trump does?
2
Trump's bumblings as President go a long way in explaining why he had to declare bankruptcy so many times.
11
"Broader mandate?" What mandate? He didn't even win a plurality of the vote -- and he lost by no small margin: nearly 3m votes. He never had the consent of the governed and he never will.
13
He is an undisciplined brat. While his parents failed him badly by not giving him either love or attention, or limits, we are the victims. The human Wrecking Ball lives a very small sheltered life, with the emotional and intellectual understanding of an adolescent. It just defies reason to continue measuring him as an adult. He is not an adult.
10
Now, let's not trash the teenagers' understanding.
My two young adults seemed to get the picture. They knew who had the power but rejected those who abused it.
It's a tough job, learning how to be an adult and not back down when challenged.
Drumph just skipped that stage of development. How terrible for us.
And one of his mentors was Roy Cohn. Yuck!
1
History will be the ultimate judge and an honest assessment will put Trump heads and shoulders above the previous occupant on every level, from the US economy to foreign policy.
1
"The office has become a blunt instrument to advance personal, policy and political goals. Will that change the institution permanently?"
When hasn't it been that?
1
Always some excuse by the media to make Trump look like he possesses competence in his year in office. He hasn't reinvented anything! Trump has discarded rational thinking for mindless tweets; Trump has disbanded talented professionals leading diplomatic foreign efforts around the world and calls other leaders names while making critical unilateral decisions with profound implications just because he could; Trump has taken what would have been the guidance of his staff for his own loonie guidance.
Trump has no discipline. Period. He talks and talks without knowledge. He is like a bull in a china shop. He creates chaos and confusion in most instances wherever he is. Unimaginable? Indeed! That there were institutional objectives that Trump disregarded is his determination not to be told what to do. He doesn't know what to do. Without a script or a teleprompter he is the least presidential of anyone who has ever served in the office. Should the institution change permanently? If Americans are not careful, Trump will become the authoritarian president of a worst than so-called third world/third rate nation. He doesn't care.
9
Trump is exactly what this country needs to set things right. Obama kept us on a path to ruination, the capstone of which was spoiling health insurance for all in the name of insuring the few. Kind of like an Army destroying the city in order to save it.
1
I think his “base” was best served by the ACA. Funny, isn’t it. They are NOT the majority.
Trump is not "reinventing" anything or even inventing. He is lining his pockets.
While he is in office it should be called The Pwesidency. An alternative juvenile reality type thing.
6
The worst thing about this article is that it normalises trump as if he was just a quirky White House occupant. He has no plan other than to undue anything that was done before he took over. He is destroying our democracy, our land, our environment, our tolerance of those who are different from us, our reputation as a welcoming country and as a defender of democracy. And we're supposed to just take it and wait out the eight years? Not this citizen. I'm doing everything I can to elect those who will use their congressional seats to impeach that self absorbed tyrant.
10
Good for you! I’m with you!
This article coming after the 30 minutes of letting "Trump talk,"is like a double gut punch. Trump is disrespectful of the Office. Period. Someone state the obvious. Trump is Not Well Mentally. That Schmidt piece was a Manifesto of Madness!Incoherent Ramblings & delusions with grandiose ideas in mental decline.He's not well & his family and his administration needs to stop enabling him. Get him evaluated by a Doctor ASAP!
10
Get him evaluated by the helicopter pilot who will be flying away from the White House, with his cargo of former president and lovely family.
2
"Mr. Trump is testing the proposition that a president can still effectively remake the country without securing or even seeking a broader mandate."
It just happened that way. He sensed that he could not get a broader mandate without changing his ways by enduring the pain of patience, which he is unwilling to endure.
His impatience has been a life-long thing. He is HYPOMANIC, has been so since his childhood. His parents sensed it. They sent him to the military school where he somehow thrived!
He believes in his destiny that he was born to be "king," to impose his will on others, whether others are willing to submit to his will or not.
Even when he wasn't a success in almost everything he attempted, he hasn't been a decisive failure, which seems to make him believe in his destiny that he was born to be a despot (king) with a birthright to impose his will on others.
As Sen. Lindsey Graham said his presidency could be a total disaster or a home run! (He forgets that he won with sheer luck, like winning a lottery. Occasionally he senses that, but immediately he enters back into his fantasy world!)
2
How about we just find a way to get rid of him?
1
Getting rid of him is extremely difficult if not impossible.
Though you & I and a whole bunch of others dislike him quite intensely, we're it seems stuck with him & his antics. Mueller investigation may bring evidence for collusion with Russia, but will it be sufficient to impeach him? Even impeached, he may not be convicted; it's a political process. Facts may not matter too much.
If Democrats make too much noise about impeachment it would backfire on them - I'm a liberal Democrat.
If either one or both Houses flip in 2018, that would be a huge respite. And hope he won't be reelected. The chances for that are not bad.
1
You wonder if the Constitution didn't foresee a double-dealing Republican Party simultaneously coupled with a Trump Presidency whose campaign had distinct ties to a foreign nation while the previous president was still active in office and sanctioning that specific foreign nation.
Lately, ever since respected members of the intelligence community suggested this president is a usable Russian asset, the president increased his angry rebuke of these agencies, and very quickly Republicans did as well. And perhaps when Trump's former adviser K.T. McFarland's email obtained by The Times scandalously said sanctions could also make it much harder for Mr. Trump to ease tensions with Russia, “which has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him.”
2
It is hard to say if Trump will change the Presidency forever. The fact that Congress has permitted him to benefit from his opaque business empire and abuse nepotism to his family's benefit has set a precedent for future abuse of this highest office.
What can be said is that it will take a long time to undo the damage he has wrought. His tax "reform" will exacerbate wealth inequality while starving our economy for the funds needed to bring our infrastructure and human resources into the 21st century. His "America First" slogan when implemented will cede our world leadership position . His regressive economic policy (coal mining, fossil fueled economy) is based upon pandering to those of have lost their past security; but catering to these lost dreams means our failure to invest in the future. Deregulation will give a boost to corporate profits and businesses will be reluctant to reverse their new found gains; but the damage to the environment, health, safety, employment and financial well being will take years to surface. The disparagement of our public employees and institutions will inflict distrust which will be difficult to dispel, as diminished funding will impair their performance. The role of a free press will be diminished . He has done plenty of damage... without a war, which remains a possibility.
After Trump, it is possible that the electorate will seek a qualified, conventional leader. Trump began his reign referring to carnage; it will be his lasting legacy.
5
Nicely written. And you hit all the areas he has or will damage as he flails around in the Office of President.
Trump is the product of Reality TV, social media, and a dumbed-down public. One third of America does not know how many branches of government we have- probably including Trump. If we want better we have to VOTE.
10
Trump's volatility and willful ignorance is dangerous and deserves our attention. But it also serves as a distraction from other forces of equal danger but less prominence; forces such as Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan who are as destructive as Trump and value him as the distraction he is that enables them to do their work largely in the dark, and with no less arrogance, dishonesty, and cruel indifference to the well-being of the people of this country.
We must understand that Trump is a side-show. The real action is in Congress where crooks and cowards are dismantling our democracy in the dark while Trump performs in his ultimate TV reality show. If he were removed from office tomorrow, the beat will continue unabated, as long as there are enough people exercising their anger and not their intelligence, and continuing to elect the McConnells, and Ryans and Tea Partiers as their representatives. Cue up Pence and let the wild times continue to roll as today's kleptocracy becomes tomorrow's theocracy.
7
Some excellent points! I am glad I gave up Facebook and television. I can learn so much more in the Comment section of the NYT!
In a word, Donald Trump has no understanding of (or respect for) the office of President of the United States.
3
Trump is our founding fathers worst nightmare, and they intentionally worked to have a weak Executive, so our democracy would not be upended by some crazed man who would be king and dictatorial.
Well we got him now in the form of Donald J. Trump, who is authoritarian by nature, self-absorbed and self-serving to a pathological extent, someone who disrespects the law if it does not serve him personally, and a person who does not listen to good advice, and takes perverse pleasure in creating chaos, insulting others, and picking on those who are vulnerable.
But two of Trump's worst, of many bad attributes, are that (1) he has an erratic, mercurial personality; and )2) he is addicted to lying. He does not care that what he claims is the opposite of what is true, or that he says one thing one day and the opposite the next.
No large organization or corporation would put up with such a deranged leader, whose words and behavior damage the organization's image/brand, who gives false information which makes it difficult or impossible to make decisions trusted by others, and who is a really bad role model as a person and human being.
Ironically, Trump was not elected by the American people; he was given his power by the antiquated, anti-democratic Electoral College.
So that this does not happen again, we need to (1) eliminate the skewed, politicized Electoral College that favors low population counties; & (2) get rid of Citizen's United and have publicly funded elections.
6
Since when is acting on pure instinct, an invention? And I don't see how the presidency was transformed, simply because it is missing a president.
So, John F Kelly gets another opportunity to hawk this fairytale about the substance of Trump which drives Trumpism forward. Quid pro quo, Peter Baker. One more off-the-reservation excursion into the Trump brain's inner workings, like that December 28th published account in the NYT, and Mr Kelly will be calling YOU to cash your interview chit.
When Mr Baker poses "If Mr. Trump’s unconventional presidency succeeds", my mind swims in the possibile new meanings of 'success.' Why pretend, Mr Baker? Trump brings nothing but toothy appetite to bite down, spit out or swallow. Many, many, many are done with the shark. There's nothing behind its eyes; and we tire of seeing them roll back on its latest misfortunate prey.
Instead, America is forgetting Trump and focusing on the legislators. I'm sure Trump will be a successful egg timer, going 'on and off' over the next one to three years.
2
“Trump makes liberals cry” is the only true thing the right-wingers on this comments thread can say about him. It’s also, really, the main raison d’etre for the entire right wing at this point.
6
@Frogston: It's sad that an entire political movement has devoted itself to dismantling democracy and stabbing its fellow citizens in the back. Makes you wonder what happened to those people when they were children to deprive them of their sense of humanity.
5
So "reinvent" has become a synonym for "disgrace," "debase," "defile," and "desecrate."
8
Trump runs amok every hour of every day. His personal lifelong racism and hatred of immigrants dominates his actions while at the same time pleasing his band of KKK admirers. Trump spits on every principle this country fought and died for since its founding. He does knows how to whip up the under-educated, white racist and Christian fundamentalist base with lies and innuendo. It is the lesson he learned from the worst of dictators - people that Trump admires openly.
However, the ignorant and unstable Trump is merely a clown show distraction while the ultra-right in Congress deconstructs our nation. There is no government, there are only orders from on high in the GOP. Apparently this is Mr. Baker's concept of "re-inventing" the presidency.
19
There is only one Donald Trump. The Obama legacy, had it been sustained, was a legacy of treachery, division, and the equivalent of self-immolation of the heart and soul of these United States. Trump made an army of those who refused to surrender to the criminal agenda of this smooth talking anarchist. That army is dedicated to this great president for all the right vreasons.
4
Right reasons apparently include racism, vulgarity, hatred, xenophobia, lies, collusion with foreign powers, defrauding innocent students and retirees of millions and embarrassing this nation before the world with total ignorance of how governments function. Got it.
7
I believe the anarchist you are commenting on currently resides, and defiles our house.
3
I can understand that many Israelis like trump, he has defied the international community and recognized Jerusalem as the capitol. And, you disliked President Obama because he was more fair minded when it came to the rights of the Palestinians. You probably do not think the Palestinians should have any part of Israel, but, they are a people without a land, without much hope, without education. This is a recipe for disaster - but trump has no concept of cause and effect. He shoots from the hip, listens to no one, and makes decisions with no facts. I am sorry that you do not have any regard for other people and their plight and harbor such hatred for those that do not completely agree with your thoughts.
2
Here was the NYT's Plan. Let's get some Trump Sychophants and ask what they think! If we wanted that we could go to Any Murdoch Propaganda site. WSJ & FOX level of reporting just like the 30minute Trump Tweet called Reporting. By the way Schmidt asks terrible questions. He told Trump he could tell DOJ who to investigate. He Doesn't have that authority & I think it's an Abuse of power! 2018 do Better! The people demand better from NYT! This article was a disgrace!
7
Reducing his Presidency to a sideshow of scripted "reality", running of his Twitter mouth embarrassing for the country, and out-faking any fake news definition, he is exposed as materially incompetent, economically challenged, and corrupted. He is all the things he lays on others:.
"He called various targets of his ire “crazy,” “psycho,” “short
He and fat,” “crooked,” “totally inept,” “a joke,” “dumb as a rock,” “disgusting,” “puppet,” “weak and out of control,” “sleazy,” “wacky,” “totally unhinged,” “incompetent,” “lightweight” and “the dumbest man on television.” Among others."
He is an embarrassment for himself and the women he has gripped.
5
It is time to ignore this narcissistic bully. He has single-handedly destroyed our image in the world, and is working on destroying our country morally, ethically, environmentally. This is not reinventing -- this is destruction. Stop giving him the pulpit until he is holding press conferences, etc. Let's get to the substance of things -- Russian collusion, profiting on the office of the president, nepotism, lying all day long, and being an ignorant lout. Enough of him!
14
Spare me: "reinventing???" No, debasing, destroying, dumping upon etc etc etc. The conventions discarded? Let's start with any pretense of effective leadership...
8
This year we lost all pretense of being a world leader, let alone that of the “shining city on the hill”.
I have absolutely zero confidence in Trump’s ability to handle the challenges that are sure to come in 2018, and for that reason alone I approach the new year with trepidation.
But, we’ll always have Twitter...
4
I think I figured out the problem.
Using words like "reinventing" and "reinvigorating" attribute at least some agency to this dangerous man. And while he is not without some intent, to see his calamity as a reinvention implies some strategic impulse and thoughtfulness of action.
I simply see a damaged, dangerous man who -- every time he speaks -- reminds us that a whole lot of Trump family members, in the early years as they rushed to build an all-white complex of Soviet-style apartment buildings, somehow never told Donald they loved him.
3
Trump is really a very uncomplicated President. His daily briefing book is just a single page with one typed policy statement: Sell your brand; continue to embarrass this country!
7
Trump has reinvented the presidency in the same way Mussolini reinvented Italian governance. Except Mussolini was capable of strategic thought and impulse control.
This tax “reform” is the best gift the Dems have ever gotten. The GOP has committed electoral suicide in every blue and purple state for the foreseeable future.
I’m counting on Mueller to restore the presidency in 2018.
11
This article reads like a justification of this presidency, ignoring all the damage it has caused. It is a failed and disgraced presidency, littered with future felons.
7
In other words, he is crazy.
7
In ANY words, he is crazy.
4
The headline, and aspects of the tone of the piece, have me questioning my long-term commitment to the Times. There’s a willingness here to understate the enormity of Trump’s debasement of the Republic. Granted, the main points I would make are there, but there’s also an implication that the support for him and the opposition are of the same order and within the ballpark of acceptable American politics — that viewed in the context of our history, Trump is unprecedented but not necessarily beyond the pale. Someone I follow on Twitter suggested that the piece might be analogized to an even-handed treatment of Hitler in a German paper in the early 30s. I wouldn’t go quite that far, but I agree that there’s something of that quality to the piece. I’m puzzled and disappointed, and I’m prepared to cancel my subscription if it comes to that.
10
Saying Trump is “reinventing the Presidency” may give too much credit to a man who reacts rather than think or plan.
A man who thrives on confrontation needs enemies. You could call this “authentic” but you could also call it a lot of other things.
For Trump, it’s all about winning. He took his singular route, wading into the Presidency by taking on all perceived threats, and challengers. Rating went through the roof. Never constrained by a moral compass, the office of President has afforded him a wider scope. His new star turn as Provocateur-in-Chief allows him to attack not just individuals and laws but also institutions, conventions, countries and invent fresh antagonists and enemies as needed.
During the election, Trump found and attacked the soft underbellies of his opponents and won. The same tactics work against lawmakers and lobbyists who’d rather hide or roll over than be publically terrorized and shamed. Add in the weight of the Presidency and he’s the guaranteed winner in any of these cage fights.
One could say he’s playing to his base, but Trump is a very needy man who can’t exist without attention. He will say and do anything to feed that tremendous need because that’s what matters. The rest of it? He’s said many times, he doesn’t care.
By punching back harder, leaving chaos in his wake, it’s hard not to think that ultimately, Trump represents nobody except himself - at the expense of the country and the Office.
9
With media 95% opposed to a president that has 45% popular support, no wonder we can't get to the truth.
A little more media humility and honesty would be a great help.
Consider a few "Trump" claims in this article:
* Side business: like Carter, Hoover, Harding, etc.
* Went after executive branch institutions: like Eisenhower, Carter etc.
* Power against rivals, like Obama via the office of Ben Rhodes (cf the 2009 bio in this very paper!)
* Battled his own party and cabinet, like Lincoln (who appointed *rivals*!)
* Fired head of the FBI, like Clinton (let's ignore Hillary's treachery.)
* Appealed to base divisions on race, religion and gender. Great projection. The prior president has had no equal on this in generations.
* "Nuclear sabre" bombast more than since Hiroshima? Newflash: no bombast in the days of Hiroshima. And nobody's got an effective answer to N Korea.
* "The presidency now is another weapon in a permanent campaign of divisiveness." Projection again. The previous administration has had no equal in this.
As far as I can tell, the only difference from 20,000 feet is that this president is battling entrenched views both in the government and in the vast majority of the media.
We The People are the worse for such battles.
Me? I continue to search for real integrity. Hard to find these days.
8
What will happen when the inevitable protests against trump's failed promises start, like they have the last four days in Iran? What will "his personal mottos, “always get even” and “hit back harder than you were hit” lead to?
3
"For Trump, a Year of Reinventing the Presidency"
What the country and the world needs is a miracle, Trump reinventing himself.
2
got a quick look at the headline, then read a bunch of readers' comments.
Guess I can skip that piece. I've already read so many flattering, softball pandering stories.
Why? The British comedians do much better at getting it right.And they are not afraid, like the milquetoast reporters.
Are you "concerned " or "troubling" ??
Who else is waiting to take seriously the constant abuses of power ?
that's the job of the press, have you heard ?
Years ago, I was helping out some friends. Someone's cellar had gotten flooded, so there we all were--on hands and knees, mopping up tons of cold water, wringing out our rags into a bucket. Tedious and unpleasant. So we toiled on in silence. . . .
. . .till one of us suddenly spoke:
""i'm tired of this game. Can we play another?"
Which is EXACTLY how I feel (and I'm not the only one) about the Trump presidency. The long, dreadful, improbable tale goes on and on--while only two questions keep running through my mind:
(1) WHEN will all this end?
(`2) HOW will all this end?
Will there BE a United States of America--after three more years of this man?
Will there BE a planet Earth?
I guess we'll see.
Thanks. That was--illuminating.
Fun? No. Illuminating.
8
Perhaps our next nominee will have the courage to win an electoral college campaign instead of trying to focus on “expanding the map.” That guarantees polarization but such is life in the USA, where the president controls the executive branch and nominates judges appointed for life. Sure the Russian assistance put Trump in a good place but Mrs Clinton ran an uninspiring campaign focused on tightly winning blue states and expanding into red states that hated her. She ended up losing both.
This empty story fails to mention the manner in which Trump has corrupted the presidency through jaw-dropping conflicts of interest, starting with the tax law the helps he & his family protect billions.
11
Nothing wrong that successful impeachment can't cure.
12
Trump's not reinventing the Presidency, he's looting it. I'm truly getting tired of the wishy-washy approach a good chunk of the media takes to Trump. They spend a truckload of Thesauruses trying to avoid calling Trump a liar as that was too un-genteel, now as we watch him and his cronies literally loot that office for their own personal gain you've decided that the word of the day is "reinvent". Call it what it is, call it out loudly this administration's purpose is the destruction of every progressive piece of legislation written since the New Deal, Trump's personal ambition seems to be to utterly erase any trace of Barrack Obama but most importantly to enrich himself and his family at our expense. Can the NY Times please start showing a little bit of backbone. This is more painful to watch than dealing with the rhetorical gymnastics that revolved around the U.S. sponsored torture programs - AKA "enhanced interrogation".
17
Trump is a businessman without a moral core occupying the Presidency of the US.
He was an unscrupulous businessman and he is an unscrupulous president-figure.
Religious types have used their connections to him to advance and provide cover for basically immoral acts and political types have used their connections to advance anti-American policies. Democracy is greater than Trump. We need to stick with its requirements.
14
While watching the film The Darkest Hour about Winston Churchill (brilliant performance by Gary Oldman) and his resolve to fight Hitler for the sake of freedom, I could not truly escape from our current reality of Trump. Churchill's eloquence moved the British people and won him a Nobel Prize in literature. There was a line in the film that stuck with me. The line (per my Gooogle search) attributes it to Edward R. Murrow when writing a preface to a book about Churchill's war speeches and was apparently, referenced by JFK without attribution, and as I mentioned used in the film to comment on Churchill's speech to Parliament on his resolve to fight Nazi tyranny.
The line: Churchill "mobilized the English language and sent it into battle". That line sums up for me the power of words and Churchill's greatness but it also saddens me that our current "leader" communicates in limited words and limited vocabulary by tweeting inane things, rude things without thinking or reflecting.
Trump's use of the English language , if one can call it that, is a battle too just not one that should mobilize anyone. That’s how I would sum up the first year of Trump and fear more awaits in 2018.
6
Trump is a perfect example of why there are contraints on the President. We don't want a kingship or dictatorship. Our Constitution is written in a way to prevent this from happening. Trump is a dictator and needs to be impeaced.
10
The term "all hat, no cattle" comes to mind, but I'd have to modify it to describe Trump accurately: "All hair, no brains."
Please don't give credit to this jerk/pathological liar for doing anything other than engaging in self-dealing in the most crass way possible.
He's done nothing but disrespect and degrade this country, as if the USA were now just one piece of his private company.
10
Terrifying that your headline includes the sentence: "Will that change the institution permanently?" Trump is an anomaly. A very bad one. Voters will never make a choice this bad again... if you love this country, you will remind your neighbors what happens when you choose to ignore the facts.
7
Trump has done a great job of lining his pockets, likely much better than in the private sector where he has filed for bankruptcy five times and can only get loans from banks renowned for money laundering. He is a crook as proven by his fraudulent 'fake' university and constant failure to repay his debts. He is a disgrace to the office he holds, as proven by his race-baiting and attempts to normalize of religious bigotry.
I can only hope the new year brings us closer to a day when America will once again stand tall against racism and hate, an America that embraces our many cultures and diversity.
10
Trump is not reinventing the presidency. He's destroying it. He's destroying our alliances with countries who we depend upon, who have supported us in the past, who can support us in the future because he wants to put America First. He has used his presidency to hurt the citizens he promised to help. He has appointed incompetents to important positions. He has behaved more like a toddler king than an adult in his 70s.
He does not understand diplomacy, health care, the social safety net (because he doesn't need it), education, or the Constitution. He may be an intelligent man (although it depends upon how one defines intelligent) but he appears to be incapable of using it for anything constructive.
He's more concerned with flattery, ratings, and appearances than he is with doing the job he was elected to do: keep us modern, keep Americans safe, keep us prosperous, and keep America as a place for all people regardless of national origin, religion or skin color. To find a more bigoted and narrow minded, isolationist administration one needs to go back to the early part of the 20th century. Sad because this country can be so much more than a white man's paradise if the right people are in office.
25
Well Gee I think he has not gone nearly far or fast enough. The issue is he is honest and open unlike say Obama who did admit to wanting to change our country. Now few if any who might come in the future will be so honest, but policy changes that work will continue.
3
Did you really say he’s “honest”. I believe it has been proven that he is the least honest president in our history.
2
Isn’t admitting to wanting to change the country honest?
1
How does an an average of 5.5 lies per day make one "honest?'
4
Sometimes people, especially addicts, have to hit rock-bottom before they can start to improve their lives.
Perhaps this is true for America, wich has, hopefully, hit its nadir with Trump and the Republicans.
16
"Under Mr. Trump, it has become a blunt instrument to advance personal, policy and political goals."
"Talk of 'absolute” power and a noted affinity for foreign strongmen have fueled fears of authoritarianism. For the most part, Mr. Trump, with some notable exceptions, has demonstrated more bark than bite."
The Times continues its purposeful drift toward making the abnormal seem normal even while calling it abnormal. Why not just take out the words "policy" and "political" and tell the truth? It's really hard, isn't it? It's hard to deal with the truth. It'll get a lot harder when the only large American media left are Fox and the Wall Street Journal. Why play down authoritarianism and the destruction of our common faith in the courts and a free press? Too hard to talk about, isn't it? Are you afraid it might look like special pleading? Well guess what, it looks like something else. Shame on the New York Times for managing to look daring and cowardly at the same time. Your daring will look pretty pale when they're padlocking the front doors of the Times.
23
Reinvented the Presidency? It's more like he is defiling the office.
37
Not one democrat has come out with any kind of message other than "Hate Trump". None.
The only thing the Left does talk about is open borders and legalizing all the illegal aliens in the U.S. while forgetting that Trump was elected in part for standing up for U.S. citizens first.
When the Left cranks out Sanctuary status to various cities and states, then hailed the "Not Guilty" verdict for Jose Zarate after he killed Kate Steinle, the Left will be blindsided again.
Is that all the consultants can come up with is "Hate Trump"? Really? And get paid? What is another Dem message anyway? Anyone know? If they think that protecting illegal alien criminals is a working strategy, well, it'll be interesting.
8
If that's the only message you hear, you're not listening. Science, justice, peace... Simple things like that.
6
You ask: "What is another Dem message anyway? Anyone know?"
How about infrastructure? Helping the young get a college education? Helping children of underprivileged people get health insurance? Protecting the public from the predatory practices of the financial industry?
These are the messages I'm hearing from the Democrats. I'm assuming that you get your news from Faux News, so wouldn't hear about that.
5
Dems have quite a bit to offer by way of messaging but it doesn't fit on a baseball cap.
4
He’s reinventing the Presidency the same way the atom bomb reinvented Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That’s definitely NOT a compliment.
23
45 has no use for the institutions that our democracy stands on. Same as dictators.
So what do you think will happen to our democracy?
Okay, this article reminds me of Time’s
Person of the year. Undesirable characters do make it on the cover. They are great, so was Hit..r.
9
We have learned one lesson from Trump’s first year: Those that continue to support him do so only to protect their racist, bigoted beliefs or their vast wealth. The others are just too ignorant and too lazy to know the difference.
16
One of the greatest things about Trump is that he keeps his campaign promises and then goes back to the people who elected him to thank them and assure them that he has not forgotten them. Liberals start climbing the walls, but they have only shown their hatred and contempt for him and for the fly-over deplorables who are his natural constituency. He owes nobody else any favors, and that's what gets those who oppose his every step. He hit the ground running when he immediately withdrew our country from TPP and then pulled out of the climate accord overthrowing the liberal notion that we should give up our sovereignty to big corporations who would no longer have to obey our laws if they interfered with their profits or that we should provide major funding for climate change while letting countries like China and India continue to pollute so they could play catch-up with the more advanced countries. These agreements were not in our interest, but the ones who suffered the most were the coal miners and all the others who lost their jobs to foreign interests. He welcomed them with open arms while liberals with their revised notions of social justice put them down and criticized them for not being able to adjust to the reality of the new global economy. Well, Trump put a screeching halt to all that, while the liberals are left blubbering and complaining because they are on the wrong side of history.
6
Better, cheaper healthcare Day One.
Mexico wil pay for his wall.
Will not touch Social Security or Medicare.
Crime ends Day One.
That's just 4 lies. There are hundreds more.
7
He keeps his promises? Please list the promises he has kept!!! He thanks the people that have elected him? Is this his campaign rallies?
He has done nothing but divide the country, attempt to privatize government services and bilk the American people.
4
HRC was accurate in calling Trump supporters deplorables. Their actions, words, and beliefs prove this to be true. They deserve to be the laughingstock that they are. As for history, it’s not kind to self-isolating, protectionist, proudly ignorant people.
3
Reinventing or whatever the US Presidency, the reality is that Mister Donald is just a puppet (as is the GOP) in the hands of the big money who run the world.
Hoping for a better and more democratic 2018 for the rest of us, cheers!
6
Add to that, Russia
.
1
We better pray some of the big money is interested in democratic principles...they run the show, don’t they?
Sounds like he reinvented the spoon by eating with his fingers.
18
He is reinventing the presidency the way a bull reinvents a china shop.
15
I don't buy it. He doesn't have a view of what's better for America. He doesn't consciously upend convention to establish a new way or a better way for Americans. Complete hogwash. When will this country accept the fact that Trump acts only on impulse to serve his own self-interest and nothing but? He lives to feed his ego. Every single solitary tweet, every comment, every rally, every single thing he does is to feed his empty soul. He does as he pleases and seems to truly believe he can -- that no law or convention applies to him. Sadly, the GOP in Congress validates that belief every day. Others foolishly assume or hope that he's acting in their interest - promising to help the middle class, for instance, with tax cuts. The tax plan does no such thing in the long run. Don't give this con man credit where it's not due. He is a bottomless pit of greed and ignorance. He doesn't give a fig about anything beyond himself or his family. Plain and simple.
11
Using the term “redefine” in the article’s headline, may get readers’ attention, but it’s misleading. “Redefining” by itself is a neutral term, but it generally implies a coherent strategy for changing something, with the intention to improve whatever that something happens to be. Trump is not smart enough to be redefining the presidency. He has neither a strategy, nor purpose that goes beyond serving his own self-interests and ego. What Trump actually has redefined is a large chunk of the electorate. In effect, he has given permission to both insiders and outsiders to come together under the definition of fascist, aka the Alt-right. He might dream of being the perfect fascist leader, but he probably couldn’t even tell you what the word means. By himself, he is simply Humpty Dumpty. When he falls, no one will put him back together, but those in power, and those controlling the money, will have a new definition of the American electorate and will use it to their advantage.
11
I do believe you have something there. The money is what runs things, and they take what they want and bend it to their wishes. If you think about these very wealthy, they are essentially demon houses. For example, the Mercers: they have Bannon as their Hound who does their bidding in whatever underhanded way he can. So, how do we defeat that? We better find a few wealthy who really care about us and they had better find good Hounds...that’s the only way we will defeat these people.
Nothing new here!
Remember Germany in the 1930's?
Same thing happened!
Wonder how that turned out?
11
How did Germany turn out in the 1930s? The US cleaned up Europe's mess like we did in WWI. Time to drop our "allies" e.g. dependents and leave them to their own devices.
I wish the press would stop using words like "reinvent" when referring to Trump's Presidency. Seriously, why do you keep doing that?! Don't you realize it lends legitimacy to his sham of a Presidency? There's no invention involved with his choices and conduct. He just does and says whatever occurs to his impulsive, deluded, selfish, and possibly impaired brain to do and say. stop looking for something deeper and more mindfull! if this changes the Office of the Presidency, we are all in big trouble!
16
Reinventing the presidency? Uh, when did that happen? Is the office of the president still going to be an elected position? Will our ballots still be secret? Will we have to hang on to our toenail clippings for at least a year? Will yogurt be made from something else besides milk? Will my favorite gay actors suddenly go straight?
4
Trump is Fake POTUS and is not re-inventing the Presidency of the United States--he is degrading the position and using it for his own profit. Americans can look forward to a real POTUS who will once again respect the office and serve the country rather than himself/herself.
10
Why do you say that President Trump is a fake President? He was elected under the guidelines set forth in the US Constitution.
Who will become the real President that we can look forward to? Certainly not anyone in the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is a dying lumbering dinosaur which will not die for 20 -30 years, but most certainly will never be in power again.
Your best bet is to support a new Party which will be able to integrate the values of a majority of Americans. If possible, that scenario is probably 30 - 50 years in the future.
1
The most significant problem with DJt is his ignorance. He doesn't know anything, doesn't want to learn anything, and everything he says and does flows from ignorance. I wish I could ignore his ignorance, but unfortunately, he seems to believe that I and others are as ignorant as he, and that is extremely insulting.
10
Correct. And in that way, he represents his supporters very well.
2
The notion that Trump is "reinventing the Presidency" is like saying that Betsy DeVos is "reinventing public education." These persons are not "leaders" or even "public servants." They are nothing more than looters and vandals.
Come to think of it, Trump is to the presidency as this article is to journalism.
Come on, NYT--we need you and your colleagues in the press more than ever now. Call this what it is--don't allow this man's behavior to be normalized.
16
Reinvent it? He obliterated the respect of the office throughout the free world. He destroyed its credibility.
9
"For Trump, A Year Of Reinventing The Presidency"
And for the nation, a new kind of civil war: Ignorance vs. Rationality
8
For your thesis, Trump would have to be consciously seeking and acting to reinvent the presidency, when I suspect in fact that all that is happening is a manifestation of an irrational mind and hairtrigger temperament -- so while disastrous 'reinvention' may well be the outcome for the highest office in the land, it is of a kneejerk and democracy-unraveling sort.
6
Draining the swamp was a worthwhile goal. But it’s not a new one. To accomplish it you don’t need to take on the qualities of those who inhabit it. This president, to the disgust of many, brought two specific talents to the office: He’s a bully and a boor. And those two characteristics adversely affect the balance of power In our government which has all but disappeared. With that disappearance there comes a group of our elected officials who feel that “if he does it, so should I”. His self-proclaimed excellence in deal-making has materialized in dealing with the devil. Until everyone votes in our elections, we’ll not know whether our society has sunk to an all-time abyss of lack of honesty and integrity in government. We’ll have nobody to blame but ourselves if we don’t return to a mellower approach to government.
1
This is not the world I agreed to be born into or find the least bit morale, just or sustainable. The notion of using a reality show template to make politics or governance accessible to the intellectually challenged, anti-intellectuals and the lazy and too off bigoted citizen is deeply disturbing and should not be elevated to any sense of normalcy.
2
Trump reinventing the presidency? He's trying to reinvent reality.
12
I thought Mike Schmidt’s “interview” with Trump this week was a new low point for modern journalism. The tone and content of this article causes me to question that judgement. Donald Trump has debased and defiled the Presidency. His pathological dishonesty and raging narcissism threatens our core democratic values. His authoritarian and militaristic tendencies are now truly threatening a nuclear confrontation. His racism and bigotry is dividing our country and ripping apart a century of social progress. To normalize that behavior is an insult to my intelligence and your storied reputation.
5
Trump is a mentally ill man with criminal tendencies who yearns to be a dictator like his best friend Putin, whom he reveres beyond anyone and who hacked him into the presidency in exchange for ending sanctions. Who knows what else was promised.
There is nothing good in either Trump or his family. And the republican pols and donors that have supported him and evidently taken advantage of Russian oligarch money as well, are looking to become the American oligarchy, stealing as much as they can from the U.S. Treasury and ordinary Americans, just like Putin's Russian Oligarchs.
During the recent passing of the tax scam, republican pols openly lined their own pockets with millions and even billions, while telling their constituents that they didn't have money for CHIP, but had plenty for deductions for private planes for themselves. Grassley told them if they had more money they'd just spend it on "booze, women, and movies." Another republican said giving any real tax breaks to the middle class would be socialism.
And several republicans actually turned away from their constitutes as they begged them not to destroy much needed programs like the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and Social Security, because they would die without them. Some republicans even laughed. They didn't care if their constituents died. They wanted to take the money from those programs & put them into their own pockets.
Trump and his band of republican thieves no longer have any humanity.
5
What utter nonsense. Trump is getting away with defiling the White House and the office of the President, only because of one thing: a totally craven Republican majority. It is very unlikely that a Democratic president will get away with such behavior. Fortunately or unfortunately, such is the self-critical nature of Democrats.
5
I don't think a democratic president would want to get away with that kind of behavior now; in the past, Bill Clinton, yes.
1
You've finally done it! This disingenuous and dishonest headline has pushed me beyond my tolerance for over-reaching for fairness. I will be cancelling my digital subscription.
6
The only reinvention Trump has enacted is that my children will be the first American generation to grow up with an institutional disrespect for the office of the presidency. Shame on you, NYT, for normalizing this predator who is pillaging our nation for his own, sick, personal gain.
5
This is the most ridiculous premise I have heard since, since...Trump being considered for the presidency.
2
Some of this I heard on CNN.
Every single one of us, every single day, should wake up and say "This is NOT NORMAL" "We cannot allow this to become normal."
We will continue to witness the destruction and degradation of what is left of American democracy if we do not fight this with every fiber of our being.
We cannot give up, we cannot let ourselves be worn down, we cannot give in to exhaustion.
I'm pushing 60. But I owe it to my children and generations that will follow to resist accepting this as something other that what it is.
We have a profoundly disordered, intellectually and emotionally unfit person sitting in the Oval office. If we accept any part of this we enable the possibility that we will never again have someone suitable serve as president.
Much as Moynihan warned of defining deviancy down, we are now defining normalcy down.
Everybody stand up and repeat after me: This is NOT normal.
3
"...he believes he has an “absolute right” to order the Justice Department to open or close investigations into himself or his foes. Some lawyers say he has a point, that the Constitution gives him wide latitude over the executive branch. But since Watergate, at least, no other president would publicly assert such power in such a raw political fashion, and critics have warned that thwarting the special counsel’s Russia investigation could lead to impeachment proceedings."
Hmmm....perhaps the key distinction between the power that Trump claims and the power that was exerted by Obama's Justice Department was that Loretta Lynch and the Obama people never "publicly asserted" their power to open and close criminal investigations. The Obama folks tried to do it in secret, like when Loretta Lynch met with Bill Clinton to brief him on the Clinton email "matter" (as she ordered Comey to call it, never to be referred to as an "investigation"), and the abuse of the FISA warrant process to start the Russia collusion investigation, all to provide an "insurance policy" against Trump being elected. Now, fortunately for the nation, that process is finally coming into the open, but only because Clinton lost and was unable to bury it.
For most Americans, if a president is going to abuse traditional norms of presidential interference into criminal investigations, it's probably better to do it in the open.
1
With Dangerous Donald watching right wing propaganda "news" virtually 24/7, when does he have time to meet with aides?
1
I can't even read this article past the first paragraph. Trump did *not* reinvent the Presidency. He's destroyed it. We are a laughing stock around the world. He's put the country in danger with his childish impulsive tweets. He's destroying the middle class, science, the environment, and our institutions.
Your headline should be changed. What he's done is the equivalent of putting a 5-year-old in charge of air traffic control.
9
Wow, a lot of intellectual effort went into writing that, Peter Baker. But you got it more wrong than right. Donald Trump is a marginal outlier with limitations that are more common among children, sociopaths, and early onset dementia. Think of King George III and his governance of the British Empire. The office of the Presidency and the role of the United States in the world are not lessened by the accidental presidency of Trump. You would do better to study and write on the rage Americans' expressed by voting for him rather than a rational player like Clinton.
3
Trump hasn't reinvented the Presidency. 'Reinvention' implies consistent analysis and a coherent plan of action. Trump, on the thinest of electoral margins, has forced his bombastic, truth-stretching, impulsive, authoritarian style on a job that he obviously knew little about and is exceedingly ill suited to. The American Presidency is larger than the man or woman that occupies the office and woe to the person who is hubristic enough to not consider that basic truth. If the vaunted base, who sees Trump as such a paragon of revolutionary leadership, hasn't yet realized that this showman is using their anger, rage and frustration to advance his own self-beneficial goals they are willfully misguided. He cares little for the country, cares less for the healthy state of the planet and for our allies. His utter disregard for decency, ethics and upholding conventions like releasing tax returns sets the worst possible example for our kids, and certainly for everyone aspiring to power. He isn't a leader, he is a one-man show and the show is getting scarier by the day as he rampages through the institutions that protect our democracy. If people are disgusted with politics, and there is alot to be disgusted with, run for office. Come up with solutions. Be part of the arc of history that moves towards justice. America is far better than this dystopian Trumpism.
3
Bias is not limited to politics. The president has made it clear that he does not have faith in the FBI to conduct investigations fairly.
Therefore, all criminal investigations currently undertaken by the FBI must be immediately suspended.
No he does not have faith in their prior and somewhat current leadership to actually investigate political things. How stupid you are.
2
But he had faith in the exact same people when they re-opened the email issue about Hillary right before the election. He (or you) can't have it both ways, so which one is it?
I take comfort in the idea that the FBI, and the intelligence community, will find the information to prove that he was illegitimately installed by Russia. That he essentially declared war with them early on, because he doesn't like that they are investigating him (rightly), they won't forget.
Also, dissing the people whose mission it is to keep all of us safe from a variety of threats, doesn't sit well with many people, myself included. These are people who dedicate their lives to serve the country, something trump would have no idea of doing.
So--what is it: does he have faith in them (about Hillary) or does he not have faith (the investigation into his collusion)?
1
In self-congratulating my contributions to the country, I've made an exhaustive list of all my achievements in the past year:
A. I pay less tax cos I changed the law.
B. We of the swamp are now richer.
Though undeserving, you're welcome.
2
The difference between Trump and his predecessors lies in their levels of civilization. The former has yet to discover neither the existence nor the basics of civility.
1
That a man like Trump was able to get himself elected to the office of the presidency is evidence that our democratic institutions and processes are flawed and defective.
Our democratic procedures are based on the assumptions that, given the opportunity, people chose to do the right thing. That is not correct assumption. People choose Trump and that was a bad choice.
We got to stop blaming Trump and instead blame ourselves for having voted this despicable man into office.
3
But Hillary got almost 3 million more votes than he did! We didn't vote him into office, the Russians gamed our electoral college to install him.
Not so much "transforming the presidency" as debasing the presidency.
4
The Times seem intent on normalizing Trump's abuse of the office of president, referring to his atrocities as a a "reinvention" of the presidency.
In hindsight, this was predictable: the pro-business liberal types who make-up the Times editorial staff and their target demographic, like Trump's friends at Mar-A-Lago, all became more rich with his tax cuts.
Like the centrist Democratic party bosses, the Times speaks the language of class consciousness (when the Republicans are in power, anyway) but their concern never goes beyond the level of rhetoric.
For the past 25+ years the Democratic party has tried to please two masters, using a strategy of neoliberal economic policies wrapped in a veneer of social issue liberalism. And even though that strategy has left them powerless and irrelevant, they continue to cling to their centrist folly.
2
Donald J. Trump is an anathema: and there is no way any sane person would
expect this mentally unstable man to set any precedent for being President of
the United States.
He admires autocratic rulers like Vladimir Putin: and would like to be a despot.
There is no way our Constitution approves of despotism.
His election is due to the egregious Roberts Court law: Citizens United which
allowed that Presidents as well as Senators and Representatives are bought
by campaign financiers.....who would ruin our democracy as well.
The damage that Citizens United has done should be addressed...
Mr. Peter Baker...so please make the argument that ...unjust laws result in
a election that produced this tragedy ....called Trump.
5
That is like saying Harvey Weinstein gave us the solution on how to deal with sexual harassment at the work place.
Thank you Harvey.
8
"To him, the presidency is about winning, not governing."
In a nutshell that is the bull's eye of the man.
In an age where snowflakes, trigger warnings, therapy dogs, and safe rooms are not only tolerated but encouraged, President Trump has surely shown an utter distain for all that. This guy, President Trump is all about executing on his agenda and carrying the day in America’s favor.
Why? Because that is what he said he was going to do and that is exactly what he is doing. Smack in the middle of all the bombastic language, the loose relationship with facts, and his unfiltered twitter megaphone is a core honesty that never wavers and triggers the snowflakes daily and sends them running to their therapy dogs and safe rooms.
Over the last two years I have gone from thinking he was a clown act to understanding that he is a revolutionary figure whose goals are to neuter the scolding political and press priesthoods, blow up the globalist agenda, unleash the American economy, restore the integrity of our borders and to put America in a position where she wins every single battle fought. There is no middle ground, only totals in the W and L columns.
In the chaos of the Trump world is an ideology as sharply defined as Reagan's, LBJ's overwhelming force of personality, and a bluntly sophisticated understanding of how to use power on an international stage like Nixon. That is pretty elite company.
He is a revolutionary most unexpected: Viva La Revolucion! MAGA!
5
Yes but winning is making things better for our citizens, that is why he was elected.
2
@K.Johnson - I don't suppose you've ever heard of Vidkun Quisling, or the term 'collaborationist'? If you haven't, you'd do well to read up on the procedure, so as to ensure you're following the methodology correctly. There is a great deal of difference between collaboration and revolution and you would do well to know which you're favoring.
2
I just think you couldn't be more wrong about “blow[ing] up the globalist agenda.” His work is in service of the globalist agenda. If you're any type of laborer, you're going to end up being paid in script.
Additionally, his limited vocabulary and lack of a library card informs me he has limited intellectual skills. Like it or not, sometimes one does have to think things out. You may think he's double-jumping on the checkers board, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a clue how to move the little horsies on the chess board.
Maybe he’ll get lucky. Somehow, though, his good luck seems to be in adverse proportion to our luck.
You guys worry a lot about the ‘deep state.’ I worry about who’s pulling the strings of the Trump marionette. Somebody is doing the thinking for and choreographing the movements of Donald Trump for a predetermined outcome. That’s the deep state that worries me.
One of us is right.
1
May I rewrite your headline?
"For T----, A Year of Destroying America"
Thank you.
17
Putting lipstick on a pig.
9
Can we please leave Hillary out of the discussion, please.
2
“Reinventing”? I think you misspelled “destroying an honorable institution with grotesque conceit, stupidity and malignancy.”
10
"A Year of Abusing the Presidency" is a more apt title.
Sadly, there is nothing particularly inventive, reinventive, or creative about Trump's corruption of power.
Tragically, that doesn't make the destructive fallout of his term in office any less appalling.
35
More interesting than what Trump is doing is how I despise the people who continue to support him. He has a fan base and they are crowing with delight after Trump's vulgar tweets. How am I to reconcile with people who don't want to understand the causes of their diminished circumstances? Should I reconcile with such people? This reminds me of the split during the Vietnam War and those who supported sending young men to die in a failing war because they felt inflated by government rhetoric.
38
I find myself slowly but surely cutting ties with those who support him. It's a fundamental question of their judgement and my respect for them.
6
Do you actually personally know any Trump supporters? I bet not or a very few. Not to mention I would not want to reconcile with you nor have my circumstances been diminished either.
And as came out later with confessions from McNamara and others, the Vietnam war was a political ploy, nothing more. What a horrible waste of young life! That’s not to say we want to end institutions in government. What we want to do is be watchful and make sure they work FOR us. Maybe all this drama is good in that those of us who aren’t in the clutches of Fox News or Breitbart on the right, or the crazy groups on the Left, will take action and take responsibility for the greater good of the Country.
And so begins the whitewashing of the Trump Presidency with the acceptance of divisiveness as a weapon of political expedience - the embracing of being a law unto oneself neither bridled nor fettered by the legislature or the judiciary or guided by generally accepted moral compass. The pettiness, the name calling, the outright lies, the dubious choices for portfolio oversight and management, the disregard for the disadvantaged, the self-serving reforms, the pandering to the powerful, the demonizing of the media, the hacking away of environmental safeguards etc etc etc., All of this strips the US presidency of it's potency as a force for positive change domestically and globally. Never has there been such a reviled, ridiculed and unpopular occupant of the Oval Office as this one, and hopefully there will never be another.
16
Performance and unfitness may be the two words that most define Trump in office and that could most define his legacy.
More than the Trump Presidency this is the Trump Show. Is what we're seeing the Bannon-Trump symbiotic subterfuge to evict Republicans from public office through general election defeat? Bannon loathes establishment Republicans and Trump's political affiliation has always been ungrounded. There is almost no path for down ballot Republican general election victories with Trump on stage unless the previous vote went Republican by 60% or more. As successive primaries unfold in 2018, it may be stunning how soon and sharply Republican candidates veer away from Trump.
His manifest unfitness for office should produce a Constitutional Amendment that mandates pre-election physical, mental, and psychological examinations for candidates for national office along with financial disclosures including years of tax returns and balance sheets. Those of us who lived as adults through the Johnson and Nixon presidencies have seen far too many unfit incumbents, especially since Trump is the 13th president in command of a nuclear arsenal that could destroy the planet.
10
And reinventing the truth! Trouble is, his opponent in the last election was even more duplicitous. Hopefully both parties get turned inside out and we are presented with worthwhile candidates who really want a better country for as many people as possible.
2
Sorry but HRC is nowhere near the degrading, insulting embarrassment that is Trump. You may disagree with her policies but I don't think anybody would be questioning, a year into her presidency, whether she has degraded it to the point of no return.
4
Wishes...but who really ruled here: maybe it’s the demon princes: 1%ers and Russian Oligarchs...
1
No. She did that before. She and her husband and their foundation.
1
The next president can be exactly who and what she wants to be. Trump has set the stage for an "independent" attitude and liberated the President from many stuffy conventions. Maybe it was about time.
Of course, the next president can act in her own "new way" by employing dignity, civility and intelligence. Imagine how much we have to look forward to!
The next president may employ the new tools of communication AND have read a book or two. She might be youthful and thoughtful enough to understand how to use social media in an inclusive way.
Don't be discouraged. Almost every possible contender for POTUS will be kinder, more empathetic, better read, more worldly and most certainly...classier.
Hope abounds!
5
Stuffy conventions such as grace, manners, compassion, civility?
2
No, I would call "grace, manners, compassion, civility" mature adult behavior and a "touch of class". Our Predator in Chief doesn't include those traits in his portfolio.
Although I consider Obama to have been one the finer presidents in terms of leadership and a moral compass, there was a formality and distance that did not work to his advantage. That's the stuffy stuff I was referring to.
Let’s not over analyze this guy. He’s unprepared and he is winging it all in the name of his ego and greed, nevertheless he is very dangerous. The extent to which he has permanently damaged the office remains to be seen. If we could only fast forward the clock to November.
15
Mr. Trump is an autocrat.
Pure and simple. It’s taken us a year to get to know him, but I think most of us have his number by now.
He talks big but he is defensive, someone who is so inflexible that he needs to sleep in his own bed, and eats fast food or in one of his own restaurants. He is not a natural traveler. He prefers the protective artificial environment of golf courses, hotels, and restaurants to the real world. When he must step into our world, he displays his discomfort in his interactions.
I think he is very fearful and the “authentic” bluster is an act, a shell he hides behiand. In other words, Mr. Trump is not authentic, but is pretending.
16
What would you say if behind this creature are many of the 1% and maybe some very wealthy Russian Oligarchs? He wouldn’t have a leg to stand in if it weren’t for 1%er Murdoch who owns Fox News. His businesses are likely shored up by loans from Eastern European and Soviet loans. These people OWN him.
You raise a very good point. Mr. Trump is probably lonely on some level. He had his personal bodyguard at first with him who was also a trusted friend. I sense that he is susceptible to the influence of people who don’t have his best interest in mind. He was blabbing with the Russian ambassador like it was an old friend last winter and it looked like the ambassador had the upper hand.
Mr. Surabian, quoted by Mr. Baker, perpetuates the view that Mr. Trump "won". Let's be very careful and recognize he won the Electoral College but lost the American electorate by almost 3 million votes. He is a minority president whose bombast and egotism will never displace that fact.
16
So true. I hope living in the White House for the next 8 years can provide him some solace.
1
both bush and trump need asterisks next to their name in history books; both should be described as"electoral college" presidents in the present. twice in 16 years is not an anomaly!
3
He should enjoy it, he’s in there on a technicality.
His disapproval rating is the same today as it was in late October 2016: he won the election with more people disapproving of him than approving. Goodwin doesn't get the implication of those numbers. Not many people do. Just because he is unpopular doesn't mean he will lose the election, the true measure political success.
"Things go in cycles,” said Doris Kearns Goodwin, an author of books on Abraham Lincoln, Kennedy, Johnson and both Roosevelts. “The hope would be that given the American people’s reaction to the way he’s handled the presidency, the people running next time will run in the opposite direction.”
5
Or perhaps those polls are not very accurate????
In order to “reinvent” something, you first have to have a clear understanding of the qualities of what you’re trying to change. Time and again, Trump has demonstrated that he has no idea how government operates or any of the strictures and guideposts enumerated in the Constitution. What he has demonstrated is that he neither has the inclination nor the attention span to learn what he needs to learn what would be required if he were going to “reinvent” the Federal Government. Instead Trump has injected disorder, confusion and chaos into the governing process by way of his impulsiveness, inattention, irrationality and ignorance. This is not reinvention, this is chaos.
10
When it comes to who is sitting in the White House, as the President of the United States of America, I look at the history of our nation, and I look at the 44 Presidents who preceded Mr. Trump.
I long for leaders such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Harry Truman, and I wonder how it is there seems to be no one, no one, in any party, with a smidgen of the talents, and intellect, of these past Presidents, capable of doing the job today.
Mr. Trump is first and foremost a businessman, good at it, if one considers bankruptcy and other opportunistic ploys to be good business.
What the Republicans have done, this go-round, is literally turn the entire government into a corporate entity, run by past highly placed executives of major national and international corporations. Trump is nothing more than their sometimes hard to control representative, and in return for his cooperation, he is rewarded with the exposure, and of course the nearly limitless business benefits he will be tripping over once he leaves office.
Insofar as representing the people of America, in particular the poor and the middle-class, this government no longer does that, and has no interest in such ever again.
Two things matter now to this corporate owned government, and they are, first, "Government of the People, For the Corporations, & By the Corporations, and second, a military industrial alliance, ready, willing, and able to impose the will of corporate America on other nations.
9
Well, maybe we as a country are slipping. Sloppy and mediocre.
After all, we elected 45, or should I say, our electoral college system elected the 45th POTUS.
2
Trump supporters must think the Trump presidency is a reality TV show but unfortunately it isn't. Trump is now the actual reality to the world, scaring many millions of people who believe in our Democracy as it was meant to be by The Constitution. Unless you are rooting for the End Time, you have to be very ignorant (voters) or very immoral or both to be thankful for the 45th President we have.
7
Given 39% approval, late night comedy pretty much based on ridicule of him, and the potential for real disaster from incompetence and egomania, isn't the most plausible reaction to Trump in the next presidential election backlash? Think Carter as a reaction to Nixon and Reagan to Carter. I predict candidates pledging sobriety, humility, decency and expertise in 2020.
4
" I predict candidates pledging sobriety, humility, decency and expertise in 2020."
Lots of luck finding a Democrat that can mean that criteria.
2
Reading this article one thought comes to my mind. From the Democrats standing point, the 2020 presidential election will be the equivalent of climbing the Mount Everest alone. It can be done but will require blood, sweat, and tears.
4
What could possibly be the lasting legacy of a man who has developed a reputation as a chronic liar, whose only loyalty is his self-interest, an whose proclaimed achievements dissolve into a puff the show is over?
6
Problem with this "so called" monster Trump is that he doesn't want to learn anything but place his family dynasty and cabinet members who know nothing about running government offices they practice their own ideology in all these offices. These so called government officials aren't working for us since they are all millionaires and some billionaires. We are the lowest in the todom pole and they show no fortitude in working for the "working class" of our nation. Of all the president he is the worse one yet and we are al tired of this person and his detractive tweets. All he people in the congress and senators have all become rich off our backs and they preach their ideology instead of making a more perfect union and solving our problems in this US. Shame on all of them lets vote for change not senseless and destructive behavior as this "so called" president represents.
5
This article gives Trump way too much credit. He has no strategy other than enrich himself. He has no empathy or decency. He's unintelligent, corrupt, and ignorant. He will never change. He is the product of a declining society and broken political system.
10
The article, and others, make reference to Trump voters triumphing over the "elites" in electing him & continuing to support him. But some 66-million voted for the other major candidate - 3-million more than for Trump - and now almost 70% of people polled hold him in disfavor. Are those all "elites?" Or just a lot of people in ordinary jobs leading ordinary lives who see Trump for the bully & boor that he is, as he debases the office, endangers American values, and make the US an also-ran in the world?
Elites are presumably those pointy-headed intellectuals, high falutin' media types, and righteous mucky-mucks of governments past (I'm being facetious...) who certainly don't make up all the 10s of millions who find this person's policies, politics and pronouncements somewhere between ridiculous & contemptible.
7
I've never been more ashamed, embarrassed and disgusted to be an American. His "Re-invention" is turning the once distinguished White House into a residence he doesn't even like to be in. It has been proven that our society has turned into one that puts anger in front of ethics or morality, so anything is possible. But, he's not my president and never will be. (How's that for some anger?")
12
Trump is a fake business man who never expected to win; rather, he only wanted to expand his brand. Since he's fake brand is "winner", he Will Never back down no admit his wrong doing, even if that means the destruction of our nation
4
He expected to lose, and then to have been able to claim that he *really* won, but the system was rigged against him. And he would have taken his shabby, suckered, embittered base along with him to watch Trump TV, attend Trump University 2: The Return, buy Ivanka’s junk, etc. because he’s great at making money off of them. A Trump supporter is just a life support system for a victim complex.
Trump doesn't do any work! He ignores his daily security briefings & doesn't read. We can safely assume he spends time chatting on the phone, taking inane meetings like the hour spent with Harvey Levin, founder of TMZ scandal network, watching hours of tv, tweeting, eating, catching up with his 'braintrust' Sean Hannity, Steve Bannon & Roger Stone.
Then he leaves the White House (in his words, "a dump") for one of his golf properties to golf & hang out with employees & paid club members.
Trump doesn't have state dinners or host the Kennedy Center Honors because he doesn't want to. These traditional ceremonial activities don't matter to him because his base doesn't care about them. Previous presidents have occasionally dined out in Washington, gone to the theater, visited the children's hospital & paid their respects to soldiers recuperating at Walter Reed.
Trump doesn't bother. He doesn't have to so he doesn't go out other than going to eat dinner at his D.C. hotel, where he's insulated from the public.
Recall during the campaign when Donald Trump Jr. offered the vice presidency to Governor Kasich, telling Kasich he'd be in charge of policy while Trump Sr. would play the role of figurehead President, making America great again - i.e. Kasich would do the work & Trump would hold rallies & give speeches.
No work for Donald.
One way or the other, Trump was never going to do the work of being president.
We can't say we were never warned.
9
He reinvented the Presidency the way an arsonist reinvents buildings.
6
Trump's style is not what got him elected. Republican-Kochtopus gerrymandering, minority vote supression, unlimited political issue spending, Russian intelligence agencies's trolling, and suspect electronic voting machines elected whichever Republican won their primaries and caucuses. It just happened to be Trump.
8
There is only one glaring omission from your otherwise precise list of what got Trump elected: THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.
That was the final coupe de grace.
2
Reinventing the Presidency? Destroying would be more appropriate.
9
Reinventing the Presidency? More like permanently degrading the institution. When future historians date the beginning of America's slide into fascism, they can point to the election of 2016. God, I'm glad I'm old!
9
President Trump is intoxicated with indisputable power, recognizing he is omnipotent capable of eliminating anyone. An Autocrat's dream but no less detriment to the country..
3
Mr. Trump had a great 2017
GDP now above 3% exceeded economic forecasts.
Illegal immigration down by 70% but Trump deported fewer than Obama did.
Tax Reform passed
Wall St. hit over 70 all time highs since he took office
American economy roaring
Supreme court justice sworn in
12 Federal judges appointed
Unemployment at a 17 year low
Very high consumer confidence
Re-friended Saudi Arabia who was previously snubbed by Obama for Iran.
Re-friended Israel who was also snubbed by Obama.
Says Merry Christmas
Visits veterans hospitals and Firehouses and thanks all who serve America.
Immediately changed Obama's rules of engagement in combat which had soldiers calling White House lawyers to check and make sure that you could shoot a bad guy.
ISIS kicked out of 97% of the land that they occupied.
Ended President Obama's very illegal DACA program and forced Congress to actually do their job so these kids in limbo can stay in America forever.
8
None of these things are for the good of us all, just for the few...
1
You sure have posted this very same thing a lot.
1
carnival barker - con man - crook - president - you can't make this stuff up - if you made this a TV show - no one would believe it.
11
While I understand a headline's purpose is to grab the reader's attention; Trump didn't reinvent anything.
Trump is too stupid to reinvent anything. He is a cheat, a liar and a thief. He's cheated on his taxes which is why he won't show Americans his tax returns. He's a liar in countless situations. He's a thief who takes more than he ever gives back which is sad for a politician.
Trump will go down in history as the President worse than Bush 43, more crooked than Nixon and a racist beyond indian-killer Andrew Jackson's wildest dreams ... including the infamous "gag rule'.
12
I disagree with your transitive verbs: Reinventing? No, uninventing. Transformed? No misformed. Malformed if that feels awkward. But I agree with Martha Joynt Kumar. We've survived detestable people in power and likewise we've survived other hopelessly stupid elected officials. This Democracy is unique in that it has not and will not undo itself. One bad barnacle won't bring down the ship of state. The man never mattered to me before, and he doesn't matter to me now. Reality show? I don't watch them and I never have, so the metaphor offers no flesh to the man's bones for me. But I love my country and I am confident that it's reality will sail on and leave idiots and outliers in its wake.
1
“For Trump, a Year of Reinventing the Presidency”
I guess there’s no difference between “reinventing” and “destroying” to the NYT.
11
Your write: "Democrats and many establishment Republicans worry that Mr. Trump has squandered the moral authority of the office." Any such moral authority was completely depleted by war crimes of Bush-Cheney (which were cheered on by the Times). Despite lousy management skills and shabby values, Trump still has a long, long way to go to reach the moral nadir of "Shock and Awe." (With Trump, it's merely schlock and awe...so far.)
The spirit that inspired Casual Friday has finally conquered the Oval Office.
What good has ever come from an enraged bull in a china shop?
1
Interesting. The comments reflect our tendency to read and comment on what we agree with. The NYT should put its editorials in the proper section.
3
Flushing to expel the horrible smell doesn't stop the sewer from overflowing...
1
Geez....well at least we still have the Washington Post.
1
We who adore fake news will never relent until Trump
Is gone----before he totally destroys the honor of our country and then both Koreas and part of America. Impeach him or lock in an insane asylum, please.
2
Words to ponder from a bankrupt, crime-infested city.
2
Trump wants to rule like a mob boss; it's the only way he knows. He has no conception of serving the American people. And too many of the GOP members of congress are willing to bend a knee and kiss his ring.
9
He is ruining the country with the guidance of Congress and the power of the corporations money!!
3
And, as many a former small business owner, he lives over the store...
2
Does the print version of the paper use better headlines? This title legitimizes what he's doing, which is to destroy, not reinvent, the presidency. Please do better. In your zeal to appear fair, you’ve bent so far over backward you’ve allowed him to control the narrative. That’s what got him elected. He hijacked the media, and the NYT is no exception.
5
The NYT continues to contribute to promote some sort of acceptability of this unacceptable behavior and as a subscriber, I've about had it. Trump has not "invented" or "reinvented" anything but has destroyed much.
11
These years will be known as the Low Road Presidency.
3
Cry the beloved country!
5
Good heavens, NYT, stop normalizing him! You make it sounds as if he was an innovator. He did not reinvent the presidency, he debased and mostly destroyed it. Moreover, it is not him coming up with these "ideas" - he is just a tool of the forces (both foreign and domestic) that made him the president. Why don't you do some investigative, thoughtful journalism instead?
12
Thank God President Trump does things differently...for the better.
Bon ton and well-knitted rethoric ? What for ? And yet you lefties
fought against these very -stuffy formalities-..why invoke them now ?
4
Since when is expecting that the president will not lie to his people stuffy? This is not a case of 'liberal elites' expecting the president to talk like he is on Downtown Abbey. It is simply that he should stop lying over and over and over...........
If expecting that the president will speak the truth as best he knows it, and when something he says is proven false he will stop saying it, makes me a stuck-up liberal, so be it. The man lies as he breathes, constantly. His recent false proclamation that this tax plan is terrible for the rich and all his rich friends are mad at him was followed up with this holiday greeting to his rich clientele when he arrived at Mar-a-Lago:
He told them thanks to him they were all a lot richer!
You cannot discuss his manner of self expression without acknowledging how much of what he says makes no sense (like how the recent stock market gains are helping the deficit), illustrates scary ignorance (like when he proposed to Angela Merkel that he wanted to negotiate a U.S.-Germany trade deal with her, when the whole point of the European Union is that the countries are united and any deal would have to be with the entire union) or false (like Obama bugged my phones, or my electoral college win was the biggest since Reagan).
His "plain speaking, common Joe" manner of self expression is not the problem, as we have weathered southern drawls, Boston Brahmin accents, LBJ's Texas twang and salty talk, etc. It is the ignorance and the lying.
3
They're actually called things like "common decency," and "love of one's country," and we pretty much believe in them.
Sorry for your loss.
2
"“I’m not put on earth to control him,” Mr. Kelly said. “But I have been put on earth to make this staff work better and make sure this president, whether you voted for him or not, is fully informed before he makes a decision. And I think we achieved that.”
How is that possible if Trump remains completely uninterested in presidential history? To be successful at anything, one has to have at least a rudimentary understanding of historical trends. The crises that will confront a Trump administration will be unique, but each one will have some sort of precedent. Simply blowing off available information about how other presidents succeeded or failed in various situations is just plan laziness. It's appalling.
Turn off the television, Mr. Trump, and read something, for god's sake.
6
Should he take History 101? He's been to grad school, you now, and grew up in sophisticated New York. so I don't think he's a complete ignoramus. Truman was considered a rube, yet he went on to become one of our greatest Presidents. Obama, on the other hand, was quite professorial and scholarly as well as the darling of liberals like yourselves, but, sorry, he's no yardstick for presidential greatness.
No, Mr. Ed, he did not go to “grad school.” He has an undergraduate degree, NOT a graduate degree.
1
"Will that change the institution permanently?" -NYTimes headline
What a stupid question from the NYTimes - one of the capitalist, corporate news outlets responsible for helping put this madman in the Oval Office because of their slavish attention to his every ignorant utterance. This is another example of the capitalist, corporate media drawing clicks and eyes to this slow moving train wreck of a person and a presidency in order to profit. All of the free publicity this "man" was given is one of the reasons we're suffering through his madness.
Second, no one knows the future - NO ONE! Thus this is just time wasting speculation.
Third, who cares? What matters is what this imbecile is doing by redistributing income upwards, destroying the planet and screwing the working class generally.
Geez! Aren't there more substantive issues you could give front page prominence to?
11
stewarjt,
Considering the deleterious effect this President, and his cabal, are having, and will have, on the American people, and people throughout the planet, I believe there is nothing more substantive than this report.
Hopefully the Times is not pandering, in some convoluted way, and instead is trying to inform the people, at least those who read the Times and other such media.
1
It sounds like The Times wants to Make the Presidency Great Again. Get back to those old cherished traditions when Woodrow, Lyndon and Dick were piling up decorous accomplishments.
What's next? Will The Times decide to Make America Great Again.
Well, why not? Once the Presidency is restored, America can resume its old exceptionalism.
M.P.G.A. + M.A.G.A. = Progress. Yahoo!!!
2
The world will note and long remember the NY Times' shameful normalizing of the unfit Trump. This piece, on the heels of the "interview" at the wanna-be tyrant's vulgar home in Florida, really make me question the values of the paper of record. Bring back Margaret Sullivan, the Public Editor.
21
Reinventing the Presidency? What an outrageous abuse of the readers intelligence!! He is defiling the Oval Office with ignorance, racism, and vulgarity. How dare the NYT give Trump the credibility of having the ability to reinvent anything. Shame!!
26
Trump Dec 31
The Democrats damned Hillary with faint praise enabling Donald Trump to out-maneuver the Republicans and get elected President. Typical of the failures of Democrats was Mark Shields of the News Hour, proclaiming that Comey would get to the bottom of Hillary’s emails.
But on the last segment of year, with David Brooks, he called Trump out to for trying to ignore the government and letting the private sector run everything. He emotionally told Hari Sreenivasan that,” if we left it to the private sector, we would still have slavery in this country.” He should have added that the private sector and Republican party wanted to keep us out of the Second World War – America First.
Today, this slogan is much more dangerous. It was the American people who won the war after FDR gave business the opportunity to not sit on the side lines merely waiting until the war in Europe was over to get involved.
For the new year, I hope our President may see how powerful the public will and morality really are and go beyond making business deals to his real role leading all the people.
FDR was not a warhawk, you know, but an isolationist like most of America at the time. The main reason he got us involved in the war in Europe was that he feared the Soviet Union would have too much say-so after the war if America was not involved it. And it took Pearl Harbor to bring us to declare war on Japan. As a result we became the leader of the free world, but over time things do change. I would say at this stage in our history its time to regroup and look inward. We've been used and abused. All we did for Europe and the free world, but countries like Germany continue to shirk their financial obligations to NATO and protect their own industries while flooding us with their imports. Trump has a lot of common sense and, perhaps, little sense of idealism, but I think that's what we need right now.
1
Please spare me. Nothing "revolutionary" about any of this. Despots and petty tyrants have been going on since ancient Rome. It's only novel to us in our democracy that had heretofore never been represented by such a dirty demagogue of such extraordinary and breathtaking hubris, mendacity, and outright criminal enterprise. He has been nothing but the catalyst to our global loss of respectability and gravitas. An insult to any thinking, rational, mature, and educated human being. A pock on his White House and all his dirty minions that willfully shun the laws and dignity of our constitution. There is no cure for this Trumputin Era. It's tawdry, base, and vulgar conduct, has debased us for decades to come.
So this is how the American empire falls, with the feeble ignominy and infirmity of a colossal enfant terrible, that tweets his mentally deranged insipidity in place of anything resembling reason, honor, substance, and dignity.
No, I'm afraid the damage cannot be corrected as Obama saved us from the Bush/Cheney loss of reputation and pride due to their own Blackwater - we'll rule our way and damn the American people - as Cheney made so point blank so often that his power was absolute and not subject to the people's will.
Trump has one-upped them all, and given us the most infamous, painful, ruinous, shameful and disgusting encore to Obama's legacy of global admiration and renewed faith in our form of governance.
We are now no better than the Putin regime.
15
There is something disconcertingly apologist about this article. That's too easy.
17
Government is only good as the people we elect. Elect a clown expect a circus.
24
your remark would imply underlying racist overtones because racists used that term to describe blacks. Who said I was a Leftie?
"Reinventing the presidency"? Are you kidding me? This is enough to make me want to cancel my subscription. The NY Times is, slowly but surely, buying into the notion that this man is something other than another demagogue determined to destroy what is left of this democracy. There is no reinvention here, only cynicism and a blatant disregard for the most basic human norms.
31
So blame the messenger.
Methinks you dress This Emperor with No Clothes in the finest of verbal fabrics Peter Baker.
Is speaking truth not in your wordsmiths toolbox?
18
I laughed out loud when I read, "Littered with lies", Then Pearl Harbor, the murder of the three Kennedy men, the Yalta agreement, WTC plus other sworn truths came to mind.
Reinventing the Presidency? Strange dictionary employed here. Since when is denigrating reinventing?
24
“Crazy,” “psycho,” “short and fat,” “crooked,” “totally inept,” “a joke,” “dumb as a rock,” “disgusting,” “puppet,” “weak and out of control,” “sleazy,” “wacky,” “totally unhinged,” “incompetent,” “lightweight” and “the dumbest man on television.” Funny how all of these labels apply to the man himself. As they say, it takes one to know one.
12
In fairness, he's not short.
1
Stop normalizing all this man does.
33
American Fascism. Don’t staff cabinet departments, such as State, because you can’t control all personnel. Only your word counts, discussion on policy is irrelevant, only Trump’s desire are correct. Staff cabinet Departments with individual that will carry out your inane policies. Place relatives in key positions. Degrade the free press, your own security and intelligence departments, threaten all who disagree with you and PRESTO the Fascist States of Amerika is formed. The only history Trump absorbs is that of Fascists dictatorships, this is consistent with his embracing dictators and eschewing the leaders of democratic stes/countries. Don’t dismiss as silly or unrealistic; remember: Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Clue: how many Republican leaders/members in Congress have stood up to Trump?? How many fear him? How many members of the Russian leadership have stood up to Putin? How many fear Putin? Trump like Putin threatens anyone who challenges him. Unless you espouse continuous praise to Trump/Putin your career is in trouble. Unless there is a pushback in real-time we may awake one morning to the announcement of Tsar Trump tweeting!!!
8
He's trying to remake it into a dictatorship.
18
I don't see the Presidency of the United States ever fully recovering, neither domestically nor foreign.
Like Gitmo, no matter how many decades go by, the stench will never be fully eradicated.
Reap what you sow.
11
I have grown up believing the presidency and those who hold the office, along with their immediate family, are as close to american royalty as it gets. Trump and his family are an absolute disgrace to America. They are all embarrassing. I also grew up believing Americans were smart enough to recognize a con man, a narcissistic demagogue. The damage has been done but hopefully some of it can be reversed. I no longer feel America is the greatest country on earth. Trump has been successful at ruining that too.
15