Why I think Trump could be a successful President

I am not Trump's biggest fan by any means. But I do want to offer a optimistic picture of why I think he could be a good president. Trump like Reagan will use the Presidency as his greatest act and stage performance. Like Reagan if need be Trump will do deals with Congress in order to reform immigration and health care. Trump will treat the White House as his palace and by doing so restore the pageantry and status that comes with a head of state who has more than just a ceremonial role.

On immigration the idea of a wall on the US-Mexican Wall may well be gold for late night comedians. In the real world improved border security will help make many Americans feel more secure and that they have a country again. Only after Americans feel they have secure borders can any kind of immigration reforms take place. On the issue of health pragmatism and Paul Ryan's being a policy wink will carry the day. Crucially a massive infrastructure program would win over many people who are skeptical of Trump.

The biggest risk I see to a Trump Presidency is that as a political outsider he will lack advisers who know the inner workings of Washington D.C. Also a limited a pool of talent to draw from in terms of cabinet posts may be a disaster waiting to happen. Donald Rumsfeld and Robert McNamara showed what happens when the wrong person is appointed to the role of Sectary of Defence. I expect Mike Pence will be the most important Vice President in recent US Political history. Pence will be Trump's link to Congress and will loosely put in parliamentary terms run the government. Trump will be the leader of the USA and chief cheerleader and sales person when it comes to selling his reformist agenda.

a reply to: xpert11

Possibly you are right and yet I see it a little differently.

Trump is somewhat egotistical and will desire to leave behind a legacy.

The US has a massively over aged infrastructure.

I think that the best the Don can do is to rebuild that infrastructure to the standards of the 21st Century.

More importantly, he does not have to give the job out to someone else because he does not understand the industries, he knows how to do these things and he just might have the ability to rebuild.

It would be a very nice legacy to leave behind.

Next, he can make lots of new friends such as Russia and China.

If those three can all get on the same page, it could calm this entire planet.

Think BIG, he does!

P

a reply to: xpert11

I got the feeling that he will give us a very big surprise as a president, America is a corporation as it stands today, he is a business man, perhaps is not and old crusty politician what we need like Hillary was, but a real business man.

Yep, but a real businessman is adept at giving people the" business "too.....
Im not so sure this will end well but certain the Hilllary hedgemony was never an option either....

a reply to: pheonix358

Well put! The main danger with Trump's ego is that somebody like Putin could use his ego against him. This is why it is crucially important that he has sound advisers who he heeds as need be. I am trying to be sportive at this stage. So on that note I think you have the infrastructure side of things nailed down correctly. Trump will only want the best for his legacy. Just think in the future you may buy your have insurance from a Trump exchange , ride Trump fast rail network to Trump International Airport where you start your overseas holiday.

originally posted by: marg6043
a reply to: xpert11

I got the feeling that he will give us a very big surprise as a president, America is a corporation as it stands today, he is a business man, perhaps is not and old crusty politician what we need like Hillary was, but a real business man.

Do you mean that in a good way in terms of getting infrastructure build? Trump will look to mold the US in his image in the same way Reagan and Jefferson once did.

All presidents are egotistical.

After the Bush years, Obama had the chance to be all of the people's president. But he exposed himself as a divisive one sided figure, who like Bush had no problem lying to his supporters and adversaries alike.

Trump now has this opportunity to be all of the people's president. Let's hope he takes it.

a reply to: xpert11

I don't think that is much of modeling in his image at all, but I got the feeling that he will actually work for the common people's well being.

The last time I was this hopeful was after Obamas first term of hope and change, by the time of his second term I knew that it was nothing but crap and lost my faith on him.

So I'm again hopeful.

a reply to: loam

Obama big mistake was that he pandered to the minorities, Now we see that he did it in purpose to increase the divisions within the population.

I see a lot of character in this man , sometimes your first instincts are dead on.

a reply to: xpert11

Well put! The main danger with Trump's ego is that somebody like Putin could use his ego against him. This is why it is crucially important that he has sound advisers who he heeds as need be.

China always looks 30 years ahead. They will see the possibility to have all three of the biggest militarys working in harmony.

Russia can see a bright future. Putin will not use the Don's ego against him. Putin is far too bright for that. I think he will work with Donald to cement the two powers as friends rather than enemies. Russia has put forth the olive branch on many occasions just waiting for a powerful President to see the benefits in playing nicely in the international sand box.

I think we dodged WW3. I am very happy for the outcome.

What remains to be seen, only time will tell, is if Donald is his own man.

Last time we had this chance, the Berlin Wall came down and frankly, the US and the EU shanked Russia!

Let there be peace for a time please!

P

Why I think Trump could be a successful President

Perhaps...I see indications that Trump is going back to his Democrat roots. Being more than gracious to Clinton and Obama.
flip flop on the ACA already. What's next?

No wall
No buses filled with Mexicans being deported
and no effort to change DC at all

Trump is now one of the Washington elite and he likes it. Deal with it....

The irony is that what led to the existence of a debt-ridden consumer spending economy was Reaganomics.

a reply to: pheonix358

Russia is a tricky problem because the economy Putin overseas is in free fall. Let's say Trump uses American LNG to give the Ukraine and the Baltic States leverage over Russia. Let's also assume the Russians can't sustain their military presence in the Ukraine because of the kind of US military assistance they faced in Afghanistan during the 1980's. Russia could slip into a Civil War as the house of cards Putin stands on falls.

If Russia is left unchecked , well no good can come from it. My intent isn't to knock Trump before he enters the White House. I do think international issues will be tougher than domestic ones for his admin.

Ah, people want the good interpretation! Our brains just can't live with uncertainty!

I want things to work, of course, but I do not think Trump possesses the etiquette or demeanor to deal with foreign issues.

Here are some potential nail-biting issues that seems like potential fire-starters:

Trumps position on the south china sea

This is not funny. China INTENDS to take control of islands that are technically far closer to them, and of greater relevance to them, than it is a to a country that is thousands of miles away.

Obama, and then Clinton, would have WORKED with China to find a reasonable solution. Trump will not likely do that, given his past remarks.

Trump's position on NATO. He wants to withdraw money from NATO even though the US funds around 72% of it. Yes - thats a giant sum of money - but it exists FOR A REASON. Trump is naively - or perhaps, deliberately - ignoring how Russia would exploit this. His positions on NATO are appamrently a primary source for where he'd get the money to build his stupid wall. That is, in order to build a wall to keep out Mexicans in America (not even a sure-fire solution, since people can still build tunnels - as Hamas has shown to great effect) Trump will risk the welfare of Eastern states vulnerable to Russian invasion - such as Ukraine, which depends on NATO as a background reality, and the baltic countries.

Trumps election will be a BOON to ISIS. It is astonishing how little political discussion occurs around the realities of how human beings function - as explicated by modern neuroscience, anthropology, and interpersonal neurobiology. Science is completely absent in conversations about human motivations etc. A pseudo-science controls political "science", because the context, history, an embodied, evolutionary default responses, are never considered.

Trump is perceived as a coarse, belligerent, manipulative, narcissistic, and sociopath womanizer by Muslims. Inside America alone, 5 million muslims stand charge under Trumps presidency as "unwanted elements". This baleful rhetoric has not stopped, but has continued: he continues to speak with passion (i.e. exaggerated and theatrical) about getting rid of undesirables.

It is thus very probable that he does not have the sort of mental discipline that Obama and Clinton have: he will vilify and condemn Muslims, and by doing so, CREATE THE CONDITIONS FOR MORE EXTREMISM.

The sheer lack of self-awareness, of recognizing the way YOUR response CONTEXTUALIZES the OTHERS REACTION, is completely gone. Trump, in becoming elected, has provided ISIS with a propaganda tool that will resonate inside and outside America. Sheer stupidity on this front alone!

Trump wants Japan and South Korea to get their own nukes, which could not be a more horrifying message about how flippant he is about nuclear bombs.

On the domestic front, there is:

Trump's anti-climate change is going to provoke a civil war. I am not kidding about this: already, a militant tone is being struck by political scientists like William Connolly at John Hopkins University, and Trumps election will only make that worse.

Even more to the point: opposition to him on climate policies is essential. Humans really are distorting atmospheric processes by transforming chemistries held in one form (liquid underground) into another form (gas in the air).

He is pro fracking, which oftentimes leaks natural gas into water aquifiers, thus poisoning the water supply.

He is pro mountaintop coal-mining which basically guts landscapes to extract the most polluting of fossil fuels.

He is pro keystone pipeline and pro arctic drilling.


In short, you can try to make this seem good - and I understand the need for you to do that - but I just dont see how he can avoid creating mayhem. It's almost as if he was elected for that purpose - its just the people don't know it.

a reply to: pheonix358

The US has a massively over aged infrastructure.

You said that right!

One of the biggest potential dangers is the electric grid. A solid hit by a geomagnetic storm, the right kind of nuclear detonation in the atmosphere above CONUS, or a couple dozen or so knowledgeable and skilled sharpshooters could take out our entire power grid and we'd be screwed, blued, and tattooed.

Can you imagine all the nuclear power plants in the US popping off like Fukushima's reactor 3?

Our power grid needs more upgrading and safeguarding than it currently has, but that's not sexy nor will it make bucket loads of money for the shareholders of the world's largest arms manufacturers. But critical it is.

The U.S. space program needs to get back on track and we should be looking at opportunities to utilize the resources space has to offer. We've only got this one rock and all our eggs are in the same basket.

Sooner or later another mass extinction will occur (some say it has already begun), and the space program could be tapped to be part of the effort to ensure we don't go quietly into the night leaving nothing more than empty monuments to nothing.

There is much that could be done if the vision and the will can be found.

As with almost every candidate, there are strengths and weaknesses to a Trump administration. I think his greatest strength is his ability to negotiate. Add in Mike Pence as a strong VP, and you have a good cop / bad cop scenario. Trump is the loose cannon wielding power, while Pence is the reasonable guy who has his ear and can be negotiated with. I can see Pence behind closed doors telling a committee, "Look, guys, you gotta give me something to work with here. If you send me back empty-handed, Trump is going to go off and start exposing people, and get what he wants through Executive Order. Let me have enough of a concession and I can keep him from going off on this." Then he goes back to Trump, has a good laugh with him, and they toast the concessions, which were all they wanted in the first place.

Weakness... I would say his social programs. He's not used to dealing seriously with the lower class. He was playing a part throughout the primaries and almost to the end of the election. He brought out the fear in the establishment and caused Hillary to break down... the biggest factor, in my opinion, was her calling his supporters 'deplorable.' Her campaign was sliding downhill from there, and I think it was an act of semi-desperation that caused her to say it.

He's going to need help there.

Foreign policy shouldn't be that much of a problem. He's a successful businessman and that brings some legitimacy to his word in the eyes of another world leader, be it Russia, China, or South Korea. I truly think that is the source of our problems with foreign policy: our continued lack of keeping our word, either in spirit or deed, and our constant meddling in the affairs of other countries. Trump will be a breath of fresh air for the other leaders as well as an opportunity to build a relationship with a superpower previously seen as rogue.

TheRedneck

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

This way of thinking is ridiculous.

Between "restraining and controlling our behavior", or "finding a new place", it would seem that you have a far greater chance of success with the former than with the latter.

In short, it is a pipe dream: other planets like our own have not been found, and so it would be extraordinarily unwise to consign our existence or future existence to any planet but the one we have.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Seems like everyone here is avoiding the contentious issues - the ones I outlined in my post above.

He will not avoid conflict - he is PLANNING to do things that aren't popular and WILL fuel a civil disobedience that this country hasn't seen, probably ever.

If were going to talk about this, let's talk about it honestly

a reply to: Astrocyte

You have made my blood run cold.