Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Book Review: Donald J. Trump

The full title of this biography by Conrad Black is Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other. Mr. Black--Canadian-born, one-time newspaper mogul and a former US prison inmate recently pardoned by President Trump--is a spectacularly talented writer, despite his discursive, complex, literate style. Among my friends I call him "my favorite Canadian," and I read his columns religiously.

Obviously this isn't the definitive biography of Trump--the man is still in mid career. We'll have to wait a decade or two before that comes out. Equally clear, it isn't a hit piece--Mr. Black is upfront about his pro-Trump sympathies. 

Nor is it a hagiography, perhaps best described by Edmund Morris (Theodore Roosevelt's biographer) who says you can't fall in love with your subject. Mr. Black avoids (maybe just barely) falling in love, and is sufficiently honest and clear-eyed to find fault.

What you will find here is first-class journalism. It's a background piece on today's top story, and apart from it's length it could appear in any newspaper or magazine.

Trump comes by his hucksterism honestly. His grandfather, Friedrich Drumpf, arrived in the US in 1885 at age 16. Mr. Black surmises that he took the name Fred Trump at the port of entry. He first traveled west to Seattle, and then on to the Canadian Yukon, where he "operated restaurants, bars, and hotels, catering to prospectors." But "most accounts allege that he was in fact operating whorehouses and clip joints, sometimes with no lease or title to the land." Eventually he settled in the Bronx, marrying his childhood sweetheart from Germany.

Donald Trump was an ingenious businessman, but borrowing to the limit, played very close to the edge. When the economy tanked in the early 1990s, bankruptcy seemed inevitable. He took full advantage that neither banks nor bondholders wanted that outcome. The lenders didn't know how to run a casino, nor did they have the celebrity to promote it. Both knew that only he could maintain the value of the property. Trump leveraged this to the max, renegotiating the loans at very favorable terms, saving his personal fortune.

I previously believed that Trump became a politician by accident--that the campaign was initially a PR stunt designed to promote his business. Indeed, Trump obviously didn't think he was going to win--not even at the last minute. But Mr. Black makes a convincing case that Trump planned a presidential campaign far in advance of the event. He was long interested in politics, especially as his business turned from buildings/casinos into licensing his own name as a brand. Trump's long shot bet on a campaign is risk-taking typical of the man, and does not indicate lack of seriousness.

Trump's political tactics revolve around two principles. The first is never back down or apologize. He broke this rule at least once: following the release of the Billy Bush tapes, where Trump said he "can get away with women, including grabbing them 'by the pussy.'" This was made public a few days before the second debate with Hillary Clinton. Trump's first response was to apologize, saying "Anyone who knows me knows these words do not reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize." It made him sound like any two-bit political loser.

But then he fought back: he held a press conference with three women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault, and a fourth woman--a victim of an actual rape--whose assailant had Hillary Clinton as a lawyer and was acquitted on a technicality. Oddly not mentioned by Mr. Black, Trump invited these ladies to sit in the front row during the debate.

Far from backing down, Trump "flipped the script", accusing Mrs. Clinton of precisely what she had accused him of. It worked. I read recently that the Trump campaign thinks this maneuver saved the election for them.

The second tactic is truthful hyperbole, including obvious exaggerations, such as requiring press secretary Sean Spicer to say that his inauguration was "the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, both in person and around the globe." That one probably didn't help him any. But Mr. Black also writes that
Trump, the grand impresario, had entered "an environment that was ripe for bombastic, inflammatory outrageous statements without having to suffer the consequences," where extreme partisanship, public cynicism, general disregard for traditional expertise, and accumulated public anger did not discourage his natural tendencies toward hyperbole and did not really punish lapses into fabrication.
Mr. Black, writing a biography, sticks close to Trump's own truthful hyperbole formulation. But I will go further and claim that Trump is a teller of tall tales.

A tall tale differs from a lie in that nobody is expected to believe the tale. Indeed, Trump is a master story teller--that's how he can keep an audience spellbound for over an hour. Stories must have a plot, and that requires exaggeration and simplification. The "alternative facts" have to fit the story--not reality.

The most famous tall tale (which Mr. Black doesn't mention) is the tag phrase "...and Mexico will pay for it." Nobody ever believed it--it was just an applause line--and that's why he suffers no political damage upon not being able to deliver. His critics--who invariably accuse him of "lying"--miss the point completely and make themselves look like fools in the process.

As Salena Zito famously wrote, "the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally."

Trump is neither an intellectual nor an analytical thinker. He traffics in metaphors and parables. He doesn't have a "program" in the way Hillary or Elizabeth Warren do. His slogans are all evocative, emotional, and vague--easily misunderstood.

For example Nancy Pelosi thinks his slogan Make America Great Again, really means Make America White Again. I find that completely implausible, but I'd be hard pressed to find a specific quote where Mr. Trump explicitly denies it.

Likewise, I think Trump is pro-immigration, but he insists that it be legal. We should admit people "who love us." But others (both critics and supporters) interpret his rhetoric as trying to shut the door, or that we should only admit white people. I think they're wrong, and my post Good Trump, Bad Trump makes that case.

The amorphous nature of Trump's appeal makes him hard to pin him down. Some people think he's a "racist"; others, like me, think he's rebelling against political correctness. Some people think he's ignorant about "climate change." Others, like me, believe he's not gonna throw good money after a non-existent problem.

Those three issues (or at least my interpretation of them)--immigration, political correctness, and "climate change"--are what inspire my support for the man. Plus he's such a great storyteller.

Let me give Mr. Black the last word, who compares Mr. Trump to his predecessors.
In international relations, Richard Nixon was a chess player and Ronald Reagan a poker player, and both were very successful. Trump seems more of a pool shark, but it seems likely he will do well too.
"Pool shark" is a good word in many contexts--not just in international relations. It's part of Donald J. Trump's genius, as beautifully described by Conrad Black.

Further Reading:

5 comments:

  1. Great. You like Trump and so does the SWP, although they won't say so in so many words. I keep telling you, Dan, you need to apply to rejoin. I'm sure Jack would be glad to have you back.

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    1. Apart from the fact that I'm not a Revolutionary Socialist Worker Bolshevik, then yeah, I'm a perfect fit.

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    2. In case you hadn't noticed, Dan, they're not Revolutionary Socialist Worker Bolsheviks either, just an elderly bunch of sad-sacks plodding from door-to-door peddling their little books and newspapers.

      But maybe you've already rejoined, Dan! I noticed that "Terry Evans," who had previously never been in The Militant and no one had ever heard of, suddenly popped up as a major contributor, right around when you retired as a college professor. "Terry"'s articles are notorious for their pro-Trump tilt. Could he really be you? ;-)

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    3. I'll take the comparison to Terry Evans (who is a good writer) as a compliment. But no, unfortunately it is not me. Sorry.

      I think I remember Mr. Evans' name from way back when. I don't think it's a pseudonym.

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    4. You may be thinking of Terry Knapp, who passed away many years ago. "Terry Evans" is a complete unknown who just popped up out of nowhere. It's undoubtedly a pseudonym. Unlike Brian Williams, he's not a very good writer, either. He's the lowest sort of journalistic hack, who regularly peppers his articles with falsehoods and unsubstantiated claims.

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