Steven E. Schier - The Trump Presidency: Outsider in the Oval Office

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Schier, Steven E., author. | Eberly, Todd E., author.

Title: The Trump presidency : outsider in the oval office / Steven E. Schier and Todd E. Eberly.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017039928 (print) | LCCN 2017041612 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538105757 (electronic) | ISBN 9781538105733 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781538105740 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Trump, Donald, 1946 | United StatesPolitics and government2017

Classification: LCC E913 (ebook) | LCC E913 .S35 2017 (print) | DDC 973.933092dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017039928

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

An Outsider in the Oval Office

N o president has taken the oath of office with as little political experience as Donald Trump. The quintessential outsider candidate, he boasted a long career as a celebrity billionaire who exhibited brash language and behavior. Trump had never run for or held elective office or served in government before. Heavy (and often positive) media coverage during the 2016 primary campaign helped him capture the Republican presidential nomination, to the surprise of political insiders everywhere. In our first chapter we note that Trumps outsider movement, however, was hardly unprecedented in recent decades. Other insurgencies led by Ross Perot in the 1990s and the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street in recent years challenged the political establishment before Trump.

The year 2016, however, proved to be a uniquely promising moment for an outsider like Trump to challenge established political elites of both parties. An overabundance of GOP presidential candidates17 at the outsethelped Trump prevail with plurality victories in crucial early contests. Candidate Trump decided to self-fund, to bypass the traditional media approach, and to use whatever tactics kept his name in the headlines. His general election opponent was an insider seemingly sent from central castingformer secretary of state, New York senator, and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the campaign against Clinton, he rejected the traditional pivot to the center. Trump, the billionaire, managed to become the choice of working-class voters by channeling their anger and resentment toward the system. Voters wanted an outsider in the Oval Office, and that was never going to be Clinton.

Trumps flaws as a candidate, we note, caused him to underperform against Clinton in the November balloting. However, his appeal to aggrieved white working-class voters allowed him to narrowly carry the crucial Midwest industrial states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, securing an Electoral College victory despite losing the popular vote by more than 2 percent. The postelection controversies involving state recounts and appeals to electors to change their votes reflected the highly polarized environment in which Trump, the provocative outsider, would take office.

Trumps initial months of navigating the institutional presidency revealed the steep learning curve an outsider encounters upon entering the Oval Office. Trumps personality, profiled in chapter 2, is that of a dominatorlike Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Andrew Jacksonwhose temper and unpredictability foretells a stormy presidency. Trumps frequent verbal fusillades, erupting via his Twitter account and extemporaneous remarks to reporters, have produced a steady stream of controversies. We note how the pace of administration appointments initially lagged far behind that of his presidential predecessors and how his White House staff witnessed much turnover in a matter of mere months. Many of Trumps cabinet choices proved highly controversial and gained Senate approval by narrow party-line votes. One note of stability among the turbulence is his team of generals running the White House Office, National Security Council, and Defense Department, to whom Trump seems to pay heed. The role of family membersparticularly daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushnerhave raised ethics questions, as have Trumps ties to Russia during the campaign and presidential transition that have received scrutiny by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

In encountering Congress, President Trump discovered that governing as an outsider is far more challenging than campaigning as an outsider. Thats our topic in chapter 3. Presidents have limited power and need to know how the system works (or at least hire people who know). But Trump didnt know and didnt trust folks from the inside. As a result, he alienated Congress almost from the beginning. Democrats, smarting from the election loss, have been in full attack mode throughout his presidency. Trump has had rocky relations with his own party in Congress, the Republicans who control both chambers. His loose understanding and uneven involvement of health-care reform contributed to its failure in Congress. Though touting a big agenda, Trump has been unable to stay on message. Hes acted in ways that highlight his lack of experience, from a botched initial travel ban to the transgenders in the military tweet that did not quickly result in an actual policy directive. He attacked his own attorney general, Senate veteran Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and picked a fight with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) without realizing the effect it would have on other lawmakers willingness to trust him.

Difficulties with Congress have stalled important parts of Trumps domestic policy agenda, as we cover in chapter 4. His plans for tax reform, infrastructure spending, a border wall with Mexico, immigration reform, and deficit reduction progressed little on Capitol Hill in the early months of his presidency. Trump has, however, successfully achieved congressional passage of many rollbacks of federal regulations. Through the use of the Congressional Review Act, Trump and the Republican Congress have rescinded more than 30 Obama administration regulations subject to possible reversal under the act. Prior to this time, the Congressional Review Act had been used only once since its enactment in 1996. Trump has also employed the unilateral tools of presidential proclamations, memoranda, and executive orders to reverse additional regulations under his direct authority. No doubt the Trump administration will continue to pursue additional regulatory rollbacks.

Trump entered the Oval Office with no foreign policy experience. His campaign theme of America First suggested a major redirection of foreign policy. His initial attempts at immigration restriction, however, encountered judicial opposition. He was slow to fill subcabinet appointments in the state and defense departments. His secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, adopted a low profile and signaled no major rerouting of foreign policy. The former generals on his foreign policy teamDefense Secretary James Mattis, Chief of Staff John Kelly, and National Security Advisor H. R. McMasterhave not promoted a foreign policy revolution. Though Trump has issued vehement rhetoric about ISIS, Iran, and North Korea, so far his foreign policy has been cautious in its departures from established routine. His major changes involve withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, attempting to install a temporary immigration ban affecting six Muslim nations, and prosecuting the Syrian conflict against ISIS more aggressively. Trumps rhetoric at times diverges from his policies, and this has often been the case in foreign policy.