Celebrating what he regards as a midterm-election victory, President Trump on Wednesday showed his best and worst sides.
Let’s start with the positive.
Trump offered seemingly genuine praise and congratulations to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.. The presumptive Speaker of the House, Trump said, had won back control of the House of Representatives by waging a relentless, effective campaign. Those generous words offer a domestic counterpoint to Trump’s rapprochement with dictator Kim Jong Un in North Korea — obviously the democratically elected Pelosi is not the same as the despot Kim — in that they show openness to work with adversaries. But this speaks to a deeper positive trait on Trump’s part: Where the president sees opportunity for mutual benefit, he is prepared to abandon hostile positions in pursuit of a good deal. Trump encapsulated this vision by calling on Democrats to “put partisanship aside and keep the American economic miracle going strong.”
Trump’s reference of potential Republican-Democratic cooperation on issues such as prescription drug prices and infrastructure programs is likely to please independent voters. Of course, Trump couldn’t help himself in warning that any Democratic House efforts to aggressively investigate him would induce his “warlike posture.”
Trump was far less impressive when he gleefully listed Republican members of Congress who had lost re-election fights.
Trump’s specific targets were those Republicans who had distanced themselves from him personally. The issue here is simple. While any politician would obviously lament an absence of support from fellow party members, Trump’s glee here is unbecoming. As president, Trump should want the maximum number of Republican members of Congress, even if they don’t all perfectly align with his views. That maximal number allows him better opportunity to advance his agenda, and, as he would see it, the interests of the public.
But by taking overt pleasure in the defeat of those who have dared to question him, Trump implies that he sees himself as the leader of some ancien regime kingdom. He is wrong to do so. We are a democracy, and Trump’s Republican critics are not feudal serfs.
Wednesday’s press conference was true Trump: at once generous and open-minded, but simultaneously arrogant and rude.
