President-elect Trump is a radical hardliner hell-bent on imposing a brand of extreme conservatism that should make minorities, women, children and the elderly fear for their lives. Or at least that’s how many on the Left are portraying him.
There’s no denying Trump has made some rather offensive statements in the past. The accusations made against him by numerous women who claimed to be sexually assaulted by Trump in one form or another, as well as questions surrounding his past business dealings, are more than a little troubling. But since Trump started transitioning from campaigner in chief to commander in chief, there’s been a noticeable change in his demeanor and, more importantly for liberals, his policies.
It’s not a surprise that Trump’s language has moderated. Yes, he’s still sending out tough-guy tweets criticizing the media and detractors. But overall, his message has largely been one of unification and open-mindedness. Perhaps the most obvious example is Trump’s interest in appointing dozens of people to high-level positions who were once his ardent opponents.
For instance, Trump picked Gov. Nikki Haley, R-S.C., on Wednesday to be his future ambassador to the United Nations. Haley used to be an important critic of Trump. In January, she asked her fellow Republicans not to “follow the siren call of the angriest voices,” and she was very critical of Trump’s plan to ban Muslim immigration, a proposal he has since backed off of. Even in her October announcement that she would vote for Trump, which didn’t come until about a week before the election, Haley said, “This is no longer a choice for me on personalities because I’m not a fan of either one. What it is about is policy.”
Even more surprising than Trump’s choice of Haley is his consideration of former rival Mitt Romney, one of Trump’s longest-standing and harshest critics, to be secretary of state.
When the 2005 “Access Hollywood” video was released in early October showing Trump saying vile, offensive things about a woman, Romney tweeted, “Hitting on married women? Condoning assault? Such vile degradations demean our wives and daughters and corrupt America’s face to the world.”
Over the course of the campaign season, Romney also called Trump a “phony,” “fraud,” “not smart” when it comes to foreign policy and he flatly said Trump “has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president.”
The fact Romney is even being considered for a position in Trump’s administration is breathtaking and shocking by modern political standards. It certainly doesn’t seem like something a crazed, vindictive tyrant would do.
The Left should also be happy to hear Trump has already started to back off key campaign promises made to conservatives and his base supporters. In a Tuesday meeting with editors and reporters at The New York Times, Trump said he had no plans to pursue charges against former opponent Hillary Clinton, both in regards to her use of a private email server and her role in potentially illegal activities involving the Clinton Foundation.
“[Clinton] went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways, and I am not looking to hurt them at all,” Trump told the New York Times. “The campaign was vicious.”
Trump also reportedly said at the meeting he’s rethinking his view on climate change. He repeatedly called it a “hoax” during the campaign, but he now says he’s “looking … very closely” at whether the United States should back out of the controversial Paris Agreement on climate change after previously promising to back out of the agreement. “I have an open mind to it,” Trump said.
Trump also seemed to walk back many other less-prominent policies, such as the use of waterboarding to obtain information from captured terrorists. He now says such tactics will “not … make the kind of a difference that a lot of people are thinking.”
I’m sure none of this will make the Left warm to the president-elect, and it shouldn’t. Trump is far more conservative than President Obama on many policy issues, and he will almost certainly reverse many of the policies the Obama administration spent much political blood, sweat and tears putting into place.
But when it comes to the issues the Left fears the most, Trump has already proven he’s willing to compromise and that much of his campaign talk was just that: talk.
Trump supporters, however, should be greatly concerned that Trump has already started to moderate on issues important to them, such as prosecuting Clinton and backing out of the Paris climate agreement. If this trend continues, Trump may end up governing more like the moderate businessman from 10 years ago than the firebrand world-changer of 2016.
Justin Haskins is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is an executive editor at The Heartland Institute. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
