Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, with whom I rarely agree, recently wrote an excellent column on why Donald Trump shouldn’t be our next president.
She wrote — and I have long believed this — that there are three qualifications essential to a successful presidency: intellect, experience and temperament. And Trump has none of them.
Experience? He’s never been elected to a political office, and not since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 has a never-elected candidate achieved the presidency, although as Eisenhower was fond of pointing out, a successful military career is all about politics. Also, Ike won WWII, which is rather different than winning a contract to build a high-rise hotel. Still, I would rate experience least important of the three (Ms. Marcus thinks experience trumps intellect). The greatest president in our history, Abe Lincoln, was one of the least experienced politicians ever to win the White House, having never even won a state-wide election — he served one undistinguished term in the U.S. House of Representatives — before running for president.
What Lincoln did have was a great intellect, which Trump does not. Trump’s complaints about the country’s problems are usually platitudes, and his solutions are often zany. Take his bread-and-butter issue, immigration, in which he wants to deport every single illegal alien and then let back in “the good ones.” Leave aside the cost and manpower necessary to round up 11 million illegal aliens and send them packing, wouldn’t it make more sense, and be more cost-effective, to figure out who are “the good ones” first and let them stay in the country? And while it may not be important that he doesn’t seem to know the difference between a radical Shiite jihadist and a Sunni jihadist, it is important that he doesn’t seem to care that he doesn’t know.
Leaving us with temperament, which Ms. Marcus and I agree is a successful leader’s most important attribute. First, the president is our one unifying national figure, so grace, civility, and a calm demeanor are critical, especially in times of crisis, and when was the last time Trump exhibited any of those qualities? But temperament is also a willingness to sublimate one’s ego and accept that, on many issues, there are others with more information and better judgment whose advice should be followed. Trump, on those rare occasions when he admits he isn’t up to speed on an issue, says he will find the experts on that issue and listen to them, but I have my doubts. Trump’s entire life has been shaped by his gargantuan ego, and my guess is that achieving the presidency — which would make him the most important and powerful man in the world — will boost the ego, not temper it.
