Trump Administration 2.0

Written by Frank Li

With a major staff shake-up at the White House, President Trump can be said to have started “Trump Administration 2.0” (i.e. “let’s do it the New York way”), after “trying the Washington way” for six months (i.e. “Trump Administration 1.0”), without success (e.g. there is yet to be a major legislative victory in a Congress controlled by the GOP).

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I am cautiously optimistic about “Trump Administration 2.0”, especially after the “New York way” was soon turned into the “John Kelly way” (Anthony Scaramucci out as White House communications director).

1. Overview

I voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 general election. Two main reasons:

1. He was obviously the lesser of two evils. This reason remains true today, despite all the problems with Trump Administration 1.0.
2. America is desperately in need of a great peaceful transformational leader like China’s Deng (Donald Trump vs. Deng Xiaoping). Trump was obviously more hopeful than his opponent. Unfortunately, it looks increasingly unlikely that President Trump will perform to that high standard (Donald Trump 2.0).

There is enough talk about reason 1 above already. I will therefore focus on reason 2 only.

2. Trump’s campaign

Donald Trump began his Presidential campaign with a big feel-good slogan: “Make America Great Again.” He finished it with the addition of another big feel-good slogan: “Drain the Swamp.”

What did these two slogans really mean? Few American voters really knew. But it did not matter, as many were so fed up with the political establishment that they were willing to try something, anything, different. This is the reason Trump won the election!

3. The need for political reforms

At the very bottom, Trump’s two big feel-good slogans are connected: to truly make America great again, we must drain the swamp! In other words, we must reform our failing political system, of which the biggest problem is shown below.

This problem is actually very bad at the American Presidency: as long as a President is running for re-election, he works for himself first and his country dead last. Two informative readings:

1. American Presidency: Why is One-Term a Must (Version 3)?
2. Three Worst American Terrorists: JFK, GWB, and BHO!

More broadly, here are two big-ticket items for the required political reforms:

1. Term Limits for Congress!
2. Let’s Redefine the American Presidency, Now (Version 3)!

It is obvious that unless President Trump is willing to be a one-term President as a good example, no real political reforms are possible. For more, read: President Trump Must Be One-Term, Voluntarily!

4. Trump’s Presidency

Just like most, if not all, of his predecessors, President Trump was set for re-election on his first day in office. Three examples:

1. President Trump: Getting Re-Elected in 2020, via Tweeting?
2. Trump rakes in $10 million at first re-election fundraiser.
3. President Trump has yet to issue an Executive Order to undo JFK’s Executive Order 10988, which allowed public-sector unions.

Any doubt about JFK’s Executive Order 10988? Two informative readings:

1. Detroit, Public-Sector Unions, and JFK.
2. How Illinois became America’s most messed-up state.

In short, President Trump has proven to be no different from his predecessors in terms of getting re-elected ad nauseam, which has proven to be hugely disastrous for America.

5. Discussion

The bar for measuring the greatness of an American President is very low. Three informative readings:

1. Correctly Assessing President John F. Kennedy.
2. Correctly Assessing President Ronald Reagan.
3. Correctly Assessing President Obama.

President Trump should outperform all these three Presidents mentioned above. However, to truly make America great again, President Trump must do far better than that!

Here is the good news: I have spelled out the path to greatness, in human history, for President Trump (American Democracy). The question is: will he listen?

Given Trump Administration 1.0, President Trump is not on track to historic greatness. Three informative readings:

1. Give President Trump a Chance to Govern!
2. President Trump Will Be Impeached in 2017, Most Likely!
3. “Make America Great Again,” Really?

6. Closing

Will Trump Administration 2.0 be far better than Trump Administration 1.0? Hopefully yes! Let’s support President Trump, without worshiping him though.