America’s President

This column ran in The American Spectator’s special Fall 2018 issue, published in conjunction with the our annual Robert L. Bartley dinner.

 

by Wlady Pleszczynski April 27, 2019

 

File this under Hope Springs Eternal: When Donald Trump somehow emerged victor on Nov. 8, 2016, I soon enough predicted that he would turn out to be America’s most beloved president since Ronald Reagan. I still think that. For one thing, simply as a personality there’s so much more there than in his four immediate predecessors. What’s more, with him what you see is what you get. For all his alleged sins and sinning he can never ever be accused of hypocrisy. In this day and age, that’s reason enough to canonize him.

 

My mind always goes back to October 2013 when Trump stole the show at our annual dinner, much no doubt to the dismay of our keynote speaker that night, Sen. Ted Cruz, whose earnest speech really did not go over well, following as it did Trump’s warm and witty remarks. But what I remember most is Trump before dinner, mingling at the general reception and joshing and schmoozing with one and all.

 

One woman right in front of me tried to give him a hard time about something, to no avail. He quickly disarmed her, with a smile and an eye roll and maybe a few faux grimaces. I think I was supposed to try to get him to go over to the VIP reception, but he wanted no part of that. He was happy to be right where he was and the VIPs never did get to visit with him up close. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s always his own man even if that’s no longer allowed...........To Read More...