I think instead of giving up on him at every little juke he makes we'd be better off to let him do his thing and see where we are in three or four years. It may very well be that he's had to give some here to get something else there - one thing for sure is that you can't look at one thing by itself and judge his whole presidency on it. That's what the Ministries of Propaganda (Faux, MSNBC, CNN and even Breitbart) rely on people doing, it is how they manipulate them - raising their blood pressure for "The Latest Outrage!!" this week, which will be forgotten about totally next week and replaced by the newest "Latest Outrage!!".* But I sure wouldn't give up on him totally based on an article from a news site run by a powerful, manipulative person with a brand new bone to pick with Trump.
Another way of looking at his presidency. This is from a blog that started out with a title ostensibly about climate change but is really more about Trump's overall MO.
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/159824817036/how-a-systems-thinking-president-can-settle-theThis idea in today’s Wall Street Journal talks about creating a “Red Team” to dig into the climate science debate and come up with a conclusion for the public. I call that a good system.
Systems are better than goals. A goal, in this case, might be to “Convince the public that climate change is a big problem.” That’s a clear goal, but what if it isn’t the best outcome? That’s where a system (such as forming a Red Team) comes in handy. The system will solve for credibility while informing the public of whatever comes out of the exercise.
You can’t govern better than that. Period.
We have, for the first time, a “Systems-thinking” president. You see it in everything President Trump does. His go-to system involves lots of A-B testing of ideas, lots of negotiating, strict attention to the psychology of the situation, and pushing forward in ways that increase the odds of success. For example, the first vote on healthcare looked like a failure to “goals-thinking” people. But President Trump referred to the process yesterday as a system in which the bill keeps “getting better and better” as time goes by. And he’s right. That is exactly what we see happening.
You also see a Trump system in place to deal with North Korea. Instead of creating a goal, such as “Get rid of your nukes by Tuesday,” President Trump has created a system that links China’s future trade deals, and International standing, with their progress in solving for North Korea. That’s a good system.
You can tell that President Trump is a systems-thinker by looking at what I call his Talent Stack. He amassed an impressive set of complementary skills over his lifetime that would make him successful at almost anything he did, from hosting reality TV shows, to running for president. Notice that he is a good public speaker with a strong understanding of persuasion, politics, business strategy, and more. Add all of that to his sense of humor, his energy, his ability to endure brutal criticism, and his natural intelligence, and you have super-powerful person who can succeed in a lot of different ways.
*One thing I've learned over my life is to try to get news and opinions from several sources and NEVER trust any one of them to give an unbiased viewpoint.
