When a politician holding a high public office is asked how he himself evaluates his work, they are usually expected to receive a modest answer from him. Something like: “To judge the voters about this” or “People should form their own opinion”.
In the United States, political modesty is not highly valued. Congressmen, governors, mayors, district attorneys - they all stop thinking about reelection. Hard electoral struggle is ongoing. Competitors each other are not only criticized, but also often doused with mud. In this setting, the golden rule: "You will not praise yourself - who will praise you?"
American presidents have always lived according to this rule. And yet Donald Trump praises himself more often and more inconsiderately than his predecessors. He estimates the work of his administration exclusively in superlatives: “beautiful”, “fantastic”, “incredible” ...
So last Sunday in an interview with Fox News, the 45th US president set himself up for work in the first two years at the post of five plus.
Liberal media routinely began to make fun of the owner of the White House. No wonder. For them, Donald Trump is not just the worst possible president. He personifies everything in America that they hate.
What they say about him on CNN and MSNBC and write in the newspapers The Washington Post The and the New York Times is hardly criticism. More like a spell designed to expel Trump from the Oval Office.
Since the day the billionaire announced his candidacy for the highest state post, mainstream media have ridiculed him, “accused” him of racism and misogyny, called him “Russian agent”. But with Donald everything is like water off a duck's back. No accusations and compromises that would have been knocked out by another politician a long time ago will not affect him. He is tough, sometimes on the verge of decency, meets his ill-wishers and continues to bend his line.
Most experts did not believe in his victory. And when the "unthinkable happened", the American economy was predicted an immediate catastrophe. Trump was later punished for a quick and imminent impeachment. Against the background of these forecasts, everything that happened in the USA in 2017–2018 should be perceived as a miracle.
Donald Trump never went handcuffed to jail. The US economy feels great. Political opponents, including the liberal press, have not achieved any visible results with their attacks on the president.
The entire Republican front towards Trump was dispersed like smoke. Yes, his party lost the majority in the House of Representatives (this is almost always the case after the first two years of the presidency), but strengthened its position in the Senate and rallied around the leader, who was skeptical about a year ago.
All of this, or a series of incredible successes, or the work of the 45th President is really worth giving the highest praise. Five plus he should at least be put for political survival in conditions of unprecedented harassment, which no one else before him had been exposed to.
But Trump didn't just survive. He gradually achieves his goals, which were set during the election campaign, and refutes one "indisputable" truth after another. Everyone said that protectionist tariffs would bring down the consumer market, but the consumer confidence index only grows with wages and the number of new jobs. Trump predicted a loss in the confrontation with North Korea. But Pyongyang backed down (in any case, partially): nuclear tests are not carried out, rockets do not fly over Japan, the remains of American soldiers who died more than half a century ago were returned to their homeland.
All argued that Mexico and Canada would not agree to change the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but the new treaty has already been signed. The so-called trade war with China was supposed to hit the American business painfully, but as a result Beijing was in a difficult situation, and new factories were built in the United States.
Today, forecasts of economic and political “gurus” made in early 2017 look quite funny. Trump, in their opinion, should have ruined state administration and foreign policy, killed the economy, and, in a showman-like way, pushed back in disgrace after the “inevitable” impeachment.
If we discard the version of the chain of miracles, we will have to admit that Trump and his actions have something more than “irrepressible ego” and “political curwling”. Donald, with his sense of a businessman, caught something that was inaccessible to Washington's old-timers — politicians, bureaucrats, experts, and journalists.
A middle-aged, not very handsome, sometimes quite ridiculous looking and freely acting New York darling makes undoubted success, going against all generally accepted canons of economics and politics.
No, he did not invent anything fundamentally new. And in this sense, he, of course, is no genius. But he listened to those experts who were considered to be marginalized or even urban madmen.
Globalization is bursting at the seams, not at all because the “mad red-haired clown” is operating in Washington. And because she was a dead end. The “red clown” simply understood this and began to act according to the situation.
And yet you can't just call Trump lucky. To do what he does requires considerable personal courage and self-righteousness, the ability to fight the all-powerful fourth power and constantly give up.
The most surprising thing about Donald’s behavior in his first two years in Washington was that he didn’t blown away, retreated, or give up. I think it was morally difficult.
Perhaps it is the “thick-skinnedness” of the American leader. Or maybe he, all the while giving himself an assessment of himself with five plus, successfully conducts psychological autotherapy.
It is unusual, of course, to listen as a 72-year-old politician, the leader of a nuclear superpower, praises himself. But this does not mean that this politician should not be taken seriously. Like all tectonic changes that occur in the world today.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.