A Face in the Crowd: President Donald J.Trump a Personal View

By Barry Spencer

The book, written by an ordinary member of the public, argues that, in spite of concerted efforts to derail his presidency, Donald Trump, through his life experience, embodies many of the attributes of a great president. What is so remarkable is not that he was elected against all expectations but that his presidency has proved to be so successful. The media has portrayed Trump in the most negative terms possible to a degree that would have destroyed a lesser man. The book demonstrates that this picture is almost entirely false. Trump is president at a historic moment when the nation is polarized between radical progressives striving for fundamental change and conservatives who stand by traditional values. Trump is not an ideologue but a pragmatist resisting social experimentation with the potential to be one of the greatest presidents in the history of the republic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781984583024

Barry Spencer

Calling himself a Speculative Type Designer, Barry states that he often makes letters that may or may not look like letters. For over a decade he has researched, explored and played with the Latin letterforms and through his research and exploration he has been able to reach a point where he believes he has fundamentally altered the way that he creates, perceives and understands the shapes of the alphabet.Barry continues to explore the potential of letterforms while also writing and lecturing on graphic design, typography and type design.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 by Barry Spencer.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Cover design created by Bahman Nader.

Rev. date: 06/15/2020

Xlibris

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Contents

1 Hail To The Chief

2 The Rally

3 The Ideologue

4 Where Did He Come From?

5 Prejudice

6 Revenge

7 Disaster

8 The Visible And The Invisible Enemy

9 Jubilation And Weeping

10 Promises, Promises

11 Ya Don’t Know What Ya Gonna Get

12 Inside The Wheel Of History

Also by Barry Spencer:

The Interrogation of Ephraim Sparkman and other stories

The Forgotten Man and other poems

Cross Cut

For Shahnaz

1

HAIL TO THE CHIEF

Be willing to make decisions. That’s the most important quality in a good leader.

—Gen. George S. Patton

The interview is to take place in the Map Room on the ground floor of the White House.

Nowadays, it’s furnished like a comfortable eighteenth-century parlor in Chippendale style, richly carpeted, with a chandelier and silken drapes. It was not always so. Under several presidents, it served as a billiard room and later, in the Kennedy administration, as an office for the White House curator. It was here during World War 2 that Franklin Roosevelt followed the progress of the war and the movement of troops from huge wall maps stretching from ceiling to floor like tapestry illuminated by fluorescent lamps.

The room is a hive of activity. A well-known anchor from a major television network will interview the forty-fifth president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, the most controversial, the most transparent, the most reviled, and, I will argue, a pivotal figure, potentially one of the most successful presidents in the history of the republic.

The broadcast will be beamed across the nation, watched by millions of Americans on TV in their homes, on their laptops, on social media, in the street on their smartphones, at airports, and in their gathering places. And millions speeding through city streets, freeways, and interstate highways will tune in on their car radios. The whole nation is in a state of heightened anticipation, tense with excitement, awaiting the interview as if it were a gladiatorial contest. Part of the reason is that this president is a publicist. He can be unpredictable; he knows how to make news and how to manipulate the media. He’s an original, and he’s redefining what it means to be president. There’s nothing humdrum or boring about Trump.

Trump’s first turbulent term is drawing to a close. In part, it will be remembered for the political persecution of the president, not, I think, too strong a description, in a trumped-up impeachment by the House (it’s as if the word were coined for this very purpose). We can talk about the significance of the impeachment later, but the outcome was a foregone conclusion. It was no secret, we all knew from the outset the attempt to convict him in the Senate and thereby remove him from office was doomed to failure.

To live in the age of Trump is to witness a perverse Promethean drama played out day by day on an international stage in which the fates pursue the innocent, the wicked prosper, where pride comes before a fall, and those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.

Technicians are making final adjustments, microphones are live, video monitors and lighting rigs are in place, the camera operators are ready. The floor manager checks his watch. It’s five minutes to the hour as the president enters the room with a retinue of staff including two secret service agents. Unlike Obama, a younger man, a basketball player who walks with a spring in his step, almost a swagger, Trump seems to plod, treading more deliberately, leaning forward slightly, his plain red tie dangling, the jacket of his dark blue suit flapping open. He grins and shakes hands with the anchor warmly. They exchange a few cordialities as they take their seats opposite one another.

Of course, we have all seen the president on television, but to be in his presence is an experience of a different order. At six feet three inches and over 240 pounds, he dominates the room. There is a certain flabbiness in his features offset by the rock-solid determination of his chin. His complexion is high, although there is a pale lymphatic puffiness around his restless and penetrating eyes.

And, of course, there is the haircut, or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it the coiffure, swept back at the temples with an artfully designed quiff that seems to rest on the crown of his head like a yellow bird’s nest. It must be a mess when he wakes up in the morning. He told Playboy magazine that he washes his hair daily, lets it dry, styles it himself, then sprays it so that it stays firm throughout the day. All of this before he leaves his private rooms to face the world. It’s the kind of hairdo sported by a vain if not a narcissistic individual or perhaps someone seeking to reclaim a lost youth. There’s nothing bashful or withdrawn about this person. He’s advertising himself. It’s an act of defiance toward his detractors and entirely consistent with what we have learned of the president’s character. One can argue that his flamboyant hairstyle is unpresidential and undignified, that it may be a source of amusement and sneering mockery among hard-line Democrats and Never Trumpers. But it has value; it’s the president’s brand, a personal symbol on the world stage like a company logo and the delight of cartoonists. Churchill as the British bulldog or Obama’s bat-like ears are in the same genre. Show a picture of the coiffure in isolation without any context, and everyone from Peoria to Peking will smile and know the owner. He’s a walking Trump Tower.

But vanity in a man such as the president can be thought of in a different way, a way that is touching because it makes him more human. It reveals a vulnerability, a camouflage hiding an insecurity.

Even so, Trump can be lighthearted and playful about his crowning glory. Shortly before the New Hampshire primary as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, he appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The following exchange took place:

Fallon: I want to ask you something. I want to know if there’s something we could do that’s not really presidential—because the next time I see you, you could be the president of the United States—while we are both civilians?

Audience erupts in delight.

Trump: [puzzled, turns and looks intently at Fallon] Like what? I’m not liking the sound of this.

Fallon: Can I mess your hair up?

Audience yelling, stomping, and clapping.

Trump: [smiling and answering over the uproar] The answer’s yes, but I hope the people of New Hampshire, where I’m going to be in about an hour, I hope they’ll understand.

Fallon: Did you say yes?

Trump: Go ahead.

He inclines his head resignedly, whereupon Fallon leans over and vigorously ruffles Trump’s immaculate coiffure, making him appear as though he was on deck during a hurricane. Trump makes a hasty effort to restore his hair to its pristine glory and smiles wanly through his obvious embarrassment. But he was sport enough to join the fun even at the loss of his dignity.

Not only is it the physical presence or the charisma of the president that impresses, but also here, one feels, is a man who has found himself unwittingly at the crossroads of destiny who, for better or ill, has the power and the determination to shape our lives. It is the sense one has that he wears the mantle of history that inspires us, or should inspire us, with respect for the office he holds.

The interview is in full swing. Trump looks uncomfortable, leaning forward, his hands clasped between his knees as if he’s ready to leap up and leave the room at a signal from the Secret Service. So different to Obama, who would appear entirely at ease, resting back, his legs crossed, answering the questions thoughtfully, in measured sentences, each word carefully chosen. There’s a rather off-color joke making the rounds:

Question. Why does Trump sit on the edge of his chair with his feet planted on the floor, but Obama leans back with his legs crossed?

Answer. Because Obama has no balls.

An Obama interview was a leisurely tennis match; the ball lobbed over the net by a friendly player and returned with another gentle lob. A Trump interview is a fencing match with rapiers, cut and thrust. Trump is ahead of the interviewer, anticipating the question, anxious to respond. He cuts in with his answer before the question is complete. He parries and strikes, but he never loses his temper and never raises his voice. He speaks rapidly. His language is simple, direct, and spontaneous. If he makes a mistake or exaggerates, the media will pounce, branding him a liar. He does not hesitate in a search for the right word. He answers circuitously, repeating himself, never losing an opportunity to brag about his accomplishments or denigrate a prior administration. He will go off at a tangent when something crosses his mind, like a hound in pursuit of its quarry, but he will always come back to the original point. The speed of the interview generates more questions than a typical Obama foray, and more ground is covered.

It’s interesting to compare a Trump with an Obama questioning by the press. Obama, being the first black, although, strictly speaking, not the first African American president (his ancestors were not brought to the United States as slaves), was treated with deference by the media for fear that, if they played hardball, if the questions were too probing, too confrontational on sensitive issues, they would be cast as a racist by the Left. Like Hillary Clinton and most Democrat politicians, Obama was self-protective, rarely agreeing to be interviewed by right-leaning journalists or Fox News. When he gave Bill O’Reilly a pre-Super Bowl interview, he complained that he was being treated unfairly.

To his credit, Trump is different. He has willingly subjected himself to interviews from across the political spectrum, from every sector of the media, both liberal and conservative. This has been true throughout his career, even before he entered politics. And the media certainly don’t pull their punches; many of which are foul blows below the belt. We’ll talk about the whole fake news phenomenon later. Suffice to say that when Trump fights back, as he has been forced to do throughout his presidency, he does so openly unlike Obama, who was secretive. In a curious irony, he uses the media as a weapon against itself like a bullet that ricochets back to strike the assailant.

Why is it that the work habits of the powerful and successful hold such fascination for us? Stalin worked through the night to the consternation of his aides; Churchill worked in bed. Perhaps it’s because we feel that such habits are the secret of their success. What they all share in common is a propensity for personal discipline and hard work.

Trump is no exception. For a man of his age—at the time of writing, he’s seventy-three—he seems to possess inexhaustible energy. He avoids exercise, believing, so it’s said, that it would sap his energy. More likely, he regards it as boring and a waste of valuable time. He needs only about three to four hours’ sleep, and he’s been up since about 5:30 a.m. But it can vary. Sometimes he’s up by 4:00 a.m. That tells us that he went to bed at maybe 1:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.

In the morning, he likes to go over specially assembled press cuttings in which he’s mentioned and any flattering photographs in which he appears. That gives him a quick overview of the day’s news and a boost to his ego. He usually skips breakfast and stays clear of coffee and tea to avoid caffeine.

He’s addicted to tweeting, as we all know. It’s an all-day habit exposing him to criticism even from his supporters. He has about thirteen million followers. Twitter was only three years old when Obama was inaugurated in 2009. It didn’t come into its own until several years later. It became more viable as a form of social networking in 2017 when the number of allowable characters was doubled from 140 to 280. Trump is the first president of the Twitter era, and he’s been smart enough to make full use of it. On July 2, 2017, Trump tweeted,

My use of social media is not presidential—it’s MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again!

Obama didn’t need it because he had the media in his pocket. It’s a blessing for the president because it allows him to speak to his base, bypassing the mainstream media that can find nothing positive to say about him however successful he is. At the same time, he can hit back at his critics and offer support to his political allies. In fact, one would think from headlines that seek to demean him for his tweeting, suggesting it’s somehow below the dignity of his office, that he’s unique, the only Washington top notch to use that form of social media. In fact, today, it’s widespread and about as common as the telephone, another more traditional means of communication, which the president uses to great effect.

His official daily business, beginning at about 11:30 a.m., involves what we expect of any president—formal conferences, meetings with foreign heads of state, official visits, speech making, interviews, and so on. When he’s not so engaged, he uses what has been termed executive time to fill the day, an intentionally vague term coined by John Kelly, a former chief of staff. This has made the president vulnerable to mindless condemnation by the more idiotic elements in what Rush Limbaugh calls the drive by media. They accuse him of wasting time or, to put it bluntly, of f—— around, implying that he’s lazy and inefficient.

I confess, I have no inside information as to how the president makes constructive use of his executive time. But I think it’s safe to assume that no one whose average work day lasts from 5:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. on the following day, a businessman whose career encompasses, among many other things, New York real estate development, nationwide golf courses, hotels, highly successful television host, whose reported income from January 2015 to May 2016 was $611 million, and who rose to be the forty-fifth president of the United States, I repeat, that person probably won’t be lazy or inefficient.

Trump is unconventional. He receives and processes information in an unorthodox way. His emotional and creative well-being depends and flourishes upon the availability of freewheeling and unstructured time. No doubt he watches television, a medium he understands; he’ll spend time on the phone for whatever reason; he’ll call an impromptu meeting to discuss an idea he’s had; something he read will prompt a tweet. To those who are more pedestrian, whose clock runs more slowly, he probably appears hyperactive, almost manic—and perhaps he is. But he’s certainly not lazy, and he’s far smarter than most people give him credit for.

The interviewer poses a last question. Trump’s response overlaps the final words like a man running to meet the incoming tide. A handshake accompanied by a quip