My Take | Donald Trump: learning on the job
It’s doubtful he will ever be a great president but, having discovered the complexities of holding office, he may yet become an adequate one
Nothing prepares you to be the head of a powerful state. Everyone has to learn on the job. Some do it quickly and discreetly, some slower and more chaotically. After making big mistakes and drawing merciless flak from every side, we may be witnessing the education and enlightenment of Donald Trump. His first speech to the US Congress yesterday may well mark a turning point.
The US president’s greatest weaknesses are also his strengths. Arrogant and conceited, his first instinct is to think he is right and everyone else is wrong. A man with no core ideological beliefs, he is not your typical conservative or right-winger. Unlike diehard ideologues, he can change his mind when overwhelming evidence and empirical facts demand it. It’s well-known that Trump spends a phenomenal amount of time watching partisan news channels such as the right-wing Fox News. They function like an echo chamber and simplify highly complex issues to the point of caricature.