President Trump is an artist. I don’t mean he’s an artist like George W. Bush whose skillfully done oil paintings have drawn praise from a top art critic. I mean, the president is making the job of being a Republican president an art form.
Think about your favorite artistic medium. For some of us, it’s cinema; motion pictures can be incredible works of art and some of the most masterful examples are, also, the most divisive. When it comes to memorable films, we are never underwhelmed or even neutral. The very best films are ones that place the viewer firmly on one end of the spectrum or other; you either love them or you hate them.
President Trump inspires this same kind of passion in both the public and the people on the Hill. We’ve seen the poll out of Monmouth University which demonstrates that 61% of people who support the president believe there is nothing that could make them disapprove of his job in office.
That same poll found that both Republicans and Democrats were unlikely to change their minds about President Trump, reinforcing the notion that you either love the president or you hate him. Opponents of the president have gone to great lengths and sunk to new lows in their efforts to protest his first term.
Whether it’s washed-up FemiNazi comedienne Kathy Griffin snapping a photo of her holding the fake decapitated head of our Commander-in-Chief or desperate middle-aged white rapper Eminem recording a diss track about POTUS that clumsily rhymes “for” with “orange,” Trump has penetrated pop culture like no other leader in US history.
Regardless of where one lands on the presidential spectrum, one thing is undeniable. His supporters are every bit as passionate as his detractors. Among those supporters who have done their part to endorse Trump’s presidency is 11-year old Frank Giaccio who wrote to the president last year to request the “honor” of mowing the White House lawn.
As we all know, the president has courted plenty of controversy since his inauguration. His executive order denying entry into the US to citizens of certain countries was met with plenty of resistance by advocacy groups and Democrats on the Senate floor. And his appointment of ultra-conservative judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court was met with similar ire.
But this polarity is not a bad thing, rather it is a surefire sign of his effectiveness as Commander-in-Chief. Indeed, Trump is an artist and his canvas is the United States of America. His paint brush is an iron fist. Like all great artists, the president is a visionary, but unlike other presidential candidates who posit a vision for the country, President Trump doesn’t stop until that vision is realized.
This is why his constituents love him and why they stand by him, regardless of how much mud the media sling at him. They stand by him because he is emblematic of everything we have been promised by the GOP that they then fail to deliver.
When the president promised to fill scores of federal court vacancies with conservative judges, he made good on that promise by confirming appellate judges at a historic speed. When he pledged to recognize Israel’s claim to the city of Jerusalem, he kept his word. The same is true of his tax overhaul, his withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, his repeal of the Obama-era roadblocks on the Keystone XL pipeline, his withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and his call for identification of foreign trading abuses that hurt the American worker.
One of the things that makes President Trump a true visionary is his eye toward the future. When we think back on his presidency, we will be able to recognize him as the archetype for the 21st Century President.
His embrace of Twitter as a platform for communicating with the people of his country is just one example of how the Commander-in-Chief is molding the presidential image to suit the modern age. His early adoption of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to circumvent China’s internet restrictions and his commitment to military cybersecurity programs demonstrate his comprehension of where the world is heading and how we can get there.
The president’s assertion that gun control could have left “hundreds more dead” in last year’s Las Vegas shooting shows that POTUS understands the absurdity of the Democrats’ efforts to ban AR-15 furniture and accessories. It also suggests that he is dedicated to preserving Americans’ Second Amendment right.
Finally, President Trump’s stance on North Korea and its tyrannical leader tells us that he has something few contemporary presidents have had…balls. This is why he inspires so much love and so much hate. Those who adore him are able to see that he means business. Those who oppose him are resentful and jealous because they envy his determination.
Naysayers call Trump stubborn when he refuses to cave to pressure. They call him unstable when he calls for a second government shutdown until the liberals agree to work in concert with their Republican counterparts.
When his accomplishments get in the way of their agenda, the president’s haters fall back on his alleged record of sexual misconduct. They dream up infantile stories about Russian pee-pee prostitutes and hotel trysts with fame-seeking porn stars.
What they fail to grasp is that these fairy tales don’t give his supporters pause. On the contrary, they only serve to cement his reputation as the man’s man this PC country needs now more than ever. If nothing else, President Trump represents a tangible change that is vital for the GOP in these times of increasing self-censorship and emasculation.
The liberals can disagree about the need for that kind of change, but they can’t disagree when it comes to the progress the president has made.
With a thriving economy and record-breaking job creation, it is likely that Americans will have better credit and better opportunities in the next three years than they’ve had in ages. That’s what’s called making America great again, which is yet another promise President Trump has kept. That’s a whole lot to love.