But why are we treating a 70-year-old real estate tycoon and reality TV virtuoso like a petulant 5-year-old child, or a sad clown? Donald Trump is not a lightweight. He has built buildings. He runs a very complicated business empire, and has lots of experience navigating the legal system and negotiating the most favorable terms possible for his various companies. He has ambition, a three-story penthouse, and a lucrative brand built on his name. Former GOP rival Rick Perry is dancing on a reality TV show; Donald Trump fired people on his own show.
Like him or not, Trump played by the rules of the Republican Party and beat more than a dozen qualified candidates with lots of money behind them. In interviews, Trump has a tendency to go to his safe places — his polls, his wealth, and his winning — jumping from talking about how “the cyber is so big” for the Islamic State to a “big” CNN poll showing “that Trump is winning” a few sentences later, or answering Matt Lauer’s patronizing questions about his temperament with a recap of his primary victory over “16 very talented people that I had to go through” and his “record” number of votes. But that’s not all on Trump…
Trump may be temperamentally unfit to be president, or more reliant on unelected advisers than any modern president (or maybe any president, ever), but we won’t know that if we don’t allow Trump to show us his presidential potential before the election. After the election, Trump’s qualifications are academic. Now is the time to treat Trump with the dignity and respect that his position warrants, because in this job interview, we owe it to Trump, and to America, to allow Trump to try out for the awesome appointment he’s seeking.
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