Trump has a grating style but significant substance

Consider also the Trump record on appointments. The press is full of articles about the number of important positions still unfilled. True enough — and true also of the early Obama, Bush, and Clinton administrations. It’s an inevitable result of the detailed disclosure requirements and Senate confirmation process required by statute.

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And there have been headlines after the firing, only 24 days into the job, of national-security adviser Michael Flynn.

But some of Trump’s appointments have been clearly first-rate. Defense Secretary James Mattis and new national-security adviser H. R. McMaster not only bring records of impressive accomplishments as military leaders and thinkers but also have shown a steady willingness to speak truth to power.

Then there’s Judge Neil Gorsuch, who appears certain to be confirmed for the Supreme Court. In his engagingly written opinions as an appeals-court judge, he has shown an openness to arguments from all ideological sides and to qualms about an ever-expanding administrative state.

These are not the kind of people you would appoint to the highest positions if you aspired to impose authoritarian rule over a free people.

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