One year into the presidency of Donald John Trump Sr. and the question is being asked: Has he changed the presidency forever?
He’s changed it. He has transformed the presidency into a sort of cult of personality. He demands loyalty from those he appoints to high office; he demanded it from an FBI director and then fired him when he didn’t get it.
By my reckoning, Trump has been a truly “consequential” president — for better or worse.
Has he delivered a permanent change to the high office? I doubt it. Strongly, I doubt it.
It’s often said that the office is bigger than the person who occupies it. That’s so very true even if that person possesses the ego and narcissistic qualities of one Donald Trump.
We cannot know, of course, what Year No. 2 will bring to this man’s time in office. Year No. 1 took us on one rocky ride after another. I suppose one could surmise that the constant chaos and confusion has brought considerable change to the nation’s highest office.
That’s how this guy rolls. He loves the chaos. He loves being the center of attention, no matter its cause or consequence.
But so help me this need not be a permanent fixture of the exalted office occupied at this time by someone who had never run for any public office of any kind prior to the 2016 presidential election.
Yes, he’s brought significant change to the presidency.
I guess all we need do at this moment is consider that on the first anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, he is presiding over a government shutdown.
By golly, that’s what I call “change.”
I also would bet real money none of us alive today is going to see this kind of first-year presidential commemoration ever again.
I now will hope that the next president will return the office to what we’ve long thought of as “normal.”