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If you were asked to sum up Donald Trump’s style of governing in one word, there is probably a list of a thousand words that would come to mind for just the conservatives in the room. Leftists would probably have another thousand-word list. One word that probably would not be on either list would be “centrist”- yet that, according to a recent column by National Review Editor-in-Chief Rich Lowry, is the word that best describes Trump’s appeal in his first week back in office. Lowry appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to explain why current circumstances have put Trump front and center on the American political stage.
“There are certain issues where it’s portrayed, as a thesis,” Lowry told host Larry Mendte. “The crazy right-wing cultural warrior, where from a perspective of five or ten years ago, just wouldn’t have been controversial at all. The far-most example of this is the trans stuff. If you just said, ‘Biological males shouldn’t compete against females,' ten years ago, people would look at you like you’re crazy- why is that even an issue? Why is that even something we’re discussing? So, Trump in many respects, occupied the common-sense center, and is this enormous cultural phenomenon, as well. We’ve seen it in the YMCA dance and other things. This is the way he’ll describe himself- he’ll never call himself a conservative. He’ll always say he’s common-sense.”
Lowry also singled out Trump’s handling of Colombia’s initial refusal to take back deported migrants, comparing his style to what would have been the previous President’s tactic. “[Joe Biden] was broadly in accord with kind of the traditional approach of, ‘We’re the biggest guy on the block, so we’ll usually get what we want, but if we don’t, that’s fine. We’ll take the hit for the team, and we’ll have negotiations, and we’ll never embarrass you. We don’t have to; we’ll keep things behind closed doors.’ Whereas Trump is like, ‘No, we’re the biggest guy on the block; we’re going to get every possible advantage we want out of this, and if you defy us, we’ll threaten you into submission and do it publicly to make an example out of you to make sure that nobody else wants to cross us!’.”
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