Trump's 'Bully Pulpit'
President Trump is not just shaking up Washington. He's also enforcing his will to shred social norms beyond the Beltway—in places where some say he doesn't belong.
President Trump is returning to his reality-TV toolbox to re-brand himself again, but this time, not just as America’s boss, but as the boss of “everyone and everything.”
NEW YORK—During his first four weeks back in the White House, Donald Trump has not only been bending, if not breaking, quite a few laws in his push to change the American government. He’s also returned to the reality-TV toolbox he used earlier in his career while hosting NBC’s The Apprentice for 14 seasons—making that show’s iconic phrase, “you’re fired!” apply to his current bid to “clean up” (downsize) Washington.
But he’s not stopping there. Like many presidents before him, Trump is using his “bully pulpit”—a term coined by former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s to advance his policy agenda. But unlike Roosevelt, Trump is also using his platform to spread fear, threats, ultimatums and intentions to wipe out some of America’s social and cultural norms. To no one’s surprise, it is raising alarm among opponents. Earlier this week, “No Kings on Presidents Day” protests were held in Washington and 10 other cities across the nation, with more such protests planned for later this month.
Moving ahead, Trump plans to continue using his bully pulpit to enforce his will over a variety of state and national leaders not legally obliged to obey him—like people in the arts, sports, the news business, local community groups and private companies. Some organizations failing to honor his big or petty requests, so far, are already facing some levels of retaliation.
Just ask The Associated Press. Trump last week removed one of its reporters from a recent press conference because AP executives said they’d keep referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Mexico in the company’s news stories—rejecting Trump’s decision to rename it the “Gulf of America.” AP executives pushed back, saying neither Mexico nor Congress agreed to a formal name change, and regardless, that it is AP’s decision about what to put into its AP Style book—not Trump’s.
But Trump persists. The line between reality-TV and Trump’s presidency blurs every time he makes a momentous political decision, and now he’s also giving himself the authority to pressure changes in the National Football League’s kickoff rules. Just a few weeks ago, he also got himself declared chair of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, to stop the Center from holding drag show performances and showcasing other artists celebrating the diversity of American culture. Trump forced his way onto the Kennedy Center board after purging those members appointed by former President Joe Biden.
And that’s just for starters.
Power Plays
Trump is also telling NYC to get rid of its bike lanes and signed an executive order to get rid of paper straws because “nobody really likes them.” He also is weighing in on low-flow toilets, saying they should be banned. And he wants, separately, to be able to wield more H.R. clout over how some local businesses hire and fire their people and to remove all DEI programs from the nation’s public schools. Oh, and we can’t forget. Trump also wants to use his real estate development networks to help transform the Gaza Strip into a “beautiful place to live” and a luxury beachfront destination, which he says “could be better than Monaco.”
He’s saying and doing all of these things in rapid succession, without being asked nor invited to do so—nor using or proposing any legislation to make any of this happen, and not offering (or just refusing) to work with any of the people who had been overseeing these programs, products and locations for decades. “Some of these issues are merely Trump’s pet peeves,” says Jennifer Mercieca, who teaches the history of American political rhetoric at Texas A&M University and is the author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump. “Some of them are on his kill list.”
Heather Cox-Richardson, the American historian and author of one of the most well-read columns on Substack, says: “It’s okay to have opinions about things, but the President is a rising authoritarian if he keeps trying to force people to accept his version of reality on things that go way beyond federal government policy, is making changes not sanctioned by Congress (as legally required), and is punishing those who object and try to push back.”
Re-naming the Gulf of Mexico, Cox-Richardson says, is a perfect example of Trump’s saber-rattling—and not simply a petty power play. It is action taken early in his term to “signal to others that he owns change now and is in top power to make it happen. It’s really about imposing a rising autocrat’s reality on others, and telling people they now have to bow to the authoritarian’s reality. It’s a slippery slope,” she added. “People who get pushed or feel obliged to follow those kinds of orders” tend to say, ‘okay, I’ll let you get away with it this time,’ but then it becomes much harder the next time for people opposing that kind of power to say no.”
Civics 101
Congress has the power to make laws; under the U.S. Constitution, presidents do not. Sitting presidents must faithfully enact the nation’s laws or request backers in Congress to introduce new legislation to change them and then get them passed into law. “It’s Civics 101,” Cox-Richardson says. “It’s how our government was founded and how it’s been running for nearly 250 years.”
“…One of the things about our history and our government that we tend to forget is that first of all, it’s ours, a government of the people,” Cox-Richardson added. “Trump can only overreach and abuse his power if we let him. Otherwise, presidents don’t get to say ‘No, I don’t like this or that, so I order that this get changed.’ Donald Trump can make suggestions to Congress for new laws to pass but he can’t write those laws, or force people to make the changes he wants.”
U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minnesota, says “many people on both sides of the aisle are concerned that Trump is over-reaching and also is trying to bypass Congress completely now,” which some historians say is the same as ignoring the U.S. Constitution. Some, even a few of the MAGA faithful, “say privately he’s acting like a dictator,” McCollum adds. It’s just that some people think that’s okay, while others object, she says. McCollum is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, which recommends which spending bills should get funded, and by how much. More than 50 lawsuits have been filed so far to challenge Trump’s push to make change without congressional approval, but some cases might take months to resolve, she says.
Just don’t expect Trump to stop trying. He has used ‘bully pulpits’ throughout his career, and the approach has helped him to expand his brand and influence.
In his real estate days, he promoted himself as the nation’s most successful dealmaker. During The Apprentice, he morphed into the nation’s workplace boss. Over the last decade, he expanded his role to become the Republican Party’s boss and then was elected to be the federal government’s boss. “And now, taking over the White House for a second time? He’s making himself the boss of everyone and everything,” says Gwenda Blair, the author of The Trumps, A Biography of Multiple Generations of the Family and a longtime student of the president.
“Without opposition,” Blair said in an interview, “there will be no stopping him. …Our democracy could be very fragile now, indeed.”
What are your thoughts on Trump’s first three weeks? He’s good shaking things up, but can he govern? Is his wish to reset cultural norms about making things better for everyday Americans, or is it all becoming too risky? Go ahead, leave us a comment. We treasure your diverse perspectives!