Since Senator Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) brutal Washington Post op-ed tearing into President Trump two days ago, the commentariat has been buzzing about how to judge Trump’s character — and what such a judgment means about our view of the presidency and the Republican Party. Judgment of Trump’s character seems to have broken down into three main categories: those who believe Trump is of good moral character; those who believe Trump is of poor moral character, and that this necessarily disqualifies him from the presidency; and those who believe Trump is of poor moral character, but that other considerations militate against his disqualification from the presidency.
In my view, those who believe that Trump is a man of good moral character are wrong. He serially cheated on his wives, he cheated people in business, he’s vulgar, he’s a habitual friend of untruth, and he attacks anyone who crosses him in the most scurrilous terms. Now, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have qualities that can be utilized in good ways — for example, the same stubbornness that leads him to grossly label General Stanley McChrystal a scare-quoted “General” also leads him to dismiss those who insist that he kowtow to European public opinion. Some character traits can cut for both good and ill. Trump’s aggressiveness makes him a hammer in search of a nail — and sometimes he hits the nail on the head. But overall, Trump isn’t a man you’d want your children to model themselves after.
.png)
.png)
