Donald Trump’s Absentee Presidency

The Atlantic ^ | 10-14-2018 | Todd S. Purdum

[Sir Napsalot]

The New York billionaire seems unable to comfort the nation in times of tragedy or celebrate its moments of triumph.

It is a poignant paradox of Donald Trump’s ubiquitous presidency—all tweets, all the time—that a leader who prides himself as omnipresent in digital public discourse is so often absent from national life in the hundred human ways in which the country has come to expect its presidents to perform.

Latest case in point: After Hurricane Michael devastated parts of Florida’s Panhandle, Trump played host at the White House to Kanye West, who—in a ten-minute monologue in the Oval Office—dropped the F-bomb and praised Trump’s “Make American Great Again” cap as a hyper-masculine talisman that made him feel “like a guy that could play catch with his son.”

But think about it: Have we ever seen Trump play catch with his own 12-year-old son, Barron? Without question, the president dotes on his children, especially his daughter, Ivanka. But he's an absentee father to the nation, or at least a majority of the nation. There have been no warm and fuzzy photos of Trump shopping for books or gifts, as Barack Obama and Bill Clinton did with their daughters. No images of him poring over a photo album, as Abraham Lincoln famously did with his son Tad, or tending his stamp collection, as FDR did. No visible evidence of the easy relaxation with friends and family that has become a standard part of presidential iconography.

(snip) Trump can’t readily cheer the nation in moments of triumph (championship sports teams boycott his White House). He doesn’t tenderly comfort the nation in times of tragedy (he tosses paper towels to hurricane victims, and does a double fist pump on the anniversary of 9-11). He doesn’t read books, talk movies or go to the theater, ...

[HotHunt]

Two things:

First, The Atlantic is about as far Left a publication as you can find.

Second, they conveniently don't mention that their idol, Obama, was absent from the presidency more than any other, out on the golf course entertaining himself.

Trump's not an absentee president. What is absent for the Left is any of their policies surviving Trump's bureaucratic cuts.

[Vendome]

He does his job.

I dont care whether he shops at Tsrget or rides a Townie bike like some sissy...

[Guardian Sebastian]

Sorry, but I don’t consider winning a ball game a national triumph. Author needs to wake up and praise the President for his triumph over North Korea, for example. That is a real national triumph.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

It is a poignant paradox of Donald Trump’s ubiquitous presidency—all tweets, all the time—that a leader who prides himself as omnipresent in digital public discourse is so often absent from national life in the hundred human ways in which the country has come to expect its presidents to perform.

Pathetic. This article speaks volumes about how liberals see the role of the president vs. the actual role of the president as defined in the Constitution.

The role of the president is not to be the national nanny. He's not there to comfort liberals when they wet themselves over some natural or man-made disaster. The POTUS is not there to put footie-pajamas on you, give you a warm cup of cocoa and send you off to bed. The expectation is that American adults think and act like adults, and do not look to their elected employees in Washington to take care of them like their mommies once did.

The fact that a man (I assume Todd S Purdum still qualifies as a man's name) apparently wrote this article makes it even more embarrassing.

[GoldenPup]

The New York billionaire seems unable to comfort the nation in times of tragedy or celebrate its moments of triumph.

Unmitigated Bullshit!

[TalBlack]

Some silly scribe dreams up a whinge and describes it as he delusionally implies that it is a thing noticed by many but never before described cogently.

[Revolutionary]

The left’s idea of acting Presidential is to be a phoney.

[hal ogen]

I bet this LIB-loser, todd, and his LIB-loser wife have been sobbing each night since the DIMs lost. Hahahaha. I love saying “lost”.

[upchuck]

My thought after reading this hit piece: And?

IMHO, President Trump perhaps does lots of things the press never hears about.

The lamestream is just pissed off that President Trump does not let them into every facet of his life. Good for him.

[BitWielder1]

1. Every day, pick something that Trump did or didn't do. It doesn't have to be real.
2. Write a column how that one oversight defines his entire presidency.

[Newtoidaho]

The left wants Trump out in public more, shopping...interacting more with Joe public. It would be easier to assassinate him that way, you see.

[MAGAthon]

why aren’t there Disclosure statements on articles by hacks like Purdum?

when he was with Vanity Fair:

7 Nov 2017: Vanity Fair: Trump’s Shrinkage: How He Diminished the Presidency in 10 Mere Months
by Todd S. Purdum

16 Jan 2017: Vanity Fair: Barack Obama Belongs to the Ages
by Todd S. Purdum

29 July 2016: Vanity Fair: How Hillary Clinton Rejected Poetry for a Battle Cry
On Thursday Night, the Democratic Nominee proved why, to use George H. W. Bush’s famous phrase, she should be “sitting at the desk.”
by Todd S. Purdum

26 July 2016: Clinton to Kaine: You Complete Me
Even if Bernie Sanders supporters think otherwise, Hillary Clinton has passed her first big test.
by Todd S. Purdum

just another partisan jerk.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Which president is this pecksniff talking about? Certainly not Donald Trump.