[LS]

Yeah, I think he was either completely sleepless or on some med in Ft. Dodge.

One (small) thing that does concern me. He is entirely accustomed to speaking off the cuff without notes---or with a single index card. There will be times in his presidency where he will have to speak from a script, especially in matters pertaining to foreign affairs. I have never seen him speak from prepared text. Are you aware of any of his formal speeches anywhere? You'd think he'd had to have done it many times, but I'd like to see one.

[BigEdLB]

Trump had notes today, but it looked like they were numbers/stats/$ amounts

[BigEdLB]

180 degrees from our current Hawaiian

[Albion Wilde]

I have never seen him speak from prepared text. Are you aware of any of his formal speeches anywhere?

In several of his early rallies, I saw that he had notes written in large black marker, like a Scripto pen, on a business-size envelope. They were down on the podium and the only moment you see them is when he is about to leave the podium, he picks them up and puts them in the inner breast pocket of his suit coat. They appear to be just a list of topics, no detailed sentences.

There will be times in his presidency where he will have to speak from a script, especially in matters pertaining to foreign affairs.

I agree; and most presidents have a chief political officer and a chief of protocol to give this advice; and certainly the Secretary of State will have access to make demands based on sound reasoning.

The thing about successful dynamic people like Trump is that they remain open to constant learning. This makes others skeptical of them because they may change positions on some issues as they gather new information based on their priorities. But we need a certain degree of flexibility on issues. I think his core is pretty solid, and he presents his bedrock issues not as a rigid reverence for the past, but more in line with his thinking as a builder. Some things are foundational, some are support beams, and others are more amenable to renovation as "building codes" change. Still other entities are for branding purposes, etc. I think he has a pretty good idea of the traditional American brand, and can clearly see that the Obama/Clinton brand is not working for our survival in the ISIS/Putin/China marketplace.