In the latest poll, Donald Trump leads the pack of announced Republican presidential candidates. This should surprise no one, least of all his Republican challengers. The Republican Party created the water in which Trump swims, much as it spawned the Tea Party which it now sometimes regrets. Trump was, the last time around, the poster child for the "birther" movement that challenged candidate Obama's citizenship, a movement that many Republican leaders silently cheered while publicly maintaining their polite distance. And now, the party that killed a bipartisan Senate immigration bill by preventing debate on it in the House has spawned a candidate who criticizes the government for its lack of an effective immigration policy.
For the last seven years, the anti-government, anti-immigrant, and anti-gay marriage statements of many leading Republicans - and their opposition as a matter of partisan politics to almost every presidential policy - have fostered a climate that encourages people such as Trump to use inflated rhetoric and not even bother with specific positions and plans that can be analyzed and debated. Interestingly, Trump's official candidate website offers no details on what he would do if actually elected. It is, rather, a celebration of his biography and positive press. Presumably, being for jobs and a great America and also being a wealthy man are sufficient qualifications. That, and of course, his anger at illegal immigration, gun control, vaccinations, abortion, gay marriage, and climate science.
Trump does have deep experience in business. Indeed, he extols the benefits of free markets in everything from international trade to health care, though the details of how such a lower taxed, de-regulated economy would be created have not been given. Nor has he felt any need to explain how his own use of tax breaks and the use of bankruptcy protection for four of his own failed businesses square with his call for free-market capitalism.
Trump also believes in the power of individual initiative, citing his own success. The fact that he was the child of a real estate developer, attended a private school, and took over the family business should not be held against him in any way, but neither should they relieve him of explaining how Americans without those built-in advantages can be helped to make something of themselves.
It is pretty early in the campaign cycle, so we may cut Trump some slack and trust that, if he continues to be a viable candidate, he will get more specific in ways that lend themselves to reasonable analysis and debate. This is the standard we should have for all candidates. Invective and wild promises without plans are not unique to his candidacy, and we should be skeptical of any candidate whose platform consists primarily of shouting from a platform.
Yet one thing about Trump does not appear likely to change. In a recent interview, speaking about himself, he said that" "They see somebody who's going to turn the country around -- somebody who has the ability to turn this country around. They're tired of the incompetence. When you see my [financial] statement, you'll be very impressed. That's why it's important. Let's say I was worth $10. People would say, "Who the [expletive] are you?" You understand? They know my statement. Fortune. My book, "The Art of the Deal," based on my fortune. If I didn't make a fortune, who the [expletive] is going to buy "The Art of the Deal"? That's why they watched "The Apprentice," because of my great success." Count the number of times he used "I" and "my" in that statement. Leadership is based on "we." Getting things through Congress, leading the Executive Branch, and working internationally are collective endeavors, for which a dose of humility rather than an overdose of hubris comes in handy.