IPFS Menckens Ghost

More About: Politics: Republican Campaigns

Is Trump the Next FDR?

Donald Trump and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) have some striking similarities.

Don't laugh.  Don't hang up on me.  I'm serious.

Yes, there are marked differences between Trump and FDR.  For example, unlike Trump, FDR had patrician manners and a gentlemanly demeanor, was a political insider, and had prior political experience before running for president.  But these differences don't matter. 

What matters are the similarities.

FDR hailed from New York and had inherited wealth, as does Trump.  But these aren't the important similarities.  The important ones are as follows.

First, FDR connected on an emotional level to the white working man, or more accurately, the unemployed man during the Great Depression.  The same with Trump today.

Second, FDR was a master of the broadcast media of his time, the radio, just as Trump is a master of television today.

Third, in spite of being an Ivy Leaguer, FDR wasn't a great intellect but had remarkable intuition and instincts.  The same with Trump.

Fourth, FDR wasn't an ideologue, in the sense that he didn't have a clear set of political principles.  As a result, he had both capitalists and communists in his administration.  This is not to suggest that Trump would have communists in his administration, but given his similar lack of political principles, he probably would have conservatives and liberals in his administration.

Fifth, FDR was essentially an illiterate in economics, just as Trump seems to be.  FDR implemented a smorgasbord of economic programs, some of which were unconstitutional, but all of which in totality protracted the depression.  Likewise, Trump's economics are inchoate, contradictory, and potentially harmful.

Sixth, Trump apparently would emulate FDR in using tariffs and other trade restrictions for nationalistic purposes and foreign policy objectives.  In FDR's case, his embargo of certain critical resources to Japan triggered the attack on Pearl Harbor.  This is not to imply that Trump would trigger an armed conflict, but it is to suggest that he could trigger a trade war.

Seventh, FDR, as with Trump, had nativist feelings about immigration, although he didn't express them as forcefully and publicly as Trump does.  In particular, FDR wasn't keen about Asian and Jewish emigrants.  Regarding Jews, FDR supported quotas on the number of Jewish students at Harvard, wanted Jews dispersed throughout the country so they wouldn't concentrate in a few locales, and of course severed the lifeline for Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany.  Later, after Pearl Harbor, he sent Japanese Americans to internment camps and restricted the immigration of Germans and Italians.  By contrast but in a similar vein, Trump's focus is on Hispanics and Muslims.

Yet in spite of the foregoing mistakes and flaws of FDR, academics and the media rank him as one of the greatest presidents, a reflection, in my opinion, of their biases.  (My biases lead me to rank Tyler and Coolidge among the greatest presidents.)   

Which brings me to a big difference between FDR and Trump, if Trump were to be elected:  Academics and the media won't overlook Trump's mistakes and flaws, as they did with FDR. 


Agorist Hosting