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PORTRAITS OF INFLUENCE
In hIs thIrd year as PresIdent, donald J. trumP PhysIcally
walked into North Korea. He declared a national emergency for the
U.S. border with Mexico. He recognized the disputed Golan Heights
as a sovereign part of Israel. For any previous residents of 1600 Penn-
sylvania Avenue, one of these developments—unprecedented and
historic—might have defined their presidency. For the 45th, they
amounted to bullet points.
As America’s least orthodox Chief Executive rounds the corner
into an election year, he is polishing his list of achievements. Trump
has used the power of his office to roll back regulations, drive through
a corporate tax cut and boost military spending. He takes credit for
supercharging an economy that’s driven unemployment to record
lows. He has also continued an uncharacteristically disciplined ef-
fort to reshape America’s federal courts, using Republican control of
the Senate to appoint conservative judges who will define the laws
of the land for a generation.
And yet the Trump presidency may well pivot on his forays into
a world that typically interests him the way a shop window does—in
passing and for his reflection in it. The year began, after all, in sus-
pense over special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Rus-
sia’s actions to help Trump’s 2016 campaign. The dense final report
was, in its detail, damning: Mueller presented at least 10 times the
President may have attempted to obstruct the probe, a criminal of-
fense. But Trump claimed “complete exoneration” on the marquee
allegation, that he had sought assistance from a foreign power on his
effort to win election. And then, the day after Mueller testified on
Capitol Hill, Trump telephoned the leader of another foreign coun-
try, Ukraine, and sought assistance on his effort to win re-election by
investigating Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son. Thus did the
year draw to a close with the U.S. House of Representatives prepar-
ing articles of impeachment that, even if voted down in the Senate,
will define Trump in history. The question is: Will that matter in the
realms the incumbent values most? There is still no person whom
taxi drivers, news anchors, hairstylists, foreign leaders and voters
talk about more. And for Trump, that may be enough.
DONALD
TRUMP
President of the United States
BY BRIAN BENNETT
ILLUSTR ATION BY GRZEGORZ DOMAR ADZKI FOR TIME
