The New York Times - USA (2020-10-25)

THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALSUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 N 29

Election

FRANKLIN, Wis. — President
Trump had just been on “Fox and
Friends,” demanding that his at-
torney general “act” against his
opponent before the election. He
had, the day before, called Joseph
R. Biden Jr. a “criminal,” Dr. An-
thony S. Fauci a “disaster,” gov-
ernment scientists “idiots” and
members of the media “real
garbage.”
Ivanka Trump, meanwhile, was
visiting suburban Milwaukee and
here for none of this.
“I learned that the first ice
cream sundae was created in this
amazing state!” the president’s
older daughter and senior White
House adviser said from a small
stage of a sunlit function room
overlooking a pond.
There would be no mentions of
Hunter Biden in here, no refer-
ence to Hillary Clinton, “Barack
Hussein Obama,” “China Virus,”
witch hunts, fake news, antifa or
rigged elections.
Instead, the first daughter
came armed with local fun facts
and pleasing asides. She skipped
the Trump-branded red meat and
went straight to dessert.
“Wisconsinites eat 21 million
gallons of ice cream a year,” Ms.
Trump shared as an icebreaker.
She likes to collect souvenir trivia
like this from the road, which she
will then serve up at home as cool
mom fodder.
“My children, upon hearing
this, want to move to Wisconsin,”
she continued. “So, the Kushners
might be coming to town!”
The crowd was heavy with the
just the kind of white, suburban fe-
male voters who have become her
father’s demographic kryptonite.
They have been fleeing his coali-
tion with such abandon that he
has recently been reduced to beg-
ging. “Suburban women, will you
please like me?” the president
pleaded at a rally in Pennsylvania
this month.
By wide margins, they do not,
especially the white suburban
voters who went for Mr. Trump
last time. A remarkable 56 percent
of white women said they held a
very unfavorable view of the pres-
ident in a New York Times/Siena
College poll. These include many
independents and former Repub-
licans who self-identify as moder-
ate or conservative and are likely
to be put off by the president’s
more boorish inclinations.
As much as it’s possible, the
Trump campaign is trying to de-
ploy the first daughter as a demo-
graphic paratrooper targeting at-
risk women of the changing sub-
urbs.
Speaking to a gathering in the

wooded outskirts of Milwaukee —

a polite, professionally dressed

and economically comfortable

group — she focused more on

points of friendly consensus (who

doesn’t love ice cream?) and

seemed determined to offer a

stark departure, at least rheto-

rically, from the tornado of griev-

ance and belligerence that has

marked so much of her father’s

campaign.

She was happy to leave that to

her father and brothers. Eric

Trump did a raucous, partially

masked rally in the packed base-

ment of a bowling alley here last

week. Later, Donald Trump Jr.

would appear on Fox News and

link Hunter Biden, Joseph R. Bi-

den Jr.’s son, to “human traffick-

ing and prostitution rings.” Sena-

tor Ron Johnson, Republican of

Wisconsin, told a Trump rally in

Janesville last weekend that sup-

porters of Mr. Biden “don’t partic-

ularly love America.”

Wisconsin is home to both the

fierce devotion and revulsion that

has burned for Mr. Trump from

the outset. It is as hotly contested

and divided as any state. The dis-

cord has even extended to the

stars of “Happy Days” — set in the

Milwaukee suburbs of the 1950s.

Ron Howard (who played Richie

Cunningham), Henry Winkler

(Fonzie) and other alums of the

show joined a “virtual reunion” of

the cast to raise money for Demo-

crats. But Chachi was not cool

with this at all.

“What a shame to use a classic

show like Happy Days about

Americana to promote an anti-

American socialist,” tweeted Scott

Baio, a vocal Trump supporter

who played Fonzie’s apprentice

cousin on the beloved sitcom.

It is not clear that any safe zone

is possible inside the Trump enter-

prise, given the president’s all-

consuming personality and the

commotion of his presidency.

“The first family, including the

president, are all going to have dif-

ferent styles,” explained Mer-

cedes Schlapp, a former White

House official and campaign sur-

rogate who asked questions of Ms.

Trump onstage during her ap-

pearance in Franklin. “It’s impor-

tant to talk about what the presi-

dent has done for this country in a

short period of time,” Ms. Schlapp

said in an interview. “It’s impor-

tant not to get lost in the noise that

so much of the mainstream media

is wrapped up in.”

Ms. Schlapp was asked whether

President Trump himself was re-

sponsible for creating some of that

noise.

“Look,” Ms. Schlapp said,

chuckling, “The president

punches when he needs to punch.”

His daughter has her own story to

tell, and her own way of telling it.

Still, a surrogate can stray only

so far from a campaign’s domi-

nant message and messenger. Ms.

Trump could speak with endless

poise about all the important

lessons her father instilled (“Find

something you’re passionate

about, because that’s the path to

happiness”). She could focus on

suburban parenting concerns

such as school choice and educa-

tion reform, and lament “the loss

of social interaction for our kids”

during the coronavirus outbreak.

She could avoid any talk of immi-

gration, caravans, walls or family

separation.

But, later in the day came a re-

port that the parents of 545 chil-

dren who had been separated

from them at the southern border

could not be located.

“On the one hand, a president’s

family member can offer a soft-

ening and humanizing touch,”

said Gil Troy, a presidential histo-

rian who has written extensively

on first families. In such a polar-

ized and binary environment, he

added, Ms. Trump can still offer

some measure of reassurance for

Republicans who do not like her

father but who would be loath to

support Mr. Biden. “Ivanka can

still be proof that is ‘See, he’s not

that bad,’ ” Mr. Troy said. “She is

trying to be some port in the

storm.”

At a certain point, though, the

contrast becomes too stark. “It be-

comes almost a countercampaign

rather than a supporting one,” he

said.

And while Ms. Trump may

avoid the vitriolic language of her

father and brothers, she has been

connected to policies and actions

that critics find just as distasteful

or ill-advised. She was, reportedly,

a proponent of her father’s march

across Lafayette Square last

spring during protests against ra-

cial injustice, culminating in a Bi-

ble-waving photo-op in front of the

fire-damaged St. John’s Church.

The widely derided performance

stands as one of the most notori-

ous spectacles of Mr. Trump’s

presidency.

She has shown a knack for

oblivious, tone-deaf gestures:

drawing backlash, for instance, af-

ter she tweeted a photo of herself

cuddling her 2-year-old son amid

reports of migrant children being

forcibly taken from their mothers

by border agents. Ms. Trump’s of-

ficial position at the White House

— along with that of her husband,

Jared Kushner — has brought a

host of criticism over nepotism

and potential Hatch Act vio-

lations.

As perhaps the president’s

most influential aide, his daughter

tends to be studiously quiet in

public, even over policies she is

believed to personally oppose.

She inspired a spoof perfume com-

mercial on “Saturday Night Live”

— a fragrance called Complicit.

(“She’s beautiful. She’s powerful.

She’s complicit.” )

On the re-election trail, Ms.

Trump is offering a campaign ver-

sion of daytime TV.

“It’s a breath of fresh air to hear

that positive tone,” said Joe Krupa

of Franklin through a navy blue,

MAGA-emblazoned mask. “I’m

really sick of all the Debbie Down-

ers and the negativity,” he said. To

be clear, Mr. Krupa said he blamed

this negativity on the rampant

“hatred for Trump” that exists

from Democrats and the biased

media. Hunter Biden’s work for a

Ukrainian energy company, he

added, “should be an even bigger

scandal than Watergate.” Mr.

Krupa seemed to be getting

slightly worked up for a second

but stopped himself — as if this

was not the right vibe for the

Ivanka Hour.

“It’s more of the boys’ role to

talk about Hunter Biden and all of

the other stuff that’s wrong with

Joe Biden,” said Mr. Krupa’s

friend, Lois Dombrowski of Cale-

donia, another Milwaukee sub-

urb.

In her remarks, Ms. Trump

spoke of her father’s willingness

to look beyond party orthodoxy

and support creative solutions:

One local example involved an ini-

tiative to help Wisconsin farmers

whose goods were shut off from

supply chains after the coronavi-

rus hit. “Farmers were literally

taking this beautiful milk and

pouring it down the drain,” Ms.

Trump said.

“Why do you do what you do ev-

ery day?” Ms. Schlapp asked the

first daughter. How does she en-

dure all the incoming — all the at-

tacks, biases, hatreds and all she

had to deal with?

In short, Ms. Trump said she

does what she does for the same

reason her father does what he

does — for love.

As Trump Fumes at ‘Idiot’ Scientists, First Daughter Talks Sundaes

By MARK LEIBOVICH

Mercedes Schlapp, a former White House official and campaign surrogate, moderated Ivanka Trump’s discussion in Franklin, Wis.

RICK WOOD/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL-SENTINEL, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Throughout
the long corridors of the Penta-
gon, Defense Secretary Mark T.
Esper is widely seen as a dead
man walking.
There is a broad consensus that
if President Trump defies the polls
and wins re-election, the presi-
dent has so belittled his defense
secretary, referring to him as
“Yesper” and deriding him both
publicly and privately, that a new
defense secretary soon would be
sitting in the prestigious outer
ring of the Pentagon’s third floor.
Asked if he has considered fir-
ing Mr. Esper, who took over the
post in July 2019, Mr. Trump told
reporters at a White House news
conference in August: “I consider
firing everybody. At some point,
that’s what happens.”
Current polling favors former
Vice President Joseph R. Biden
Jr., but the sunset of the Trump ad-
ministration is hardly a foregone
conclusion. If Mr. Trump is re-
elected and fires Mr. Esper, the
president will be looking at his
third nomination for defense sec-
retary.
To be sure, senior officials in the
waning months of any administra-
tion always scramble to position
themselves to move up if their
bosses win or move on to corpo-
rate or think-tank life if they lose.
But in the case of Mr. Esper, a
looming departure feels more as-
sured, even when measured by an
administration where officials
have come and gone at a brisk
pace.
Aides have bandied about pos-
sible replacements such as Sena-
tor Tom Cotton, Republican of Ar-
kansas, retired Army Gen. Jack
Keane and the current Army sec-
retary, Ryan McCarthy. While Mr.
Cotton shares Mr. Trump’s law
and order views, Mr. McCarthy, a
former Army Ranger, has already
clashed with Mr. Trump over the
issue of military bases named af-
ter Confederate generals.
Air Force Secretary Barbara M.
Barrett is also mentioned as a pos-
sible successor. And if either Sena-
tor Martha McSally of Arizona or
Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, both
Republicans and military veter-
ans, lose their tightly contested
campaigns, one of them could land

in the Pentagon’s top job.

And there is always chatter that

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a

West Point graduate and former

tank commander who peppers his

conversations with military terms

like “mission set” and calls Ameri-

can diplomats “warriors,” could

slide over to take the helm of the

Pentagon.

They all would be cognizant

that Mr. Trump’s defense secre-

taries have had a short half-life.

Mr. Trump’s reference to Mr.

Esper as “Mr. Yesper” is ironic by

itself, since it was the defense sec-

retary’s public break with the

president in a June 3 news confer-

ence in which he spoke against

use of active-duty American

troops to quell civil unrest that in-

furiated Mr. Trump to begin with.

Mr. Esper’s surprise break with

the president came after he had

accompanied Mr. Trump on his fa-

mous walk across Lafayette

Square outside the White House,

where protesters had just been

tear-gassed, sparking condemna-

tion from former military and ci-

vilian Defense Department offi-

cials.

Deploying active-duty troops in

a domestic law enforcement role,

Mr. Esper said at the Pentagon

news conference, “should only be

used as a matter of last resort and

only in the most urgent and dire of

situations.”

In seeking to right the ship by

publicly distancing himself from

the president’s expressed desire

to invoke the Insurrection Act to

deploy troops in America’s cities,

Mr. Esper practically signed his

own walking papers. Senior ad-

ministration officials talked Mr.

Trump out of firing Mr. Esper

then, but both White House and

Defense Department officials say

that Mr. Esper’s stay of execution

is good only through Election Day.

The defense secretary is hardly

the only senior member of the

Trump administration to come un-

der fire from their boss. In recent

weeks, the president said Attor-

ney General William P. Barr

would be responsible for “a very

sad, sad situation” if he did not in-

dict Democrats like Mr. Biden and

former President Barack Obama.

Mr. Trump castigated Christopher

A. Wray, the F.B.I. director., say-

ing, “He’s been disappointing.”

And the president even criticized

Mr. Pompeo for not releasing Hil-

lary Clinton’s emails — although

the State Department has made

public a large number of those

messages in redacted form.

But, among them, Mr. Esper al-

ready appears to be looking for a

soft landing. An article earlier this

month on the wonky Defense One

news site reads like a post on a

dating app, listing Mr. Esper’s

sterling qualities and accomplish-

ments as he “valiantly” battled a

sprawling, entrenched bureaucra-

cy and tried to drag it into a fast-

moving world.

The defense secretary “has ac-

complished much of what he set

out to do behind the scenes and

without much fanfare,” said the

article, written by a fellow at a

conservative Washington think

tank. The essay went on to extol

Mr. Esper’s “serious efforts to bet-

ter align dollars with strategy”

and his moves to put “like-minded

thinkers in charge.”

“While all of this was going on,”

the article concludes, Mr. Esper

“oversaw the standing up of a new

military service in the Space

Force and managed a global pan-

demic response operation by the

Defense Department involving

more than 60,000 uniformed and

civilian personnel during the

same time as U.S. service mem-

bers were ‘serving in more than

100 nations deterring enemies, re-

assuring allies and building capa-

bilities.’ ”

Inside the Pentagon, the article

landed with all the force of a dud

bomb. One Defense Department

official likened it to a job applica-

tion, part of an effort to help Mr.

Esper find suitable post-govern-

ment employment should his boss

fire him, as the president has told

aides he would like to do.

“Throughout his career in uni-

form and as a civilian leader, Sec-

retary Esper has always been and

remains committed to doing what

is best for the military and the na-

tion,” Jonathan Hoffman, Mr. Es-

per’s spokesman, said in an email

when asked to comment for this

article.

On the single biggest issue of

2020 — the coronavirus pandemic

— history may show that Mr. Es-

per has, by far, outperformed his

boss, who largely refused to wear

a mask and contracted coronavi-

rus. Mr. Esper, by contrast, has

strictly adhered to Centers for

Disease Control guidelines on

wearing masks when not able to

keep a recommended social dis-

tance.

At a recent Pentagon virtual

town-hall-style meeting, Mr. Es-

per responded to a sailor on the

aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford,

who complained the required so-

cial distancing onboard the ship

was hurting morale.

“It is tedious — I understand

that,” Mr. Esper said. “But I think

it’s showing, in terms of the

Navy’s results in terms of infec-

tion rates, that they’re doing a

very good job.”

Since the pandemic began,

there have been nine military

deaths from Covid-19 out of a total

troop population of more than 2.2

million in the active-duty force,

National Guard and Reserves.

But since the fateful events of

early June, Mr. Esper has flown

under the radar, avoiding the me-

dia and keeping a low profile to

prevent being pulled into election

politics. So the Defense One arti-

cle on his accomplishments, writ-

ten by American Enterprise Insti-

tute resident fellow Mackenzie

Eaglen, stood out. But while the

piece raised eyebrows inside the

Pentagon, official Washington re-

acted with a shrug.

“It’s kind of a Beltway rite of

passage for soon-to-be ex-officials

to get their various fans on the

outside to write glowing reviews

of all of the ‘great’ things they’ve

done just as the needle is about to

drop for the next round of musical

chairs in D.C.,” said Brian Katulis,

a senior fellow at the Center for

American Progress. “It happens

like clockwork as the sun starts to

set for every administration — I

could point you to the pieces in the

last years of the Obama and Bush

administrations.”

Whatever the case, aides to the

president say a second Trump

term almost certainly would not

include Mr. Esper. Two Pentagon

officials said that is fine with Mr.

Esper, a West Point classmate of

Mr. Pompeo who once served in

the 101st Airborne Division before

becoming a top congressional

aide and then a lobbyist for the

military contractor Raytheon.

Mr. Esper, 56, replaced Jim Mat-

tis, who resigned in December

2018 during a dispute over pulling

American troops out of Syria.

The defense secretary has been

traveling constantly since early

summer and he leaves next week

for a trip to India.

Mr. Esper hasn’t spoken to the

traveling news media on his past

several trips, which is highly un-

usual. When he has spoken pub-

licly, it’s often been in prerecorded

remarks, on safe subjects (bash-

ing China and Russia on a recent

Africa trip) or in friendly venues

(a question-and-answer session

on military readiness at the Her-

itage Foundation, where Mr. Es-

per served as chief of staff earlier

in his career).

“Together we continue to

counter the malign, coercive and

predatory behavior of Beijing and

Moscow, meant to undermine Af-

rican institutions, erode national

sovereignty, create instability, and

exploit resources throughout the

region,” Mr. Esper said during a

speech at the American Battle

Monuments Cemetery in Tunisia

last month.

Friends and colleagues say Mr.

Esper has dealt with a mercurial

commander in chief and the tur-

moil of the Trump administration

as well as could be expected.

“He’s trying hard to stay off the

ridgeline,” said James G.

Stavridis, a retired four-star admi-

ral and former Supreme Allied

Commander for Europe, in an

email. “But it’s hard with a presi-

dent 100 percent focused on win-

ning re-election no matter the

damage to policy and interna-

tional security, from Iraq to Af-

ghanistan to the Korean Peninsu-

la.”

Mr. Esper “knows his days are

numbered, either by his own hand

or others,” said Raymond F. Du-

Bois, a former senior Army and

Defense Department official in

the George W. Bush administra-

tion, who has known Mr. Esper for

nearly two decades. “Therefore

there is little utility in being any-

thing other than the ‘quiet’ secre-

tary.”

Awaiting Term’s End, Defense Secretary Is Already Acting Like an Ex-Official

By HELENE COOPER

and ERIC SCHMITT

The president has derided Mark T. Esper, the defense secretary,

both publicly and privately by referring to him as ‘Yesper.’

ANNA MONEYMAKER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

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