The Washington Post - 20.10.2019

P

resident Trump has described the impeachment

proceedings as a “coup,” and his White House

counsel has termed them “unconstitutional.” This

would come as a surprise to Alexander Hamilton,

who wrote not only the 11 essays in “The Federal-

ist” outlining and defending the powers of the presidency,

but also the two essays devoted to impeachment.

There seems little doubt, given his writings on the

presidency, that Hamilton would have been aghast at

Trump’s behavior and appalled by his invitation to foreign

actors to meddle in our elections. As a result, he would

most certainly have endorsed the current impeachment

inquiry. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Trump embod-

ies Hamilton’s worst fears about the kind of person who

might someday head the government.

Among our founders, Hamilton’s views count heavily

because he was the foremost proponent of a robust

presidency, yet he also harbored an abiding fear that a

brazen demagogue could seize the office. That worry helps

to explain why he analyzed impeachment in such detail: He

viewed it as a crucial instrument to curb possible abuses

arising from the enlarged powers he otherwise champi-

oned.

Unlike Thomas Jefferson, with his sunny faith in the

common sense of the people, Hamilton emphasized

their “turbulent and changing” nature and worried about a

“restless” and “daring usurper” who would excite the “jeal-

ousies and apprehensions” of his followers. He t hought the

country should be governed by wise and illustrious figures

SEE HAMILTON ON B4

I

n April 201 6, on the verge of

securing the Republican

nomination for president,

Donald Trump announced

that his “campaign is evolving

and transitioning, and so am I.”

At a rally around the same time,

he told supporters that “at some

point, I’m going to be so presi-

dential that you people will be so

bored,” but “I just don’t know

that I wanted to do it quite yet.”

When Trump was elected,

some critics held out hope that

he would grow in office, as other

presidents have. No one believes

that’s possible anymore. After

Mick Mulvaney took over as

Trump’s third chief of staff last

December, he let it be known

that his approach would be to

“let Trump be Trump.” Mulvaney

was simply succumbing to reali-

ty. As Trump himself has said, he

SEE BEHAVIOR ON B3

Why Trump

can’t change

his behavior

Hamilton pushed for impeachment powers.

Tr ump is what he had in mind.

He wanted a strong president — and a way to get rid

of the demagogic ones, says biographer Ron Chernow

PEP MONTSERRAT FOR THE WASHINGTON POST; ISTOCK

Book review

by Elizabeth Bruenig

W

hile political unrest roils

the nation, left and right

unite over a shared

sense that nefarious elites are

plotting to abuse and exploit us,

their lessers. It is easy to dismiss

these anxieties as delusional,

th eir hosts as paranoiacs. But the

trouble — and the great revela-

tion of Ronan Farrow’s book

“Catch and Kill” — is that the

conspiracy theorists are essen-

tially correct.

Farrow’s dark memoir of the

era when he helped unearth the

abuses of Harvey Weinstein un-

folds like a classic noir. He opens

on a suspicious conversation be-

tween a pair of criminals and

then whisks the reader into his

own world as it was then —

surprisingly bleak and mottled

with disappointment. Farrow de-

picts himself as an outsider, de-

moralized by the failure of his

short-lived MSNBC program,

SEE FARROW ON B5

Uncovering a

conspiracy to

hide abusers

INSIDE OUTLOOK

No, vaping is not more

harmful than cigarettes. B3

Did the whistleblower have

a vendetta? So what? B4

INSIDE BOOK WORLD

Why is it so hard to think

about the future? B6

To stop climate change,

just change everything. B7

KLMNO

Outlook

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2019. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/OPINIONS EZ BD B

Trump still wants to govern in reality TV moments

He’s too self-absorbed,

says his former co-

author, Tony Schwartz

But the cast is starting to ignore his

directions, says cultural critic Lucas Mann

I

t has always been appealing to talk about Donald

Trump as the reality television president. For all

his documented racism, and despite the m any accusa-

tions of sexual assault, no jab at his unfitness for the

job has seemed more ubiquitous than the reminder

that he was previously famous as the guy who fired Cyndi

Lauper on the tacky boardroom set of “The Celebrity

Apprentice.” I t’s a dynamic that was palpable this past week,

when Trump i nvited t he parents o f Harry Dunn, the 1 9-year-

old Brit killed in a traffic accident by American diplomatic

wife Anne Sacoolas, t o the White H ouse. Without telling the

grieving parents beforehand, he had Sacoolas waiting in the

next room for a surprise emotional catharsis, to be played

out in f ront of cameras ready to c apture the moment.

This is the ultimate old-school reality TV idea, recogniz-

able to anyone who has ever indulged. It’s mid-’90s, day-

time-trash gold — that box in the c orner of the s creen where

we see a guy’s girlfriend waiting to burst onto the set and

confront him for sleeping with her sister. It’s that moment

on a “Real Housewives” reunion episode when a minor

character is trotted out just to catch one of the stars in a lie.

Since Trump clearly was looking to sell reconciliation, not

conflict, my mind went to a more contemporary example

from the most recent season of “Queer Eye,” when Karamo,

the near-caricaturishly kind and sincere lifestyle adviser,

brings the man he’s making over to a restaurant for a

surprise. The guy who shot h im and p ut him in a wheelchair

SEE TV ON B2