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Make America Great Again: Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump

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The Trump Presidency

Part of the book series: The Evolving American Presidency ((EAP))

Abstract

This chapter will show how Reagan’s prior experience in government and cogent ideological convictions enabled him to make more rapid progress in his first year than the inexperienced and un-ideological Trump in setting the core agenda of his administration, appointing key personnel to deliver his vision and winning the big political battles over his taxation and spending programmes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Karen Tumulty, ‘How Donald Trump Came up with “Make America Great Again,”’ Washington Post, 18 January 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-donald-trump-came-up-with-make-america-great-again/2017/01/17/fb6acf5e-dbf7-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?postshare=831484737469175&utm_term=.317b73a9d4f4.

  2. 2.

    Robert Collins, More: The Politics of Economic Growth in Postwar America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 179–97.

  3. 3.

    Robert Gates, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won theCold War (New York: Touchstone, 1996), p. 194.

  4. 4.

    Elizabeth Drew, ‘1980: Reagan,’ The New Yorker, 24 March 1980, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1980/03/24/1980-reagan; Iwan Morgan, Reagan: American Icon (London: Tauris, 2016), pp. 127–30.

  5. 5.

    Hugh Heclo ‘Ronald Reagan and the American Public Philosophy,’ in W. Elliot Brownlee and Hugh Davis Graham, eds., The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003), pp. 17–39.

  6. 6.

    Martin Anderson, Revolution (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), pp. 111–21; Ronald Reagan, ‘Address at Commencement Exercises at the University of Notre Dame,’ 17 May 1981, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project [Henceforth APP], http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=43825.

  7. 7.

    ‘America First and Last,’ The Economist, 4 February 2017, pp. 17–18.

  8. 8.

    Tumulty, ‘Trump’; Donald J. Trump, ‘Inaugural Address,’ APP, 20 January 2017, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=120000.

  9. 9.

    Edwin Meese, With Reagan: The Inside Story (Washington, DC: Regnery Press, 1993), pp. 57–59; James Pfiffner, ‘The Paradox of President Reagan’s Leadership,’ Presidential Studies Quarterly, 43 (March 2013), 82–84.

  10. 10.

    Patrick Allitt, A Climate of Crisis: America in the Age of Environmentalism (New York: Penguin, 2014), pp. 161–65.

  11. 11.

    Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries [Henceforth RD], ed. Douglas Brinkley (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 88 (14 June 1982).

  12. 12.

    Morgan, Reagan, pp. 154–56.

  13. 13.

    Juliet Elperin, Lisa Rein, and Marc Fisher, ‘Resistance from Within: Federal Workers Push Back Against Trump,’ Washington Post, 31 January 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/resistance-from-within-federal-workers-push-back-against-trump/2017/01/31/c65b110e-e7cb-11e6-b82f-687d6e6a3e7c_story.html?utm_term=.34c25d4eb405.

  14. 14.

    ‘Hundreds of Top Government Jobs Under Trump are Unfilled. So Whose Running Things?’ PBS News Hour, 29 January 2018 [Lisa Desjardins Transcript], https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/hundreds-of-top-government-jobs-under-trump-are-unfilled-so-whos-running-things.

  15. 15.

    ‘Counsel of Warriors: Donald Trump’s Generals Cannot Control Him,’ The Economist, 9 November 2017, https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21731112-americas-president-loves-men-uniform-and-they-often-give-him-sound-advice-it-mr; Greg Jaffe and Missy Ryan, ‘Trump’s Favourite General: Can Mattis Check an Impulsive President and Still Retain His Trust,’ Washington Post, 7 February 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/can-jim-mattis-check-an-impulsive-president-and-still-retain-his-trust/2018/02/07/289297a2-0814-11e8-8777-2a059f168dd2_story.html?utm_term=.eed66d97be5a.

  16. 16.

    Fred Greenstein, The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to Clinton (New York: Free Press, 2000), p. 156.

  17. 17.

    James Baker, Work Hard, Study … and Keep Out of Politics! Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Life (New York: Putnam’s, 2006), pp. 122–41; David Cohen, ‘From the Fabulous Baker Boys to the Master of Disaster: The White House Chief of Staff in the Reagan and G. H. W. Bush Administrations,’ Presidential Studies Quarterly, 32 (September 2002), 463–83.

  18. 18.

    David Stockman, The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), pp. 269–99; Richard Darman, Who’s in Control? Polar Politics and the Sensible Center (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), pp. 93–97.

  19. 19.

    Fareed Zakaria, ‘The Problem with Trump as CEO of America: Government Is Not a Business,’ Washington Post, 5 May 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-problem-with-trump-as-ceo-of-america-government-is-not-a-business/2016/05/05/146cc1a0-12f5-11e6-8967-7ac733c56f12_story.html?utm_term=.bb10fffa583c; James Pfiffner, ‘The Unusual Presidency of Donald Trump,’ Political Insight (September 2017), http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2041905817726890.

  20. 20.

    Josiah Ryan, ‘Why Did Trump Want to Meet Comey Alone? Senator Susan Collins Offers Theory,’ CNN Politics, 9 June 2017, https://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/09/politics/senator-new-theory-comey-cnntv/index.html; ‘Fallout over FBI Chief Comey Sacking,’ BBC News, 12 May 2017, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-39866259.

  21. 21.

    Larry Buchanan and Karen Yourish, ‘The Shifting Alliances and Rival Factions Inside Trump’s White House,’ New York Times, 14 April 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/14/us/politics/the-shifting-alliances-and-rival-factions-inside-trumps-west-wing-bannon-kushner.html.

  22. 22.

    Greg Price, ‘Trump Feels “Isolated” Following Chief of Staff John Kelly’s White House Moves, Gorka Says,’ Newsweek, 29 August 2017, http://www.newsweek.com/kelly-trump-isolated-gorka-white-house-656639; Stephen Collinson, ‘John Kelly’s Latest Blunder Is Protecting an Accused Abuser,’ CNN Politics, 8 February 2018, http://www.newsweek.com/kelly-trump-isolated-gorka-white-house-656639; Ezra Klein, ‘Why There’s so Much Chaos in the Trump Administration,’ Vox, 13 February 2018, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/13/17004108/.

  23. 23.

    Richard Neustadt, Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan (New York: Free Press, 1990), p. 269.

  24. 24.

    Jack Goldsmith, ‘Will Trump Destroy the Presidency?’ The Atlantic (October 2017), https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/will-donald-trump-destroy-the-presidency/537921/.

  25. 25.

    Neustadt, Presidential Power, pp. 29–90; ‘Resolved: Presidential Power Is (Still) the Power to Persuade,’—Pro: Matthew Dickinson; Con—George Edwards in Richard Ellis and Michael Nelson, eds., Debating the Presidency: Conflicting Perspectives on the American Presidency (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2014), pp. 117–42.

  26. 26.

    Ronald Reagan, An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), p. 233.

  27. 27.

    John Farrell, Tip O’Neill and the American Century (Boston: Little, Brown, 2001), p. 558; James Wright Diary, 29 July 1981, James Wright Papers, Texas Christian University.

  28. 28.

    Jonathan Bernstein, ‘The 1960 Book That Explains Why Trump Is a Failure,’ Bloomberg View, 16 August 2017, https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-08-16/the-1960-book-that-explains-why-trump-is-a-failure.

  29. 29.

    Chris Cillizza, ‘The Fallacy at the Heart of the Defense of Trump’s Tweeting,’ CNN Politics, 30 June 2017, https://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/30/politics/trump-twitter-polling/index.html; Paul Farhi, ‘Trump’s Bizarre Communications Strategy: Constantly Upstaging His Own Agenda,’ Washington Post, 28 July 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/trumps-bizarre-communications-strategy-constantly-upstaging-his-own-agenda/2017/07/27/29546ed0-72e2-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?

  30. 30.

    Ariel Edwards-Levy, ‘5 Things the Polls Show About Trump’s First Year,’ Huffington Post, 20 January 2018, http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/donald-trumps-first-year-polls_us_5a636231e4b0dc592a092bab.

  31. 31.

    White House Staff, Ronald Reagan’sInitial Actions Project (New York: Threshold, 2009), pp. 5–6; Reagan, American Life, p. 333.

  32. 32.

    Deroy Murdock, ‘Trump’s Gettysburg Address Overflows with Conservative Ideas,’ National Review, 26 October 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441458/donald-trumps-contract-american-voter-gettysburg-address.

  33. 33.

    Iwan Morgan, The Age of Deficits: Presidents and Unbalanced Budgets from Jimmy Carter to George W.Bush (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009), pp. 83–91; Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, The Reagan Revolution (New York: Dutton, 1981); Joseph McCartin, Collision Course:Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike That Changed America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).

  34. 34.

    NSC-1: The Caribbean Basin, Poland, 6 February 1981, in The Reagan Files: Documentary Collections: National Security Council and National Security Planning Group Meetings (Henceforth TRF: NSC), ed. Jason Saltoun-Ebin, http://www.thereaganfiles.com/; RD, 52 (1 December 1981).

  35. 35.

    Peter Schweizer, Reagan’s War: The Epic Story of His 40-Year Struggle and Final Triumph over Communism (New York: Doubleday, 2002), pp. 239–41; Morgan, Reagan, p. 205.

  36. 36.

    NSC-33: Poland, 21 December 1981, TRF-NSC.

  37. 37.

    ‘Executive Orders: Washington to Trump,’ APP, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php.

  38. 38.

    Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, ‘Trump Triumphant: A Consequential Lasting End to 2017,’ Axios, 20 December 2017, https://www.axios.com/trump-triumphant-a-consequential-lasting-end-to-2017-1515110718-ea7ba2db-4de6-4e39-8535-e9bde5fdf466.html.

  39. 39.

    Charlie Savage, ‘Trump Is Rapidly Reshaping the Judiciary. Here’s How,” New York Times, 11 November 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/us/politics/trump-judiciary-appeals-courts-conservatives.html? ‘Full-Court Press,’ The Economist, 13 January 2018, p. 34.

  40. 40.

    Ross Douthat, ‘A War Trump Won,’ New York Times, 16 December 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/opinion/sunday/war-trump-islamic-state.html.

  41. 41.

    Jesse Drucker and Alan Rappaport, ‘The Tax Bill’s Winners and Losers,’ New York Times, 16 December 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/business/the-winners-and-losers-in-the-tax-bill.html.

  42. 42.

    ‘The Great Experiment,’ The Economist, 10 February 2018, pp. 37–38; Robert Samuelson, ‘America’s Prudence Deficit,’ Real Clear Politics, 12 February 2018, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/02/12/americas_prudence_deficit_136239.html.

  43. 43.

    Iwan Morgan, ‘Monetary Metamorphosis: The Volcker Fed and Inflation,’ Journal of Policy History, 24 (October 2012), 546–71.

  44. 44.

    Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, ‘All Employees: Manufacturing,’ January 2018, https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MANEMP.

  45. 45.

    James Galbraith, The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014); Nicholas Kristoff, ‘Reagan, Obama and Inequality,’ New York Times, 22 January 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/22/opinion/nicholas-kristof-reagan-obama-and-inequality.html.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of the Americas, University College London, London, UK

    Iwan Morgan

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  1. Iwan Morgan
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Correspondence to Iwan Morgan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, UK

    Mara Oliva

  2. Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, UK

    Mark Shanahan

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Morgan, I. (2019). Make America Great Again: Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. In: Oliva, M., Shanahan, M. (eds) The Trump Presidency. The Evolving American Presidency. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96325-9_4

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