I’ve always thought President-elect Donald Trump had at least a shot to win the General Election (as this video from way back on May 4, 2016 demonstrates). I also always thought he had a chance of being a very good president. It’s just that there was a huge range; Trump was always a high-risk, high-reward gamble that I wasn’t willing to take.
It turns out a lot of people who felt they had nothing to lose (or that the alternative was even worse) were willing to take that gamble. And it might pay off. President Trump could morph from playing a fictional campaign character into being a very good president. Just by observing his body language since his big win, I believe he might be a much more responsible executive than he was a candidate.
Don’t get me wrong; he will likely never be a great conservative in the vein of a Ronald Reagan. But he could get things done, keep us safe, and restore confidence in America—and that’s not too shabby, all things considered. He also might make several very good lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court, which, again, would be yuge.
Now, during the campaign, the argument that his campaign schtick would give way to a kinder, gentler statesmanlike presidency felt like a Pollyanna-ish notion to me. I don’t base my vote on the hope that someone will change. But the campaign is over. Now that he is the President-elect, I’m bitterly clinging to that hope. If and when Donald Trump deserves it, I will still criticize him. But I’m also rooting for his success. And you should be, too.