Michael Goodwin: Trump's unique talents make him a true leader – and have redefined what it means to be commander in chief

New York Post

15 hours ago

If you need a laugh, try to imagine Joe Biden or any recent president holding court in the way Donald Trump is doing it.
To double the laugh, try to imagine any of the current presidential wannabes sitting in the big chair in the Oval Office.
It's an impossible exercise because of how dramatically Trump is redefining what it means to be president of the United States.
His talents are vast and uniquely suited to the role he has created.
For the most recent and dramatic example, take Monday's historic meeting of European leaders about Russia's unrelenting invasion of Ukraine.
It was the kind of key event that, had it been held under past presidents or vice presidents, would have been smothered in formalities and endless bland statements.
Yet there was Trump, sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, facing the heads of major allies, including Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of NATO and the EU.
They were sitting in chairs, like so many students arrayed around their teacher.
Skeptics miss the point
The skeptics who scoff at Trump's gilding and redecorating of the Oval Office are missing the bigger and far more important aspect of what is happening there.
No. 47 is the greatest impresario ever to hold the office, and he is bringing the presidency, its majesty and his quirks, into homes in America and around the world in ways that are as refreshing as they are unprecedented.
Just as he remade the Republican Party into a diverse workers and middle-class party, Trump is creating new models and expectations for how presidents should conduct the public's business and carry out their duties.
Start with the media.
Including his first term but especially from the start of his second term, Trump has been the most accessible president ever.
If there's a question he hasn't answered, it's because the question hasn't been asked.
Because of how he lives out loud in front of the camera, never again will it be acceptable for a commander in chief to emerge from the Oval Office, read a canned speech from a teleprompter, take a few questions from pre-selected reporters, mumble incoherent answers, then shuffle off stage for a long nap.
Enough about Biden, but Trump has expanded the presidential footprint and captured public attention in ways that will play a role in shaping the conduct of his successors.
There is no way to turn back the clock, especially with the collapse of the media's credibility.
Trump's way of speaking directly to the public curbs the power of partisan gatekeepers to distort the news and his views, which is why he does it.
His broadcast of near-daily media availabilities, and a willingness to entertain loaded questions from people whose outlets have never had a good word to say about him, reflect an astonishing level of openness.
It can be raw, as he moves from being angry to being gracious and cracking a joke within minutes.
The effect is that, with his unparalleled bravado, a tireless work ethic and an instinct for hot takes, Trump is turning the White House into a giant television studio.
And the programming isn't limited to media questions.
Trump is also taking hugely important actions and explaining them in real time, allowing Americans everywhere to watch their president deliver on campaign promises, and explain why he is doing what's he doing.
Taking back DC
Last week, he used the cramped briefing room to reveal what he called 'a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse. This is Liberation Day in DC and we're going to take our capital back. We're taking it back.'
The federalizing of policing and the influx of National Guard troops were hailed by frightened residents and the beleaguered police union, and of course denounced by Democrats and their media mouthpieces.
A week later, the capital cleanup goes on, with some 500 arrests announced and nary an incident that would even remotely justify the scare-mongering predictions of a police-state roundup of the innocent.
The upshot is that Dems and media outlets again made fools of themselves by defending an indefensible level of violent crime, and the people who commit it.
It's a replay of how they denounced Trump for deporting violent illegal immigrants.
For sheer drama, it will be practically impossible to top the two events related to Ukraine.
Combined they form a two-part series about an issue of life and death and global importance.
It was last February when the president and Vice President JD Vance teamed up for a heated argument in the Oval Office against Zelensky over American aid to help thwart the Russian invasion.
Trump abruptly canceled a planned private meeting with Zelensky and booted him from the White House.
Fast forward to the upbeat harmony of Monday, when he and seven European leaders came to craft a united front in the search for peace.
It followed Trump's meeting last Friday with Russia's despot Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
The president hoped for a cease-fire, and the attention he invited backfired when he came away empty-handed.
Rosy view of Putin
Putin's 'nyet' proves again that Trump, like former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, has too rosy a view of Putin.
Face it: Putin's a monster who kills domestic dissenters and indiscriminately bombs foreign civilians, including women and children.
Still, Trump should be commended for trying to salvage peace by advocating directly for a permanent end to the conflict.
That idea underscored the Monday meeting, where the Europeans provided a showcase for Trump's skills and an upbeat coda to the February rupture with Zelensky.
It also displayed how Putin's refusal to budge was catnip for Trump haters.
Apparently many in the American media would rather see the war continue than see Trump get any credit for ending it.
Fortunately, the leaders of Italy, France, Germany, Finland and the UK have a different view.
They praised Trump's meeting with Putin as setting the stage for the next step and pushed for a detailed plan to help Ukraine's military, an effort being led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
They are also hopeful that Zelensky and Putin can have their first direct meeting, and then one together with Trump.
The key change is that Zelensky will get the NATO-like security guarantees he has demanded, including European troops to enforce any agreement with Putin.
Trump, who smartly refuses to pledge American troops to foreign wars, said Tuesday on Fox that he's open to providing US air support for European forces.
That's the proper answer for an America First president.
It also happens to be the same role the US played in the successful takeout of Iran's nuclear facilities.
In that historic mission, Israeli troops did the ground work as America delivered its unique bunker-buster bombs from high above.
Hopefully, Putin will be smarter than the mullahs and end the war.
But don't count on it.