No. of Recommendations: 4
I think it's simpler than that. He has always been about pasting his name on everything, to glorify himself. He doesn't do the "President" thing, because he was born as the CEO of a closely held company. He is used to being a dictator.
Right. That's exactly my point. There are different levers of power that come with the office of President. Different "tools" you can use.
One tool is that you have absolute command of the Executive. That's the tool that fits really well with Trump's skill set. It's a good match for his personality.
Other tools are being able to draft regulations, and being able to push legislation through Congress. Those tools aren't great matches for his skill set, and he was quite inefficient at using them in his first term.
The major downside of using the first tool - the absolute command of the Executive - is that it's temporary. It's ephemeral. It lasts only as long as your term does. It's very hard to use it to create any kind of lasting change. Most things you do with it can simply be undone by your successor.
I think it's interesting that Trump has really shifted away from using the other tools of the office, and is focusing so much more of his energy on the tool. I think it's a deliberate choice by him. Even if you characterize him as a dictator, he's not trying to exercise dictatorial powers through the channels that are most likely to have lasting duration - he's doing it through the most ephemeral channel, but targeting things where even if the duration of the action is short the effect will last a very long time.
