By Tom Burke
Donald Trump communicates like no other president, rarely speaking with reporters, reading speeches by rote, and tweeting constantly, obsessively, manically, opening windows directly into his mind. While not always pretty panoramas, we see what he’s thinking.
So comparing Trump to other presidents — looking at thoughts on similar subjects or simply comparing Trump’s best-known quotes and those of other presidents — could be interesting. Let’s see. (Note: Trump’s quotes are in italics.)
Franklin D. Roosevelt:
“Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”
“There was no collusion. Everybody knows there was no collusion.”
“We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.”
“The point is, you can never be too greedy.”
”The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”
“Why are we having all these people from s–thole countries come here?”
John F. Kennedy:
“Ich bin ein Berliner” (spoken in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.)
“I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me — and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
“We do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard.”
“I thought being president would be easier than my old life.”
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
“I’m the most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far. Nobody’s ever been more successful than me. I’m the most successful person ever to run.”
(Side note: Not counting FDR who beat polio, governor of New York, four-term president, created the New Deal, and a wealthy man. Or Teddy Roosevelt on San Juan Hill, as New York police commissioner, governor, vice president, president, Panama Canal builder and Nobel Laureate. Or Jefferson, Grant, Lyndon Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower, who led us in WWII, or George H. W. Bush who was the youngest naval aviator in WWII, ambassador to the U.N. and China, head of the CIA, vice president, president, father to another president and very rich.)
Teddy Roosevelt:
“I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life; I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”
“My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars.”
Thomas Jefferson:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
“You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. … Grab ’em by the p***y. You can do anything.
George Washington:
“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company.
“Vote Roy Moore.”
Abraham Lincoln:
“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
“There was no collusion. Everybody knows there was no collusion.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower:
“The supreme quality of leadership is integrity.”
“You know, it doesn’t really matter what [the media] write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass. But she’s got to be young and beautiful.”
“The qualities of a great man are vision, integrity, courage, understanding, the power of articulation, and profundity of character.”
“I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
“Never waste a minute thinking about people you don’t like.
“We have to treat people that treat us well, we treat them well, people that treat us badly, we treat them much worse than they can imagine.”
(Funny, I thought Nixon said this.)
Harry Truman:
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
“I don’t believe that any president has accomplished as much as this president in the first six or seven months. I really don’t believe it.”
“He wasn’t used to being criticized, and he never did get it through his head that’s what politics is all about. He was used to getting his ass kissed.”
“It’s just fake. It’s fake. It’s made-up stuff. It’s disgraceful what happens, but that happens in the —that happens in the world of politics.”
“Ignorance and its hand-maidens, prejudice, intolerance, suspicion of our fellowman, breed dictators and breed wars.
“They’re not coming to this country if I’m president.” (Trump speaking about the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims.)
So there you have it. A short, oratorical review of Donald Trump measured against other presidents.
Oops, missed one. Richard Nixon said, “I am not a crook.” What will history say about Trump’s “No collusion?” The jury, and Mueller, are still out.
Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.
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