So its worth noting that Trump has actually entertained a number of foreign dignitaries, presidents, and PMs, during this time. And he's been sending his VP and his Secretary of State off for foreign visits., But, hey, that's what the next level of management down is useful for.
There is this sense (to me at least) of Trump not really being interested in that foreign affairs stuff, except to the extent it means he can stand there and be photographed with Important People, or host Important People at his golf resort, or maybe play golf with Important People at his golf resort, and certainly be admired by Important People and acknowledged as one in his own right.
And if they have to come to him … well, that just a sign of who's the Really Important Person, right?
Trump isn't interested in international relations. Hell, he doesn't seem that interested in domestic policy, either. He's mainly interested in looking and being treated as Important — preferably as the Most Important Person in the Room. Which is why, of course, polls that show people liking / respecting / agreeing with him are worth paying attention to, and polls that show people disliking / disrespecting / disagreeing with him are "fake news."
(To be fair, that's just how it looks to me.)
Originally shared by +Doyce Testerman:
TRUTH
I think that Obama probably played at least one round of golf by late April 2009, although he wouldn't have traveled to Florida to do it.
Trump's disinterest in specifics is no surprise, especially if the story about the offer to make John Kasich VP is to be believed. Excerpt:
= = =
Trump's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., reached out to a Kasich adviser after the Ohio governor ended his own Republican presidential campaign, promising that if he accepted the vice presidency, Kasich would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy.
The adviser asked what Trump would be in charge of, the report said, and Trump Jr. responded: "Making America great again."
= = =
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/288471-report-trump-camp-offered-to-make-kasich-most-powerful-vp
A comparison to Reagan and Eisenhower is in order. Both of them had a reputation of not caring about the minutiae of governance.
With Eisenhower, appearances were deceiving:
= = =
…The impression that he was a passive chief executive president who reigned rather than ruled was engendered both by his approach to organizing the presidency and by the tactics he used to resolve the built-in conflict between what Americans expect from their president in his dual capacity as head of state and principal national political leader….
Eisenhower resolved this contradiction by maintaining the public stance of an uncontroversial chief of state, while concealing or playing down his political leadership, especially those machinations that are essential to effective leadership but that foster animosities and lead the president to be viewed as "just another politician."
= = =
http://www.presidentprofiles.com/Grant-Eisenhower/Dwight-D-Eisenhower-The-eisenhower-approach-to-leadership.html
Reagan is much closer to Trump, but even with Reagan there are significant differences.
= = =
Many critics of the president, and even some of his own advisers writing later in their memoirs, considered Reagan shockingly aloof from the business of government, a figurehead who played no more than a symbolic role in his own administration. They cited his fondness for anecdotes, his self-deprecating humor, his tendency to tell irrelevant Hollywood stories, and his frequent citation of fictional episodes in his own, or the nation's, past as if they were true; and they argued that together, they revealed a basic lack of interest in, even an unfitness for, his job. But others, including Reagan himself, insisted that he was highly effective in his most important task: establishing broad themes for his administration and keeping his subordinates focused on them despite the immediate pressures of politics. "It was striking how often we on the staff would become highly agitated by the latest news bulletins," one of Reagan's aides later recalled. "Reagan saw the same events as nothing more than a bump in the road; things would get better tomorrow. His horizons were just not the same as ours."
…His most important achievement, he insisted, was not how he communicated, but what. He spoke, he said, of "great things," and his words and actions helped the nation move along a fundamentally new course, a course in which he deeply believed and from which he tried not to waver.
= = =
http://www.presidentprofiles.com/Kennedy-Bush/Ronald-Reagan-Presidential-style-and-leadership.html
"Consistency" is a word that, for the most part, can be applied to Reagan. I wouldn't apply it to Trump.
+John E. Bredehoft Interesting — and, yes, I remember the Kasich comments at the time they came out. I think Trump is still triangulating around the realities of the office (and layers of trust) to figure things out where.
Re: Reagan, Trump comes across as the anti-Reagan — while the text you include notes that he would calm down is staff when there was a "bump in the road" in coverage, Trump tends to be the one to go into a frenzy when there's hostile coverage, with his staff having to try to calm him down.
Overall, I agree that it's not necessarily a problem for an executive to delegate, or be a leader more than a do-er. Presidents who micro-manage have often run into problems. The question becomes whether being so delegative that's a concerted strategy for better governance, or a one for convenience and lack of interest.
+John E. Bredehoft According to http://obamagolfcounter.com/, Obama's first golf game while in office was at Andrews AFB on 26 April 2009 so that stat is correct.
He did not hit Trump's 13 outings (to date) until 24 August 2009 (and until that date, all of them had been at either Andrews or at Ft Belvoir).
http://obamagolfcounter.com/
I believe Eisenhower played quite a bit of golf, and wasn't George W. Bush golfing during some crisis? I remember some episode where he said, "Now watch this shot", to the media pack and carried on golfing.
The comments on that Obama golf counter are predictable and hilarious. I wonder if it will still be there after Trump passes Obama's total (probably very soon).
I actually don't have a problem with golfing per se, which is why it didn't particularly bug me when Obama did it (or presidents before him). Golf is a great way to unwind physically and mentally. (Unless you play like I do — then, at least, it's a distraction.) If that's what the president needs to maintain his equilibrium? No problem.
It bugs me more when Trump is taking multi-mllion dollar golfing jaunts almost every weekend down to Florida — particularly when he ranted and raved about Obama doing it back in the day.
http://www.sbnation.com/golf/2017/3/27/15073086/donald-trump-tweets-barack-obama-golf
I think the main reason why Donald hasn't gone on any foreign trips is that he personally makes more money by charging the US government for the Secret Service being in his Mar-a-Lago club. It's all about the kleptocracy.