Why People Think Trump Is Getting Things Done

Lexington: “For all that certainty in the country at large, the president remains a figure of sphinx-like mystery to those trying to work out what his government is actually doing… The puzzle, then, is why so many Americans are so sure that Mr Trump is keeping his promises.”

“The solution lies in the president’s unusual relationship with his supporters. He was elected on grandiloquent pledges to ‘bring the jobs back’ and build a ‘great wall’ on the Mexican border that will stop people, drugs and crime. Those promises were really a commitment to be a champion for his supporters. Mr Trump can be hazy about what he plans to do because he is so clear about whom he represents: those he calls ‘forgotten’ Americans, defined as hard-working, law-abiding heartland folk. And every time the news shows him signing some executive proclamation, the image carries almost as much messaging-power as a bill that took years to pass.”