A page turner, he’s not.

Jonathan J. Prinz
Jul 23, 2017 · 4 min read

Toward the end of a recent interview, the prolific author Calvin Trillin, was asked, “If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?” “A book. Any book. All the way through”, he replied. Tony Schwartz, his ghost writer on The Art of the Deal, told The New Yorker that he hadn’t seen a book on Trump’s desk or in his home during the 18 months he worked with him. Schwartz said, “I seriously doubt that Trump has ever read a book straight through in his adult life.” How sad. Columnist Roger Cohen, citing chapter and verse, recently wrote about Donald Trump’s total ignorance of history. There are just some things one can’t get watching television, even Fox News. Presidential voracious readers like Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Truman must be turning in their graves; Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and, yes, George W. Bush must look on dismayed. How can you govern intelligently, steer both domestic and foreign policy, without having the most basic sense of where we have been, what we have learned? The current occupant of the White House, who famously said he didn’t need security briefings, apparently finds even executive summaries too long a read. I suspect he got through college on CliffsNotes, heaven protect us. It’s unsurprising that his favorite mode of communication is the tweet, where only limited characters can be used, where grammar and punctuation can be ignored at will.

I’ve come to wonder if Trump has even read his “own authored” best seller beyond the quoted bits of his “wisdom” that Schwartz included. In preparing to take office, many of our presidents spent hours reading the writings or biographies of their predecessors, trying to learn from those who held this most unique and powerful office. That obviously would be asking too much of this one. As I’ve suggested before, Trump and Trumpism didn’t come out of nowhere. While there are exceptions, a certain anti-intellectualism prevails in the modern Republican party. You can see that in the downgrading of higher education afoot in many GOP controlled states and, of course, in the denial of science, most especially relating to the climate. Trump surely is their kind of president.

Our reader presidents were all intellectually curious and often authors themselves. TR wrote more than 35 books. Truman had a special love for history. He also linked reading to leading, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” Ouch. Trump has become such a master of the unsubstantiated (okay lies) that both the New York Times and Washington Post have felt compelled to keep track of them. “In 181 days”, the Post reported, “President Trump has made 836 false and misleading claims.” Many of these may have been purposeful lying, but I suspect a large number reflect the sheer ignorance of the unread. This is not to excuse the inexcusable, a lie is a lie. Moreover, these continued falsehoods are an expression of arrogance and a lack of respect for all of us, including those who voted for, and continue to put their trust in, him. That such an unprecedented presidential liar should label fact-based reporting as “fake news” is an insult to both the writers’ and to us the readers’ intelligence.

Trump’s presidential campaign was premised on the falsehood that America had lost its edge, its greatness. Make American Great Again, was, and remains, a dubious promise for, among others, the world’s largest economy and its essential leader. My parents, like countless other immigrants, found shelter here from Nazi Germany and benefited from its freedom and unique opportunities. I’ve always considered it pretty great place to have been born, grow up and to live a very fulfilling life. So, I asked myself, what exactly did Trump mean by his campaign slogan? What was he talking about, especially what did he mean by “again”?

Then came the G20 and my aha moment. It seems that for the non-reader Donald Trump, making us great again is to take us back to the very early days when we were a follower not a leader — a recognized state, but not a state with which to be reckoned. For one ignorant of the whole detail of our history, it made sense. It isn’t a misreading, but no reading at all. From his first day in office, Trump has systematically been taking us on a retrogressive path toward a faux “greatness” that is in fact a diminishment. A New York Times headline said it all: “Once Dominant, the United States Finds Itself Isolated at G-20”. Watching the spectacle of it and indeed during all of these last six months, I’ve sadly moved from feeling great pride in my country’s forward-looking leadership to being embarrassed by its withdrawing into itself. What’s so disturbing about it is that we are being driven down by someone whose every day is built on hype not reality, ego-driven bragging not literate informed substance.

If Truman was correct, that “all leaders are readers”, it would suggest the man currently at our helm is not a leader — that we are leaderless. Clearly, Angela Merkel and other close G20 allies have surely come to believe that. I don’t think that Calvin Trillin’s required reading for the president — a book, any book, all the way through — will be met. In fact, it’s safe to say I know it won’t. Perhaps Donald Trump is not illiterate as the dictionary defines that term, but only in the technical sense. I know exactly what he would say to me about this post and his situation, “I’m the president and can do whatever I like. I’m the president and you’re not.” Point taken — excuse rejected.

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