i3 - July/August 2019 - 2

Our National
Rorschach
Presidency

ost Americans
view President
Trump one of
two ways:
Those that hate him see him
as immoral, unethical and
intentionally ignorant. They
tsk tsk that he barely reads,
ignores or distorts facts, coddles our enemies and ignores
or antagonizes our friends.
They note his fragile ego,
unquenchable desire to be the
center of attention, lack of
civility and disrespect for the
office of the presidency and its
traditions. They bemoan his
shift away from protecting the
environment, destruction of
global institutions and conservative turn on social issues.

They question his legitimacy due to Russian influence
or the lack of a popular mandate. They see an unchallenged shift to an authoritarian
government and smoking-gun
impeachment evidence in the
president's candid tweets. And
many of these haters quickly
stop reading or listening to
any alternative view.
Those that support
President Trump see a realist:
a strong executive who understands and is changing the
world. They view him as righting years of wrongs, especially
other countries requiring
Uncle Sam to unfairly bear
financial burdens. They see
Trump fighting for forgotten

The economy
is humming and
everyone who wants
a job has one thanks
to his slashing rules
and taxes.

JULY/AUGUST 2019

Advisor to the President
Ivanka Trump's passionate
and effective advocacy for
entrepreneurship, women and
reskilling Americans for future
jobs is fantastic! The president's action on China hurting
American companies and as a
strategic competitor is justified and he is addressing it.
After all, if China unfairly
achieves its aspirations, gathers support globally and
spreads its suppression of freedoms of expression, choice in
religion, voting and accessing
information, will the world
and our nation be better?
But I struggle with the president's deaf ear to the struggles
of underrepresented groups
and immigrants, his bullying
working class Americans and
sticking it in the eye of wealthy, leadership, his ambivalence
about our national debt and his
liberal, East Coast elites.
They applaud Trump cutting erratic behavior. His misunderbusiness-choking rules, passing standing of the role of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, the
a tax law putting money in
World Trade Organization and
their pockets and creating the
strongest job market and econ- the harmful impact of tariffs,
omy in generations. They see a the relevance of trade deficits
and his apparent desire to isoman who has cut deals on the
new NAFTA, South Korea and late the U.S. with an economic
fence convince me he will own
criminal justice reform. They
the upcoming recession. He is
acknowledge he is not perfect
distracting and hurting
but believe he has righted our
American businesses, discournational path by putting
aging and disallowing the
America first and shifting us
world's best and brightest and
back to conservative values by
selecting qualified conservative giving us a global black eye.
Would any CEO hire him for an
judges and justices.
executive position?
I am not a Trump hater or a
Our president may be imperlover. I see both unprecedented
fect, but he is our president.
success and horrible hubris.
Our job is to do what we can to
I do applaud many of the
president's hires. His ambassa- preserve, improve and enhance
dors are actually qualified with for the next generation. And
this means working with or
experience in the countries in
pushing back against the presiwhich they represent us. His
dent as appropriate.
tech and agency heads are
bright, committed, competent
and get varied input before
suggesting new policies.
The economy is humming
and everyone who wants a job
has one thanks in part to his
Gary Shapiro,
slashing rules and taxes.
President and CEO
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

Bloomberg/Getty Images

From the CEO

i3 - July/August 2019

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