Is the Trump personality trumping his issues?

Trump’s personal success in politics has been derived from two factors – the voters differentiating his policies from his personality and facing weak unpopular opponents in 2016 and 2024.

It is easy for voters to wince at the man’s pugnacious and inexplicably belligerent personality and vote on the issues.  I know because I am one such voter.  He was never my choice among the candidates in the GOP primary election.  In 2016, I cast my vote for then-Senator Marco Rubio (yeah, Little Marco).  In 2024, I cast my vote for former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley – even though the nomination was already in Trump’s hands by the time the Florida primary rolled around.

Trump came to the presidency to be a disruptor of the left-wing political and cultural establishment that has held sway over government for generations in Washington.  Disruptors create chaos, but as a conservative, I saw that as “good chaos.”                                                    

I have often written of my distaste for Trump’s rather immature angry combative style.  But, for all his shortcomings – and they are considerable – I could not support the Democrats radical left-wing platform.  I believed in legal immigration and saw the Biden open borders policies as a national crisis.  I believed that transgender men should not be playing in women’s sports. I embrace the pro-life position on abortion. I disagreed with Democrats leniency on criminals.  I believe that the federal government has become too powerful and expensive – and that the deficits and National Debt were trending America to economic collapse. I liked Trumps peace initiatives – especially his Abraham Accords that significantly settled conflicts in the Middle East.  I agreed with his attacks on Iran.  And the list goes on.

I was not on board with everything Trump did.  Readers know that I strongly oppose his pro-Putin peace plan in Ukraine.  I do not see tariffs as a good thing – but can understand short terms tariffs to combat specific trade inequalities.  His administration has proven to be no better in reducing the annual budget deficits or slowing down the accumulation of National Debt. That concerns me.  But… I was getting at least 80 percent of my personal agenda with Trump and the GOP.  Conversely, I was opposed to 90 percent of what Democrats have been offering.

For me, issues trump personality … for the most part.  There comes a time, however, that personality impacts on issues.   Trump has never been one to care about his own credibility or likeability.  I wrote about that when he was in the first year of his first term.

I believe his personality is the reason the GOP did not fare well in 2018, 2020 and 2022 – and are about to take another drubbing in 2026.  In many ways, those elections were – and will be – a referendum not on his policies, but his abrasive personality.

He is not a likeable guy from a public perspective.  Even supporters conceded that. Although people say quite the opposite of the private Donald Trump – as did Bill Maher after dining with  the President.

Having spent decades as a political consultant, I have concluded that “likeability” is underrated in politics.  Yes, we do measure favorable ratings, and we do label some political figures as “charismatic” – but that is not pure likeability.   That quality is so important to voters that one of the most successful presidential slogans was “I like Ike.”  (For you folks born in the Twenty-First Century, it was a reference to President Dwight Eisenhower.)  Other presidents scored high on likeability – Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.  Yes, they both had their haters, but they were genuinely liked by most voters – even those on the other side of the political divide.

Unfortunately for Trump, his likeability is very low – arguably among the lowest in American history.  Even avid MAGA supporters are privately chagrined and embarrassed by his nasty rhetoric and tone deaf comments – such as saying that soldiers who are captured are unpatriotic … calling a reporter stupid for asking about something he said the day before (which he claimed he never said but did.)

Perhaps his worst response was his reaction to the murder of actor/director Rob Reiner.  He posted:

“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”

By way of disclaimer, I was not fan of Rob Reiner’s politics. In my opinion, he was not merely a progressive or left-winger but was an obsessed radical nutcase in the tradition of such other Hollywood personalities as Robert De Niro and Michael Moore.  But Trump’s public response to a murder under the most heart wrenching of circumstances was more than inappropriate. It was heartless and vulgar.  And to suggest that Reiner and his wife were murdered because of the truly extreme statements he made about Trump is outrageous. 

As a result, Trump’s likeability index took another dive.  Virtually all the pro-Trump media personalities – such as CNN’s Scott Jennings — found the Reiner comments inappropriate and indefensible.

In addition to likeability, Trump has been suffering setbacks on policy matters that were once his strong points – immigration, the economy and foreign affairs.  The combination of pugnacious personality, likeability (lack or) and losing ground on core issues is undermining Trump’s power and influence.  Like Biden before him, Trump is not getting a lot of invitations to campaign for GOP candidates down the ballot – including a number of senators and house members.

Trump’s personality has not only reduced his effectiveness, but it has also been undermining the all-important issues.  For many voters, personality is now trumping the issues.  Since he will not be running for office in the future, he is personally beyond the reach of the voters except through the multitude of candidates in his party — the folks who will be on the ballot.

I have often lamented the fact that Trump could have been one of the nation’s greater presidents.  He will still have a substantial legacy, but it is more convoluted than it needed to be.  In many ways, Trump has been his own worst enemy – and that is the part hard to fathom.  Trump reminds me of something President Nixon said after being forced to resign.  “They stabbed us in the back, but we gave them the knife.”  Too often Trump provides the ammunition that is used against him.

“Lame duck” is generally an appellation we ascribe to a president in his last months in office after the election of a successor.  For all practical purposes, if Democrats take the House — as I expect they will — Trump’s policy agenda will be ground to a halt by gridlock – and even more so, if Democrats take the Senate.  Trump could have the longest lame duck presidency in history.

Trump’s greatest problem is not the issues.  It is personality.  And it is crushing his credibility and likeability — two traits that are essential to political success. 

Political fortunes can change like the weather, so one cannot rule out a comeback.  He has personally shown remarkable resilience.  But at this moment he needs to pullout of a political dive – a turnaround that has not even commenced yet. 

Has Trump lost his mojo?  We will know in the course of the next 11 months.

So, there ‘tis.