Thoughts on President Trump

This cartoonist speaks for me:

Over the years, my caricatures of Donald Trump have evolved but not as much as my opinion of him.

When Trump announced he was running for president, I admit that I didn't take this millionaire, hotel magnate, reality TV show celebrity as a serious candidate. I doubted his ability to do the job. So I drew him as a clown. In fact, my cartoons were as critical of him as many of my liberal cartoonist friends.

Then Trump started a war with the news media, tagging major news outlets as “fake news.” Ahem, I'm in the media.

And while Trump promised to pursue conservative policies, this conservative cartoonist doubted his sincerity. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that he was on the left.

In the crowded primary field, Trump got the most attention by being the loudest. His tweets could not be ignored by the media and resulted in Trump dominating news coverage.

I found his personal attacks sophomoric. I mean, calling his opponents "Low-energy Jeb," "Lyin’ Ted," "Little Marco," "Crazy Bernie" and "Crooked Hillary" was not presidential. It was childish, but it worked. He won and they lost...

In 1992, millionaire businessman Ross Perot said that the country needed to be run like a business. He was great at listing the country’s problems, but he didn’t communicate how he would fix them.

Trump identified the problems and fixes. His political promises were simple, repeated often and easily remembered — build the wall, repeal and replace Obamacare, cut taxes, destroy the Islamic State group, renegotiate better trade deals and make America great again.

So how in the world did Trump change my mind? He started keeping those promises.

At one point early in the campaign there were 14 Republicans in the field, and Donald Trump was my 14th choice.  At first I was a Talker For Walker, and when Scott Walker dropped out I became a Cruz Missile.  But when Trump became the nominee, I became a Trump supporter.  A suspicious supporter, yes, but a supporter nonetheless.  Felonia von Pantsuit (aka the Dowager Countess of Chappaqua) was not an option.

He's been on the job a year and a half.  He often doesn't come across as "mature" or "statesmanlike", but let's be honest--where has mature and statesmanlike gotten us in the last several decades?  Unlike those who supported our previous president, I'm not going for form over substance.  President Trump is making good progress and is governing like a conservative should, which both surprises and pleases me.  I may never be able to admit that a president could replace Ronald Reagan in my personal pantheon, but at this rate Donald Trump has the potential to cement himself in a very solid second place.

He's got 6 1/2 more years*  to do that, or not.

* :-)