{"id":9906,"date":"2017-03-01T08:16:39","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T16:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=9906"},"modified":"2021-07-26T10:27:23","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T17:27:23","slug":"the-metaphysics-of-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-metaphysics-of-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"The Metaphysics of Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ <em>National Review<\/em><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Paradox: How does a supposedly bad man appoint good people eager to advance a conservative agenda that supposedly more moral Republicans failed to realize?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>We variously read that Trump should be impeached, removed, neutralized \u2014 or worse. But until he is, are his appointments, executive orders, and impending legislative agenda equally abhorrent?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>General acclamation followed the Trump appointments of retired Generals H. R. McMaster as national-security adviser, James Mattis as defense secretary, and John Kelly to head Homeland Security. The brief celebration of Trump\u2019s selections was almost as loud as the otherwise daily denunciations of Trump himself. Trump\u2019s equally inspired decisions, such as the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and Jeff Sessions as attorney general, presented the same ironies.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong><em>To read the\u00a0full article, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/445294\/donald-trump-metaphysics-bad-man-good-deeds\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Paradox: How does a supposedly bad man appoint good people eager to advance a conservative agenda that supposedly more moral Republicans failed to realize? We variously read that Trump should be impeached, removed, neutralized \u2014 or worse. But until he is, are his appointments, executive orders, and impending legislative [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1103,1096,1092,145,846,31,117,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2zM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10455,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/mcmaster-and-mattis-are-rare-assets-not-deep-state-liabilities\/","url_meta":{"origin":9906,"position":0},"title":"McMaster and Mattis Are Rare Assets\u2014Not Deep State Liabilities","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson American Greatness There is a larger context concerning the recent controversies among the architects of Trump\u2019s national security team and agenda, and the criticism of National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. Recall first that the foreign policy of Barack Obama, Ben Rhodes, Susan Rice, and Hillary Clinton\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;McMaster&quot;","block_context":{"text":"McMaster","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/mcmaster\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9892,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trumps-team-of-sort-of-rivals\/","url_meta":{"origin":9906,"position":1},"title":"Trump\u2019s Team of Sort of Rivals","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Corner The one and only. By Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review The selection of the multitalented and independent thinker Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster as national-security adviser is inspired and reifies Trump\u2019s past statements that he likes outspoken and independent advisers. McMaster is best known for his counterinsurgency work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;McMaster&quot;","block_context":{"text":"McMaster","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/mcmaster\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11034,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trumps-generals-are-too-valuable-to-be-dismissed\/","url_meta":{"origin":9906,"position":2},"title":"Trump&#8217;s Generals Are Too Valuable to Be Dismissed","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Town Hall Near-daily gossip surrounds Donald Trump's three marquee generals. The media sometimes blare out rumors that Gen. John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, is proving to be a loose cannon and might soon be fired. Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Donald Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10310,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-and-his-generals\/","url_meta":{"origin":9906,"position":3},"title":"Trump and His Generals","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson National Review Trump\u2019s reliance on his generals shows that he values merit over politics. Donald Trump earned respect from the Washington establishment for appointing three of the nation\u2019s most accomplished generals to direct his national-security policy: James Mattis (secretary of defense), H. R. McMaster (national-security adviser),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;McMaster&quot;","block_context":{"text":"McMaster","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/mcmaster\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10674,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/in-defense-of-the-generals\/","url_meta":{"origin":9906,"position":4},"title":"In Defense of \u2018the Generals\u2019","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Corner The one and only. by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review \u00a0 Recently there have been a number of quite different critiques from all political sides of Trump\u2019s generals (Kelly\/McMaster\/Mattis), and also from a variety of angles (too narrow experience, an unhealthy overdose of military thinking, a \u201csellout\u201d for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Diplomacy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Diplomacy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/geopolitics\/diplomacy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10634,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/two-first-quarter-cheers-for-trumps-principled-realism\/","url_meta":{"origin":9906,"position":5},"title":"Two First Quarter Cheers For Trump\u2019s Principled Realism","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert G. Kaufman\/\/Strategika \u00a0 Image credit: Poster Collection, US 05889, Hoover Institution Archives. The content and trajectory of Donald Trump\u2019s foreign policy have defied the expectations of many of his supporters as well as his critics across the political spectrum. The President has moved a long way from his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Strategika&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Strategika","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/strategika\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9906"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9914,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9906\/revisions\/9914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}