OPINION:
In August 1968, Richard Nixon achieved what The New York Times called “the greatest reversal of fortune in American political history.” Times columnist James Reston went further, calling it “the greatest comeback since Lazarus.” This is from a newspaper, along with The Washington Post, that hated Nixon, as they now hate former President Donald Trump.
How did he do it, and could Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, learn anything from Nixon’s seeming transformation?
First, the parallels between Nixon and Mr. Trump are striking. Nixon, like Mr. Trump, believed America was in bad shape. In 1968, crime, the war in Vietnam, and the murders of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy shocked and depressed the country.
The Democratic National Convention would follow the Republican convention at the end of August. It featured riots in the streets that shocked voters watching on TV. Many argued those riots helped Nixon win the presidency. Some of those issues, especially crime and social unrest, prevail today. Nixon was a national figure longer than Mr. Trump, but Nixon was seen as dour, uncomfortable around others, and possessing a personality that conveyed awkwardness and insincerity.
The “new Nixon” no longer scowled; his hair had grown longer (possibly a nod to the hippie era), and he smiled more than in that sweaty 1960 debate with John F. Kennedy.
In his Miami acceptance speech, Nixon alternated between what the Times called “genuine grace notes and darker rumblings … alternately bright and horrific.”
Mr. Trump is like that.
In the first scheduled debate with President Biden on June 27, Mr. Trump should consider presenting a “New Trump.” Critics might say that’s like asking a leopard to change its spots and Mr. Trump is unable to overcome his narcissistic personality.
If he can, how might it work? Mr. Trump should stop referring to Mr. Biden as a “crook.” Stick to the issues people care about — the open border and what is happening as a result of inflation (he can compare prices when he was president and now), wars, school choice, defunding universities that tolerated antisemitic demonstrations on their campuses, revising the tax code to make it fairer and flatter so everyone has skin in the game, and how the $34 trillion national debt cannot be sustained.
On this last point, Mr. Trump is vulnerable because he added $8.4 trillion to the debt. Mr. Trump should promise to create a bipartisan commission that would recommend to Congress ways to reduce the debt. Yes, that would include reforming Social Security and Medicare to keep it from going broke, which every honest person knows must be done.
Mr. Biden has only a few policy achievements, so he will be left to engage in personal attacks about the “threat to democracy” posed by Mr. Trump. If Mr. Trump occasionally displays soft answers, he can duck Mr. Biden’s punches and confuse the often confused president. Recall Ronald Reagan’s line to President Jimmy Carter in their Oct. 28, 1980, debate: “There you go again.”
Mr. Trump had some good lines in his speech to residents of the Bronx last week. He spoke of reducing crime, cleaning up the subway, lowering taxes and creating more jobs, but without details about how some of those promises would be paid for or fulfilled. If ever the phrase “we can’t go on like this” meant anything, it means everything today.
Absent a religious or other transformation, I’m not sure Mr. Trump can reinvent himself in time to make a difference, if at all. He seems comfortable as the “old Trump.” The political landscape changes quickly and might change even faster after the results of Mr. Trump’s current and upcoming trials are known. Like Reagan, Mr. Trump is experienced in television and that medium allows new looks, even if they are not genuine. That’s the purpose of makeup.
The “new Nixon” turned out to be a cover for the old and real Nixon. Can Mr. Trump transform himself into a “new Trump” and mean it, or just fake it? Either way, he could upset the political dynamic and expectations between now, the debates and the election.
• Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book, “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
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