Being "Presidential". Photos of Trump in the Debate

Donald Trump is popular and has caught and amplified something big in the American voter.    He voices a rugged nationalism many people want expressed, he advocates for existing native born workers facing competition from immigrants, he voices the anger and resentment at elites who have the power and money to game the system for their own benefit at the expense of "regular people".   He is tall, wears dark suits with a white shirt and red tie, and he has part of the body language right.


And when he is in the middle of a great crowd he looks very, very comfortable speaking extemporaneously, a look that is consistent and surely authentic.

But the Chamber of Commerce-Rotary Club-college educated Republicans of my acquaintance are very put off by him.   Some say they disagree with him on specific issues but their response to him is more often simply dismissive.   He fails a test that is somehow prior to a test on policy.   He lacks plausibility to them.

My hypothesis:  he acts too foolish, too "immature" to use a word I pull out of memory from junior high school.   His mugging and nyah-nyah faces, which are especially vivid when he is on split-screen and someone else is talking, reveal something non-serious.    He is playing at this, which makes him a slapstick entertainer but not "presidential material".

I realize many people like him for his authenticity and lack of political correctness.  But the faces and clowning around define him into comedy and away from the White House.    It is very common for Republicans to feel contempt for the current president and to feel comfortable expressing it.   But that contempt embeds a presumption that the office is important and should be held by someone worthy of the high office.

There is such a thing as appearing "presidential."   I think Trump moves in and out of that zone, in it when he seems strong and confident, out of it when he seems childish.