Robert Boxwell

Opinion | Trump can storm back into the White House if he loses his belligerence

With Biden’s chances damaged, voters may reward a better-behaved Trump because his policies do appeal to many across the political spectrum

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Donald Trump waves at a campaign rally in Chesapeake, Virginia on June 28. Photo: AP

Robert Boxwell

Published: 8:30pm, 5 Jul 2024Updated: 12:00pm, 6 Jul 2024

“Trump’s policies without Trump.” Not a few Americans have expressed the attraction of this idea since Donald Trump threw his hat in the ring in 2015. It dawned on some immediately, others gradually, depending on how much tolerance one had for his mouth and demeanour.

The belittling nicknames Trump coined for his opponents during the 2016 campaign were singularly amusing, and his reference to the Washington establishment as “the swamp” resonated with tens of millions of voters. But he took insults to new lows, like when he questioned whether the late senator John McCain, who spent years in a Hanoi prison during the Vietnam war, was a war hero. Campaigns are nasty. Trump delivered.

Assuming at least some people who joined his administration advised him to put a lid on it when he became president, that advice was ignored. He never transitioned from the brawler of his campaign to being “presidential”. Whatever that word means, it is how Americans largely want and expect their president to behave. There are nice and diplomatic ways to say even unpleasant things; Trump couldn’t be bothered.

By the time he left the White House, many had concluded he was simply incapable of governing his behaviour, which disqualified him from governing the country. His actions, and lack of, on January 6, 2021, punctuated that. Good riddance.

But three years is a long time in politics. And a modestly new Trump seems to have emerged. “Modestly” and “seems” are key words here. He’s not exactly kinder or gentler – qualities associated with the tenure of his Republican predecessor George Bush senior – but he also doesn’t seem to be quite the same repellent Trump of his earlier campaigns and White House years.

His behaviour in last week’s debate suggests a new level of maturity, some lessons learned, some humility acquired, better manners. In short, he’s mostly keeping a lid on it. Given the small number of votes by which he lost critical states in 2020, a little behaviour modification is not a bad idea. There’s nothing weak about playing nice for votes.

02:48

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