Historians Weigh In
November 5, 2017 7:05 AM ET
MARA LIASSON
... "Previous candidates who get elected are almost always sobered by the office and the responsibility they take on," Brands says. "Donald Trump shows no evidence of that. He's the same Trump that he was when he was host of his reality TV show. He's the same Trump that he was when he was a candidate" ...
"Richard Nixon ate up a lot of clock trying to destroy the press. Trump now has a mechanism to do it because he's not beholden in any way, shape, or form to traditional media," Brinkley says. "So by going over them, it gives him an instant kind of power and credibility... every day he wants the lead story to be 'Trump.' Even if it's controversial, it allows him to be the dominant force in American politics" ...
"It does appear that they have cowed the party regulars. They've cowed the party traditionalists," Perry says. "We have seen it already with the Jeff Flakes in the party, who are having to step aside and actually step out of politics at least for a while. And if that happens, if people who oppose him leave the party, or leave politics, that will be a success for him" ...
"As we look at previous presidents who have weakened the authority of the presidency, Nixon did it through overreach and criminality. Carter weakened the presidency through lack of competence in a number of areas. Bill Clinton weakened the president through some salacious behavior," he says. "But President Trump thus far seems to be weakening the presidency primarily through neglect and indifference to the traditional roles of the presidency. And I do worry that whoever his successor is, in four or eight years, will inherit a diminished office" ...
http://www.npr.org/2017/11/05/562142792/is-trump-changing-the-presidency-or-is-it-changing-him-4-historians-weigh-in
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