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In one of the better stories written about Donald Trump's core base of supporters during the 2016 campaign, the
Atlantic's Salena Zito observed that while the national media had a tendency to take Trump literally without taking his presidential ambitions seriously, his fans did just the reverse:
They took him seriously but not literally.
As a point about the state of mind of Trump supporters, Zito is absolutely correct. But one of Trump's most prominent supporters, the media-savvy billionaire Peter Thiel, took Zito's turn of phrase and inverted its meaning. He said that the
media misunderstands Donald Trump by taking him literally rather than seriously.
What we've seen thus far of Trump's transition, however, shows just the opposite. The national press's Trump coverage did to an extent err by not taking him seriously enough. But it also failed in exactly the same way many Trump supporters failed. The celebrity candidate seemed so much more emotionally invested in his rallies than his policy proposals that not nearly enough attention was paid to the literal commitments he was making and what they literally said.
But throughout history and across various countries, the best guide to how politicians will govern is to
pay attention to their policy promises. And Trump's transition so far suggests that this is an area where he will be typical. Like any president, he won't accomplish 100 percent of what he promised to do. But he'll make a good faith effort at the vast majority of it, and probably succeed in many cases.
We should, in other words, have taken Trump both seriously and literally.
Comment: Interesting that all this comes into play right before Trump takes office. We'll find out soon enough how he intends to handle relations with Russia.