Which of his predecessors does President-elect Donald Trump most resemble?
Is it Ronald Reagan, who pushed tax cuts and deregulation; Andrew Jackson, the original populist; or “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry” Truman?
While the observation will outrage Democrats and Republicans alike, in terms of style, not politics, Mr. Trump is reminiscent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who came to the White House during an economic crisis, led a populist revolt against the establishment of his day and was a consummate communicator.
Despite their privileged backgrounds, each made himself a tribune of the people. Roosevelt was a scion of New York’s Hudson Valley aristocracy. Mr. Trump inherited millions and turned them into billions through his real estate business.
In 1932, the working class embraced Roosevelt the patrician with a passion over then-President Herbert Hoover – an orphan at age 9 who became a successful mining engineer and philanthropist but had the personality of a pickled mackerel.
This year, voters backed Mr. Trump, a billionaire, over Vice President Kamala Harris, who said she was from the middle class.
Roosevelt and Mr. Trump made their appeals by relying on a new medium. Roosevelt did an end run around Republican-leaning newspapers by reaching radio audiences with his fireside chats.
Mr. Trump overcame the legacy media with rallies, the internet and podcasts.
Ms. Harris burned through $1.5 billion, largely on the old media, and became the first Democratic presidential candidate in 20 years to lose the popular vote.
Besides loyalty, Roosevelt and Mr. Trump also provoked intense hostility. The upper class of the 1930s referred to Roosevelt as “that man in the White House.” Mr. Trump’s opponents compared him to Hitler.
Never Trumpers and Trump Derangement Syndrome are part of the political lexicon. In the last presidential campaign, the Republican old guard was led by former Rep. Liz Cheney, daughter of a Republican vice president. Former President George W. Bush refused to say how he was voting in the past election.
Mr. Trump and Roosevelt each survived an assassination attempt – Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Roosevelt while speaking in Miami from the back of an open-air car weeks before his first inauguration.
Both presidents were disrupters with a mandate for change.
Roosevelt railed at the “plutocrats of wealth” and blamed Wall Street for the Great Depression. In 1932, he won 462 electoral votes; Hoover got 36.
Mr. Trump promised to drain the swamp, secure the border and “drill, baby, drill.” This year, he won every swing state. Democrats failed to flip a single county, anywhere in the country, from red to blue.
Each president transformed his party.
Roosevelt took what was essentially an isolationist party that generally favored limited government – except during President Woodrow Wilson’s tenure – and made it welfarist and internationalist.
Mr. Trump took a party dominated by neocon internationalism and made it at least skeptical of foreign intervention.
Mr. Trump made Republicanism synonymous with nationalism. While then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, one of his rivals for the Republican nomination in 2016, said illegal immigration was “an act of love,” Mr. Trump calls for mass deportations, an end to birthright citizenship and a secure border.
As president, Roosevelt and Mr. Trump each brought sweeping change. Roosevelt ushered in the era of big government. Massive deficits, taxes that punish the most productive and government intrusion into every area of life are legacies of the New Deal.
Mr. Trump promises to free individuals and businesses from unnecessary regulation and oppressive taxation.
Just as it was for Roosevelt, for Mr. Trump, politics is fun.
The image of Roosevelt from the pages of history is a man with pince-nez glasses, a cigarette holder at a jaunty angle, a hat pushed back on his head and a broad smile.
Speaking at campaign rallies, Mr. Trump is in his element. He feeds off the energy of the crowd.
Toward the end of the campaign, he started doing a little dance on stage, a modified twist. He reveled in stunts such as serving fries at McDonald’s and riding in a garbage truck.
A happy warrior loves politics. He campaigns joyfully, not dutifully. His enthusiasm is infectious. He is proud of his views and sees no reason to dissimulate, unlike Ms. Harris.
Mr. Trump is expected to do as much in the first 100 days of his next administration as Roosevelt did in his, albeit in the opposite direction.
For MAGA Republicans, happy days are here again.
This column was first published at the Washington Times.
