Donald Trump has bullied his way to the best winning streak of his presidency.
Of course, it depends on how we define a win. If you ask progressives, he is a racist dictator tearing down American democratic norms. If you ask a MAGA conservative, he’s swinging hit after hit out of the ball park. And, delivering on every promise to boot.
No matter how much the left holds up its nose at Trump’s decisions, behavior, and statements, even they have to admit he’s brought a few runs home.
When the friendly right-wing media outlets lob softball questions at Trump in the Oval Office, he smiles like a Cheshire cat.
He grew up fighting for his father’s approval, and now he needs approbation from the entire country, if not the world. He may not have a winning personality, but he does need to win.
Yet a desire to win at all costs will often make as many enemies as friends. Any tendency to please or delight will be canceled out.
And a bully is the result.
Trump is far from being the first bully in the White House. Theodore Roosevelt coined the term “Bully Pulpit” to convey the power and strength of the presidency. LBJ would stand close to people and use his 6 feet 3 ins. height to intimidate them. He is said to have shared a urinal once with one of his secret agents and peed on the other man’s leg. “That’s all right, son,” he told him. “It’s my prerogative.”
America’s seventh president, Andrew Jackson, threatened to decapitate his vice president, John Calhoun, for supporting South Carolina’s proposed secession from the U.S. “If you secede from my nation,” he warned, “I will secede your head from the rest of your body.”
Times have changed, but the message is the same.
With his Truth Social posts and relentless self-promotion, Trump has created a Bully Pulpit like none other. He has lifted one leg and peed on the world’s most powerful leaders, and they have pretty much all let him.
Sometimes, he claims the win when he has lost. One reason he refused to believe Joe Biden beat him in 2020.
But right now, as much as his critics will hate acknowledging this, Trump is winning.
And not just in his own head.
Win 1. The Big Beautiful Bill
Trump wiped his schedule clear for an entire day on Wednesday to do what he does best. He bullied GOP lawmakers to fall into line and push his “Big, Beautiful Bill” over the line.
It is hard to overestimate the importance of the legislation to Trump. Up until now, he has sought to enforce with a stream of Executive Orders, many of them overreaching and some almost certainly illegal. But the BBB etches his MAGA policies into law through the democratic process, making this one, God Forbid, legitimate.
Speaker Mike Johnson may have carried the bill, but Trump alone formed the entire offensive line. He demeans, threatens, and cajoles until he gets his way. If none of that works, he threatens to “primary” them. That usually works.
As the White House said in a message to the Daily Beast on Wednesday, “he is the best closer in the history of politics.”
Win 2. Iran
In the first months of his second term, the acronym TACO got under Trump’s skin. It stands for Trump Always Chickens Out.
Wall Street macho dudes coined the cop out term as the president relented on his original tariff threats. Some say the insult was still in his head when he gave the green light for the U.S. strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
This, just days after Marco Rubio and others promised faithfully to stay out of Israel’s war with Tehran. The bunker buster moment sent a message to the world that Trump wasn’t just talking the talk.
Iran caved (sort of), World War III was averted (for now), and Trump claimed the win. It didn’t even matter so much how much damage the mission had caused to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Every so often, a strongman has to make an example of someone. In Trump’s case, it was Iran. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un were all put on notice. And Trump puffed out his chest a little further.
Win 3. NATO
Every bully has his henchmen. In February, at the security conference in Munich, Trump sent Vice President JD Vance to chastise Europe like middle schoolers who needed a scolding. In his mind, he was making sure the EU didn’t get any ideas about taking him on.
Trump has kept his foot on Europe’s neck ever since. And, just a week ago, he emerged from the NATO summit in the Netherlands with an agreement they raise military spending to 5 percent of national income over the next 10 years, a sharp rise from the previous 2 percent target.
“This was a tremendous summit, and I enjoyed it very much,” he said afterward. “They want to protect their country, and they need the United States, and without the United States, it’s not going to be the same.”
Win 4. Canada
New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney tap-danced admirably through a White House meeting with Trump soon after he was elected. Yet, he fell flat on his face this week after targeting U.S. tech companies with a new tax.
Hours later, Trump broke off trade talks and threatened to slap even higher tariffs on Canadian imports. Carney was forced to eat humble pie.
Next, Carney will be switching jobs and running for governor of our new fifty-first state
Win 5. CBS
The president doesn’t hesitate to call out any journalists he feels have criticized him unfairly, and the White House is going after the big hitters.
On Wednesday, Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that it deceptively edited a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris on CBS last year. The money will go towards Trump’s presidential library.
He was quick to crow about the “win”. “With this record settlement, President Donald J. Trump delivers another supposed win for the American people (his MAGA base), as he, once again, holds the Fake News media accountable for their deceit. CBS and Paramount Global realized,” the White House claimed that Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle.
CBS insiders, and even the Wall Street Journal editorial board, say the case is meritless. They contend the show had split up two soundbites between shows, as any media outlet can and often does.
Win 6. The Economy
“It’s the economy, stupid,” James Carville famously said when masterminding Bill Clinton’s successful campaign against George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Whatever critics may make of his financial acumen, Trump sees himself through the lens of the successful businessman and always has one eye on the markets.
For a moment after the tariffs debacle, he was forced to pull back from his hit list of differing levies targeting America’s trading partners. As a result, the markets went seriously awry. It was probably his worst day in the Oval Office this time around.
Now it’s a very different story. On Wednesday, the S&P 500 hit a new record after the president announced a new trade deal with Vietnam. The Nasdaq also rose 0.8 percent in early trading. It’s a remarkable turnaround after the volatility earlier in Trump’s term.
It’s one reason Trump has been hectoring Fed Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates. That would boost the markets, and he could claim another win.
