The former head of the RNC says Trump is 'obsessed with his own self-image'

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 7 August 2017

President Trump expected his position to offer more unchallenged power in terms of policy development and public perception alike, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said in comments published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday.

"Not everyone listens to you just because you're president. You have 535 members of Congress who have a different view. You have Cabinet secretaries who, while they might work for you, still carry out different agendas," Steele said. On top of that, "you've got the voters, the press, and all those other interests out there who have a say about what you just said, and that's not something Donald deals with too well."

The trouble, in Steele's analysis, is twofold. First is Trump's personal history of running his own businesses, which accustomed him to a different type of management than the presidency allows. Second is Trump himself. "This is who he is," Steele argued. "This is a guy obsessed with his own self-image, how his numbers are doing, whether everything is playing to a narrative he has developed in his own head."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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