Donald Trump probably spends less time at the White House than any other president who has lived there.
But that is not because he is out with the people.
Although he will host important political and business leaders, you will not see him meeting any average American people.
Although he will hold these huge rallies with tens of thousands of people at big expensive venues with cutting-edge sound and audio systems, you will not see him spending time with any of them where they live or where they work or where they worship.
He will make time to shake hands and give words of sympathy, so long as there are cameras to record the event. But if it is not somebody worthy of such screen-time, you will be hard-pressed to get him to care.
Outside of election season, you will not see Trump at any town halls. Any local festivities. Not unless he is front and center and protected from mingling with the common masses.
One of the things I will miss most about President Obama is getting to read about the surprising places he pops up, and the average people he will go and see (though there is nothing “average” about this awesome girl) — right at their very homes.
And as much as trump apparently spends his time at golf courses, you likely will never see him getting too personal with a young couple such as this.
But of course, Obama was not alone — most every President before him, Republican and Democrat alike, would always make time to meet with average people, away from the White House and the average political campaign routes.
That is because they all lived up to the idea that the President of the United States serves The People — not the other way around. Whether or not they believed it in their hearts, when they held that office, they lived, spoke, and breathed that idea.
But on the other hand, Trump has taken that idea, and smashed it into pieces.
Donald Trump treats the Presidency as a Royal Court. He will make time for world leaders and billionaire businessmen, but you will not see him meet with regular Americans, the ones he professes to care so much about.
Sure, he makes time for photo shoots, for big arena rallies where he will mostly just speak at the podium, never have to look any of the attendees in the eye, let alone touch or speak to them personally. He will attend the varied scheduled events that the White House typically hosts with children and various guests.
But there is always that dynamic — people come to see The Donald. The Donald does not go out of his way to see the people. Anyone, really, unless they have provided some sort of quid pro quo, or promise to.
As much as Trump talks about fixing healthcare and that he cares about people, when was the last time he visited someone at the hospital? Someone on hospice care? Someone too sick to make the trip, so he decided to instead? Melania will, but he won’t.
Certainly, you will always find trump with other people. It is considerable, in that he constantly needs to be the center of attention. But much like a royal court, they are largely there to serve him, to advise him, or to just give him that sense of importance. The people he really should be surrounding himself with, people like you and me and other average Americans, could not be harder to find in trump’s vast sphere of human interactions, unless he is shouting at them from behind his Twitter account.
This is one of the things I have observed, that people do not mention a lot. He has taken the office of the President — essentially the height of the public’s trust in our elected government — and turned it into a Royal Court. He has tarnished what was once one of the noblest institutions in all of American history. Taken it from a position that is tasked with going out and seeing and serving the people, and turned it into the exact opposite.
Whenever trump leaves the position, he will likely to be found to have committed many grave crimes and sins.
But I will always consider this one of the gravest sins of all.