Donald Trump is doing the dirty work few other US presidents dared to do

THE consistent complaint about US presidents is they never achieve anything. It’s clear Trump is different, writes Joe Hildebrand.

The key to success in politics is getting someone else to do your dirty work for you.

In 2007, when Morris Iemma led Labor to an improbable fourth term in NSW, all of the party rejoiced.

All of them, that is, except one — a long-term ALP adviser and strategist who happened to be a mate of mine.

“Well that’s it,” he told me. “We’re f***ed.”

When I asked why, he sighed: “We need the Libs to get elected so they can do all the bad shit.”

The political arithmetic is simple. Say you need to cut 5,000 public service jobs: Do it yourself and you’re a monster but if you let your opponents cut 10,000 jobs and then you reinstate half you’re a hero — and you still get your 5,000 job cut.

Federally, Labor had the same problem with boats. The party had its left foot in an inner city base that wanted them let in and its right foot in an outer suburban base that wanted them kept out. And straddling the line between these two opposing forces left it all too prone to a kick in the nuts.

After going full-schizophrenic on the issue in government, the party lost office and let Tony Abbott turn back the boats — a policy they publicly condemned and then, naturally, adopted.

I was one of those who thought boat turnbacks would be impossible. For one thing, I just couldn’t picture it — indeed, thanks to the cloak of secrecy surrounding Operation Sovereign Borders, nobody can.

Another mate of mine, a veteran defence correspondent, agreed. It would be dangerous and impractical, the navy wouldn’t clear it and the Indonesians wouldn’t cop it.

But Abbott ignored all the experts and just did it. Half the country hated him for it and his own party ended up dumping him despite it. But he did it.

Now Labor doesn’t have to worry about the boats anymore. Like in a B-grade gangster movie, the little problem has been taken care of and we shall never speak of it again. The client doesn’t want to know how it’s done and no more questions are asked. After all, things are only ugly if you see them.

As I said, the key to success in politics is always getting someone else to do your dirty work for you.

Enter, from stage right, one Donald J. Trump.

It is abundantly clear that the US Republican Party does not control Donald Trump. But there is also the increasing sense that having found themselves in the back seat of a stolen car they are curious to see what it can do.

Those who predicted that the mantle of the presidency would temper him have so far been proven wrong. He remains as wildly gung-ho and unpredictable as he was on the campaign trail. Indeed, in what is the mother of all ironies, even him following through on his most fundamental commitment has surprised people.

Yes, Donald Trump is actually going to build that wall.

Like many of the his pronouncements, building the wall — not to mention getting Mexico to pay for it — seems downright crazy and probably is. Just like appointing an anti-vaxxer to chair a commission on vaccine safety, exploding painstakingly-crafted trade deals that would have massively boosted Australian exports and threatening to pull out of NATO.

But the confounding thing about Mr Trump is that within all the madness he is able to say and do things no other politician can. He is the Mr Hyde to their Doctor Jekyll.

The truth is that China does need a bit of a talking to, ISIS does need a bit of a belting and our much-hyped Joint Strike Fighter program — costing anywhere between AU$80m and US$300m per jet according to various reports — is perhaps a little bit pricey.

In Trash and Treasure parlance, Mr Trump is the master of the walk-away. If he doesn’t like something he just threatens to pull the pin and whoever he’s dealing with knows he’s crazy enough to follow through. Apparently a discount on the planes is already on the way.

The only downside is Mr Trump may inadvertently start World War III — which is at least marginally less explosive than upsetting third-wave feminists.

One bedtime consolation is that the entire US political system has been constructed as a check on executive power. Indeed, the only consistent complaint about American presidents is that they never achieve anything.

If the system works then Mr Trump’s insane excesses will be curtailed while some of his better crazybrave ideas might, heaven forbid, actually improve things.

Of course, if it doesn’t then we’re all hopelessly doomed. But at least it’ll be a fun five minutes.