Donald Trump ran his company and campaign, as many have observed, like an episode of “Game of Thrones”: Pit various factions against one another and see who comes out on top. It may be an inelegant and crude way to manage, but it has a certain logic if you are interested in power and who can wield it effectively. And that is precisely what appears is happening with Trump’s nascent economic team – a group that will be charged with running an $18 trillion economy and fulfilling the dreams of the 63 million Americans who voted for him in the expectation that he will make their pocketbooks great again.
The result looks to be an economic “Team of Rivals”— a mishmash of aides with vastly different philosophies and backgrounds, with seemingly little in common other than their shared desire to serve in his administration. The idea, popularized by Doris Kearns Goodwin a decade ago in her account of Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet, has a certain logic: A strong, great president needs and cultivates a myriad of views championed by strong individuals who do not shy from asserting their convictions in the face of equally strong disagreement from others. In retrospect, that worked with Lincoln and his ornery set of advisers. It worked because Lincoln neither lack for self-confidence nor needed to be the only voice in the room. It rather remains to be seen whether the same will be true of Trump.
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