Penna Dexter

Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger says there are two Trump presidencies that “exist in parallel universes.” One presidency, he writes, is “inhabited by Trump of Twitter.” He continues, “Much of the American population is appalled by Trump of Twitter who lives in a dark and deeply personal pool of feuds and fulminations.” This made for a chaotic atmosphere in the early months and distracted from the real work that needed to be done.

Mr. Henninger then describes the other presidency Trump inhabits. It’s one of accomplishments, “a universe of solid, tangible, economic success.” It’s characterized by Mr. Trump’s “stellar quality appointments to his cabinet and key White House policy roles.”  One of those appointments came six months in. Retired four-star Marine General John Kelly became White House Chief of Staff. Mr. Henninger writes, “The relative calm Mr. Kelly’s discipline brought to the White House has allowed the successes of the parallel Trump presidency to come into focus. Now, we can look at the list of accomplishments in 2017 and see that it’s long and solid.

Yet the tweeting did not stop. Should it? Do conservatives want Trump to keep accomplishing good things but stop tweeting? We asked the question on live radio and callers liked the accomplishments. Some admitted cringing at certain tweets. But none wanted them to stop.

Are Daniel Henninger’s “Two Presidencies” merging into one calmer administration? What happened to the “appalled” Americans? He says the president currently tweets “with less unnerving animosity.” Did General Kelly require this discipline? Or are presidential tweets wooing some critics by getting into their heads?

Humorist Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, wrote in a column, also for the Journal, that many of the president’s tweets are “gems of persuasion.”  He says Mr. Trump “has adroitly operated within a narrow range of useful wrongness on Twitter,” employing devices like sticky nicknames — think Rocket Man.  He uses “weaponized humor” to reveal truth.

Perhaps it’s working.