David Frum is correct of course, but I doubt the GOP can successfully Trump-proof a Trump Administration. Frum might have more luck trying to convince electors that Trump is unfit for the presidency, as it becomes more evident he wants to divide the country not unite it.
Face the Nation transcript, November 20, 2016
DICKERSON: David, I want to start with you.
On this question of conflicts -- potential conflicts, relationship between Donald Trump, the president, and -- and the Trump business. What do you make of their initial responses about how that will be handled?
DAVID FRUM, “THE ATLANTIC”: Not good. I think the very first order of businesses, the very first order of business for Republicans who want to insure a successful administration, is to corruption-proof the administration. It’s going to be a big problem. And the surest way to do that is to passes a law formalizing the long tradition that the president must publish his tax returns. It may or may not be possible. The president may or may not be willing to divest himself. But the way for the public to be protected is for people to know what the president has, whether he receives any benefit. Because of the particular nature of Donald Trump’s businesses, everything that happens at the Trump Organization flows into his tax return. So if we can see the tax return, we can know, is anyone trying to bribe him? Has anyone succeeded?
FRUM: If you want to do those things -- if you want to do those things and the things that Grover’s talking about, I would agree with all of them, more or less. If you want to do those things, you have to prevent this administration from being devoured and consumed by scandal. We are -- the -- Donald Trump has made it pretty clear, his plan is to run the least transparent and probably the least ethical administration in a long, long time. If that is not -- if any of this is to happen, this administration must be Trump-proofed. The president is up to no good. He’s made that very clear. He’s got -- he’s indicating to the Japanese, this is -- if you’ve got business with me, this is the person to talk. He’s indicating to the Indians, if you have business with me, these are the people to talk to. If he does that, I guarantee, 18 months from now, when you convene the show, you’ll not be talking about taxes, you ‘ll not be talking about debt, you’ll be talking about the latest Trump scandal, act now to save the country, the political system and the Republican Party from the things this president seems to have in mind.
DICKERSON: Let me ask another question, Lanhee, of you about other ways capital can be spent, which is we’ve talked about budget and tax reform, but there are other things Trump has on the priorities list. Immigration is one of them. How hard do you think that will be and do you think that will expend some capital, in terms of political capital, that then can’t be used on these very hard other things, tax reform, Medicare and so forth?
CHEN: I think it’s a very dangerous thing to start with. I mean, obviously, it was a campaign priority, so it’s important to the president-elect. We recognize that that’s going to be a priority for this administration. But you think about all of the other important issues, and we’ve talked about some them. Certainly tax reform. What’s going to happen with Obamacare? This is something that has been a signature issue for Republicans for the last six year since the law was passed and signed into law. What is going to be done in terms of the repeal, and more importantly I think is the question about what you’re going to replace it with. ‘
You know, I’m a little alarmed that we seem to be thinking that we can kick the can down the road on the replacement of the Affordable Care Act. There are some very important policy goals that Republicans have been working to accomplish for some time.
There was more calls to dismember Medicare and Social Security.
CHEN: You know, John, I think the flipside of that also is, Donald Trump, during the campaign, did not say very much about Medicare or Social Security. Now, remember, the three biggest drivers of federal deficit and debt going forward are health care spending, Social Security and net interest on the debt. So unless we do something about those quickly, this is a problem like compounding interest is a good thing when you invest, this is the opposite of that. And so it is crucially important.
And I’m glad to see, by the way, that Republicans have begun to focus on Medicare reform, because that is the -- the more intractable, I think, of the two problems between Medicare and Social Security. But it’s also important for him, I think, to revisit what he said during the campaign, which is that he didn’t want to touch Social Security.
MACGUINEAS: That’s right.
CHEN: I think it’s important that we look at things like the retirement age and also the growth of benefits.
MACGUINEAS: Because to add up with spending proposals, taking entitlements off the table, which I think is a very unwise idea and really stands in the way of getting this done, and dealing with the debt, you can’t have a big loss from your tax reform.
