Donald Trump is the George Steinbrenner of American Politics

Donald Trump has been branded many ways by this writer over the last two years.

He has been called:

• The 2016 Popular Vote Loser
• Individual One
• The Liar in Chief
• The KKK Endorsed Candidate
• The Mad King
• The Impeached One.
• The Coronavirus of American Politics

He could also be called the George Steinbrenner of American Politics.

For sports fans that remember the late New York Yankee owner, he, like Donald Trump, that befriended and enlisted the services of Roy Cohn.

They were both friendly with one another, with the younger Trump crediting the older Steinbrenner as a mentor and called him his best friend.

News reports credit Trump’s favorite phrase on the Apprentice “You’re fired,” from watching Steinbrenner’s almost annual firing of New York Yankee managers (and general managers) from 1979 to 1991 when his suspension from baseball stopped him from doing more.

Well, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Trump is doing his best to mimic his deceased rival. While presiding over an Administration that has a bigger turnover than the local McDonalds, Mr. Trump, like Steinbrenner, likes to create workplace havoc for his people.

Steinbrenner used to torment his managers, general managers, and players with comments (tweets did not exist then) that he may have to fire or trade that person. One manager (and former general manager,) the late Gene Michael, grew so frustrated with Steinbrenner’s passive-aggressive fecal matter that he told the press in 1981 after clinching the first round of the playoffs “Fire me and leave me alone.” Steinbrenner obliged and then brought Michael back to manage a couple of months in 1982 and then later as General Manager (where he rebuilt the team following Steinbrenner’s 1991 suspension).

Yesterday, Trump retweeted a post from a person in the fringe political arena calling for the firing of Dr. Anthony Faucci.

Trump did this because earlier in the day Dr. Faucci went on CNN and said that efforts made by the experts to get social distancing measures in place earlier than March to combat the Coronavirus were ignored.

Like Steinbrenner, Trump is using a passive-aggressive pattern to set the stage for Fauci’s eventual removal which WILL happen but probably not until June or July when this immediate Coronavirus emergency has subsided.

Trump did this with the Inspector General that reported the whistleblower complaint to Congress that led to his impeachment.

He has done this with several administration officials (Dan Coates, Ray Tillerson, and Jim Mattis) that have fallen out of favor with him.

He, like Steinbrenner, will do this with Faucci or anyone else that irritates him.

Unlike Steinbrenner whose actions inundated the back pages of New York’s newspapers, Trump’s actions, especially if he fires Faucci or other experts like him, have life and death repercussions and permanently damage the country.

 

Also, while Steinbrenner has become a reviled figure for how he handled his people, at least his team (with the guidance of general managers who knew baseball)  won most of the time while he lived. At least Steinbrenner knew how to keep these people long enough to make money.

Those are two lessons Mr. Trump did not get from his mentor. He should have come away with more from Steinbrenner than “You’re Fired.”