This is CBSI in the world.

I'm John Batchel.

I'm having a fun conversation about over 100 years of the evolution of the presidency, beginning with Woodrow Wilson.

Stephen F. Hayward is the Edward Gaylor Distinguished Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University School

of Public Policy. I don't mean to leave out Lyndon Johnson. He was a version of FDR. He was so

impressed by him, which was a version of Woodrow Wilson. But we come to Donald Trump. Donald

Trump is said to be unique in that he's not a politician. He challenges the courts. He challenges

the Congress. He challenges media. Is there a analogy to him? Certainly not a statesman.

What does he represent? Yeah, you know, I have been trying to think of other political figures

throughout history that he resembles. And I'm having a hard time coming up with

any. He does remind me, I'll mention one that many listeners will think is absurd, but it might be

Charles de Gaulle, who most Americans don't really know much about or study. Now, Charles de Gaul,

I think, was a more intellectual person than Trump. He wrote some very thoughtful books on military

strategy and stuff. But the thing about

De Gaulle is he had a ginormous ego and he could be quite the narcissist. In other words,

he had a lot of the bad traits that Trump has that people don't like. And, you know, Roosevelt

and Churchill like hated dealing with him because he was so difficult. But they understood

that he was necessary and had the capacities

to lead France at their worst moment in a thousand years. And so, you know, I count de Gaulle as a

great statesman. And he had some good personal qualities, too, that are not well known. But,

boy, was he a difficult guy. And that's the closest I can come. There's no other president I think

he's like at all, except maybe Andrew Jackson, but that's almost 200 years can come. There's no other president I think he's like at all except maybe Andrew Jackson.

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