A president’s greatness comes down to how well he limited government abroad and at home [1].

Abroad, Trump didn’t lead the USA into a major war.

At home, though, Trump signed off on swollen government budgets, didn’t force roll-call votes to fully repeal Obamacare, welcomed “dreamers,” championed jailbreak [2], and greatly expanded health tyranny.

Trump championed Fifteen Days to Slow the Spread, which never was going to age well [3]. Trump championed Coronavirus money-printing that took a long-raging Fed fire and poured on gas [4]. Trump championed genetic vaccines that over time are proving ever-more deadly and debilitating [5]. Trump didn’t weigh in upfront to limit massive unconstitutional changes in ballot handling that made votes not credibly certifiable [6].

Just like every essential idea of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was put into place by Hoover [7], every essential idea of Biden’s Coronavirus tyranny was put into place by Trump.

Trump looks even worse when he’s compared to his contemporaries. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis quickly sought nongovernment genuine experts, turned on a dime, and used substantial constitutional powers to limit governments and cronies [8]. Representative Thomas Massie risked his career trying to block the Coronavirus money-printing that bailed out Democratic politicians and amped up inflation [9].

In 2012, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was weak on Obamacare because as governor of Massachusetts he had championed Romneycare. As things stand now, Trump is weak on Republican-affirmed Obamacare, jailbreak, health tyranny, and inflation.

Inflation is going to stay hot even given a Republican Progressive house and senate [10].

Reagan knew that inflation meant that more money was chasing the same products [11], and he took the political heat to take the necessary action [12].

Trump is smart enough to get this. Trump is agile enough to turn on a dime.

But Trump’s family members won’t [13]. And so far, Trump has always put his family members first, ahead of us.

Suppose that Trump’s momentum and marketing dissuade and neutralize Republican challengers. Trump would next face the hurdle that informed swing voters would need reasons to turn out to vote for him. If Trump would not give them reasons and would lose the general election, he would fall far short of great.

If Trump would win a second term, he would have to turn around and make his mark in only 4 more years; and if he would instead largely double down on his first-term policies, he would also fall far short of great.

One option, then, is to fail, one way or another.

Another option is to exit.

If Trump would pivot to building a media empire and mercilessly pounding Democrats and the legacy media, Trump could successfully migrate his base’s enthusiasm over to new Republican candidates who would eliminate Republican-affirmed Obamacare, eliminate health tyranny, and slash spending to end inflation.

Such an eventual nominee would be much-better positioned to win a full 8 years to make positive changes, and, like Reagan, have voters reap the benefits [14] and credit him.

The nominee, and voters deciding on him, would have the benefit of all the recent hindsight that Trump’s presidency unearthed about existing departments and agencies. The right nominee would be ready from day one, and would have surging support, to be a par-excellence demolition man.

Or, Trump himself could become that demolition man.

I can hear the warmup theme playing at campaign rallies: “… don’t mess around with the demolition man [15].”

But greatness would demand not talk but action.

A president has vested in him the executive power. Executives control organizational structures, layoffs and hiring, projects, and operations, including line-item budgets [16].

Legislators constitutionally lack executive authority just like they constitutionally lack executive accountability.

Admiral Hyman Rickover understood executive accountability: “Responsibility is a unique concept. … You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you. … If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible [17].”

A president takes an oath to protect the Constitution. Protecting the Constitution requires that he independently interpret the Constitution and not take any action that he himself considers unconstitutional [18].

When he considers anything in legislation or in judicial opinions unconstitutional, a president who takes his oath seriously [19] won’t simply veto new bills and not execute new judicial opinions. He also won’t execute existing statutes and existing opinions.

He won’t say he considers the abortion opinions unconstitutional [20] but then still disburse funds to abortion-committing Planned Parenthood.

He won’t say he opposes State Department color-revolution support [21] and FBI and DOJ politically-tilted investigations and prosecutions [22] but then still run any such organizations that in practice thoroughly defy the Constitution.

He won’t say he supports ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine [23] but then still run the Constitution-defying FDA [24], CDC, and NIH [25], or any Constitution-defying government-funded research [26].

Instead, he will lay off every employee whose job or performance he considers unconstitutional. No reality-TV drama and suspense, just the real-world action “You’re fired!”

He will recommend to each congress’s consideration [27] that they formally repeal each statute he considers unconstitutional. He will build the party to do this [28].

A Progressive president will hire and will influence the bureaucracy, and above all he must sell its services to voters. He’s a government salesman.

A president who protects the Constitution must instead veto Progressive bills, reorganize, lay people off, and recommend repeal bills. He also will market the Constitution to voters, but chiefly through his actions. In the wake of the Progressives’ century [29], he’s a demolition man.

To be a great president, Trump would have to set aside the wars of words he relishes. Instead, Trump would have to make his actions speak for him.

And for us.