Donald Trump, the face of our nation?

One of the distinctives of the constitutional government of the United States is that the functions of head of state and head of government are combined in the American presidency.  The president of the United States is, in a sense, the equivalent of both the United Kingdom’s monarch and the United Kingdom’s prime minister, or of the president and prime minister of France or Germany or Israel.  That is, he is both the ceremonial personal symbol of the United States (the placer of wreaths, the leader of national mourning, etc.) and the operational CEO of the federal executive branch, the “chief magistrate” (as he was once commonly called).

Thus, it’s generally been thought that the president should possess a certain gravitas or personal dignity.

In a recent television interview, Donald Trump was asked to identify one or two of his favorite verses from the Bible.  I’m guessing that it likely surprised very few that he didn’t do so.  Probably because he was unable to do so.  (At least he didn’t cite “A stitch in time saves nine,” or “This above all else, to thine own self be true.”  We can be thankful for small mercies.)

His failure to answer the question is no big deal, really — I’m not particularly interested in a religious litmus test for the presidency — though it’s probably a bit revealing of the inner Trump.

But the way in which he tried to dodge the question is interesting:  “I wouldn’t want to get into it,” he answered.  “Because to me, that’s very personal.”

Compare this passage, from his book Think Big:

“Oftentimes when I was sleeping with one of the top women in the world I would say to myself, thinking about me as a boy from Queens, ‘Can you believe what I am getting?'”

That kind of thing apparently isn’t too personal.

Now, of course, we’ve had adulterers and fornicators in the White House before.  John F. Kennedy, for instance, was so busy cheating on his wife that it’s astonishing to think that he had any time or energy left over for his duties as president.

But we’ll never, if Mr. Trump moves into the White House, have had a president before who was as openly and unashamedly promiscuous as he apparently has been.

Something to reflect upon, perhaps, when he’s bidding to represent the people, traditions, and values of our Republic as our head of state.