To Help Me Stay in the Center, Here's Some of What Trump Did Right

on Feb 18, 2025

SAN DIEGO -- A friend describes me as a "belligerent centrist." I consider myself an honest umpire who calls balls and strikes regardless of who is standing at the plate.

By the way, I got to the center because I dislike both political parties and often can't tell them apart. Republicans and Democrats go through the motions and argue over hot-button issues such as abortion or guns because the noise helps raise money from special interests. But when it comes to the thing they both crave -- power -- they're the same animal.

Take, for instance, President Donald Trump's power grab in the first month of his second term in the White House. While the liberal media is clutching their pearls over what they see as a massive overreach by the Republican, they must have totally forgotten that, about 30 years ago, a Democratic president also flexed his executive muscles.

Bill Clinton understood that unused power is useless power, and that the best presidents show strength. This is especially true in times of crisis.

"When people feel uncertain," Clinton once said, "they'd rather have someone strong and wrong than weak and right."

I like the view from the center because it lets me see things that most of my media colleagues miss, from the far left or the far right. There's a reason that my podcast is titled "Ruben In The Center."

Here's the problem. Trump is making it very difficult for Ruben to stay in the center.

As a lifelong journalist who has spent 35 years in this bizarre industry, I'm hardwired to challenge those in power. We're supposed to get in their face and under their skin. No matter what party they belong to.

When Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden were in the White House, I leaned to the right. Now that Trump is back, I'm inching to the left.

In fact, I was recently scolded by a television producer for leaning too far left. Oddly enough, just 18 months ago, when Joe Biden was president, I was scolded by the same producer for being too far right.

That tells you how confused the media are right now, and how afraid many of my colleagues are of their own shadow. They're sensitive to complaints from the MAGA mob, and they're trying to hold onto their "core audience." That is code for old white people who back Trump.

Still, the call reminded me that it is time to recalibrate. I want to stay a "never Trumper" while also remaining "Ruben In The Center."

As I try to thread that needle, it seems to me that a good first step is to take a break from bashing Trump for all that he's done wrong and acknowledge some of what he has done right.

The first 10 items that come to mind are:

-- getting off to a lightning quick start and enacting his preferred policies with efficiency and decisiveness;

-- focusing the public's attention on the important issues of immigration and border security;

-- rolling back a Biden administration directive that required public schools to allow transgender athletes who identified as women and girls to compete in female sports in order to comply with Title IX, a civil rights law that prevents sex-based discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding;

-- revoking the immigration visas of foreign students who protest against the United States or its allies;

-- nominating Marco Rubio as Secretary of State and food safety advocate Robert F. Kennedy as Secretary of Health & Human Services;

-- reaffirming U.S. support for Israel, which included an invitation to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House;

-- appearing to use tariffs effectively as a negotiating tactic against trading partners such as Canada, Mexico, Colombia and India;

-- seeming to stand up to MAGA nativists and right-wing isolationists in defense of H-1B visas for high-skilled tech workers;

-- directing Elon Musk to identify fraud, end graft and eliminate waste through the Department of Government Efficiency;

-- and last but certainly not least, giving media access and availability even when it means taking hostile questions from liberal journalists.

If you're keeping score at home, about half the country likes what Trump is doing, and the other half doesn't.

A new Marquette Law School Poll national survey found that 48% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president and 52% disapprove.

That reminds me: While not everything that Trump does is bad, further dividing the country is never good.

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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.