President Donald Trump attends an event at the White House in Washington, D.C., February 23, 2026.
President Donald Trump is "dwarfed by his predecessors" in the White House, according to a new piece from The New York Times, as one particular character flaw has exposed him as a lesser man than past presidents, even when considering their own "grandiose private failings."
Howell Raines is a veteran reporter known for his brief tenure as executive editor for The New York Times from 2001 to 2003. Touting his experience covering seven presidents throughout his career, Raines wrote in a new piece for the outlet on Monday that presidents "can’t hide their core traits over time," and Trump has thoroughly proven that he lacks the ability to remain dignified and calm in pressing situations, something his predecessors exemplified.
"President Trump is dwarfed by his predecessors. I can attest that even in disgrace, the private [Richard] Nixon had an aura of ravaged dignity that remained presidential in scale," Raines detailed. "By ending the Cold War, Reagan taught us the limits of prediction and the indispensable asset of a calm, balanced personality and, dare one say it in this environment, a kindly nature — something sorely lacking in Mr. Trump’s offenses against good taste and common-sense management."
Raines also cited James David Barber's book, The Presidential Character, and its "crystalline summation of what the presidency requires."
"Presidents must be protectors of 'the respectability — even religiosity — of the office,' providing citizens a sense of 'reassurance,' 'progress' and 'idealism,'" Raines explained.
He later noted that Barber's book was "morbidly prescient in defining the playbook by which three presidents of benign intent — Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover and Lyndon B. Johnson," whom Barber argued caused their own approval declines by "narrow insistence on a failing course of action despite abundant evidence of the failure." This, Raines added, is also a perfect summation of "Mr. Trump’s decision to launch a so far winless conflict in Iran under the guidance of a madcap secretary of war."
"The historical record will show that Mr. Trump fails to measure up, even allowing for the grandiose private failings of a Nixon or Bill Clinton," Raines argued further. "The videotaped highlights of Mr. Trump’s cabinet meetings could be marketed for reality television as 'Spoiled Trust Fund Brats of New York.' What we are witnessing on the ravaged White House grounds is a kind of low-rent yard sale devoted to racecars, wrestling and housebroken rockers. Even his presumptive heirs have demeaned themselves: JD Vance by cheapening the word “hillbilly” in a book about his ersatz Appalachian upbringing, and Marco Rubio, the intellectual star of the cabinet, by defending nutty policies on Iran, Cuba and Venezuela."
