I read the article Donald Trump's Performative Presidency from The Atlantic on February 14th, 2017. There was little bias in it; if biased at all, it was very slightly liberal. The purpose of this publication was to analyze president Trump's recent crises handling and his disregard of many routines and traditions of the presidency. The text was written by Editor David A. Graham on February 13th, 2017 and is likely intended for a broad, at least semi-educated audience with political interests and likely doubts on Mr. Trump's actions as president. With national security being touted as one of President Trump's top priorities, it is ironic to many that he seems very open in handling national security issues. This could be predicted by some, however, as Trump is obviously very candid and often blatantly honest. With North Korea becoming a threat to Asian-Pacific trade allies like Japan, the US must take a strong stand against North Korea and their missile program, sticking up for its alliances. Obviously, with a country as unstable as North Korea, handling information about their wrongdoings in such a public light is certainly unconventional and often frowned upon. The author's purpose was to offer insight on this unconventionality and highlight issues with Trump's public handling of highly sensitive information that has the potential to affect our entire country. The text says that the event with Japan's prime minister was the perfect time for Trump to show his unconventionality and transparency, which puts his own desires about his public image in front of the needs of the nation, security wise. This brings up the question, is Trump's transparency and honesty a strong attribute of his presidency, or is it a threat to our country? I believe that the presidency is often seen as over secretive and extremely rigid in its traditions, so I am not opposed to government transparency. Trump is certainly delivering on that campaign promise thus far. I do believe that national security is one medium that requires more censorship and sensitivity than other aspects of the presidency, so some caution should be used when dealing with those topics. This article was interesting because it highlighted Trump's honesty in carrying out campaign promises at least to some extent and dealing with even very sensitive material in plain sight, literally, of ordinary people (or however ordinary people are at the $200,000 a year club Trump was at when the North Korea announcement reached him).
