fourth term the united states we've only had one president who served four terms and that was franklin delano roosevelt who might be the greatest american president certainly grace american president of the twentieth century and there was some controversy about that it was after his fourth term that they put in the constitutional amendment to limit presidents to two terms but we were people were very happy to have franklin roosevelt served four terms specially during that time of crisis let's just listen in just for a moment to peter. ladies and gentleman that i did with you dear friends but if you . would you know welcome only a citizen so great country in our compatriots living abroad. watching or listening to this broadcast. who are present here in the halls of this and cathedral square. taking the office of president of russia i realized the tremendous responsibility. it lives on my shoulders and i responsibility to all of you who are multiethnic people couldn't you was in the way you did my responsibility to russia really great country and. you know thousands of years of history with to our ancest

the fact that franklin roosevelt in 1933, an aid came to him and said, if you succeed in this crisise depression you will go down as our greatest president and if you fail you will go down as the worst. fdr looked at him and said, if i fail i will be the last. , we would not have wanted to be married to franklin roosevelt . because of his experience of polio he understood that serious challenges could be overcome. the issue with president trump is, can he come at any point in office, channel this unconventionality, channel his asque instincts to build opposed to play to the base. david: it is too early to tell. we are a little over a year into the first term. put aside the question about how he is -- ,e got the tax cuts through whether you think that is it good idea or bad idea it is a major these of legislation. he is making progress on north korea. there are some indications that he is getting things done even if we might not like all the tweets. >> that is right. it becomes the central puzzle of age. if i had told my democratic friends on inauguration day that the substance of the

how that would happen, how it could be done, was franklin roosevelt's issue he had to deal with. roosevelt's strategy was one of waiting also, but waiting for several different points. waiting for american rearmament to take place so the resources of this great continent could be harnessed and applied, he is fully rearming the country in a rapid way, and then he is waiting for american public opinion to change. american public opinion was very or 1940.ist in 1939 it is beginning to shift as americans see what is happening in europe. the isolation is and begins to thin out. forevelt is also waiting his own fort sumter, just like lincoln was waiting for the attack on fort sumter, attacked by the confederacy, which then provided the justification for war. roosevelt did not know where was going to come from. he did know the japanese were under great pressure. in part because of an american oil embargo. the japanese attack on pearl harbor solve the great number of problems for roosevelt. there was only one problem left. it was the japanese who had attacked and not the germans. how does

i think he is missing a historic opportunity to live into what franklin roosevelt said, that it is preeminently a place of moral leadership, and a place where you can shape the dispositions of heartened minds in this country. which is hugely important. the republic is only good as the sum of its parts. that's the wonderful thing about a republic. all of us play a role in the ultimate face of the nation, because it's a reflection of what we are. >> we mentioned you are a biographer, is this a history book? >> it is. this is not a partisan book. it's of trump, but not about trump. which is like defining life in america today. i voted for democrat, i voted for republicans. i plan to continue to. what i wanted to do was look back historically and offer as backspace, in order to reach the maximum number of people. we are, as you know better than anybody, we are incredibly triable. and you pick a team and anything the other team does is motivated by ill. it's a danger. and yet we don't listen particularly well to each other. so, what i wanted to do was try to say democrats have gotten it right and go

this was recorded at the franklin d. roosevelt library and museum in hyde park new york in 2010. it is about 40 minutes. [applause] >> thank you so much for coming to this talk. for supporting the book, and thank you so much to the roosevelt library for offering this invitation. the new deal is often characterized as progressive, even revolutionary. new policies coupled with a sense of executive emergencies led many americans to celebrate the roosevelt administration as a symbol of change and progress. in the minds of new deal administrators, these programs would alleviate suffering for american families, but they also have the potential to create an inclusive participatory democracy. as cultural visionary louis mumford reflected on this impulse in the 1930s he pronounced "more public good has come out of the bankruptcy of the economic quarter than ever came out of its flatulent prosperity." did mumford statement, however, apply to all american? more specifically, did the new deals inclusionary mission extension african-americans who had arguably been suffering the most extreme p

truman had e, in the 1950's, been kept at arm's length by franklin roosevelt. it was not a tradition of the vice president doing much. he chaired cabinet meetings when eisenhower was away. that was it. he didn't have a big portfolio. i think you generally wanted him to be more seasoned. eisenhower was concerned the republican party -- that a republican succeed him. truman been he believed nixon would be a stronger candidate in 1960. there is no doubt there was a distance between these two men. distance of age, experience, generational difference. they were not friends. eisenhower never opened his personal family life to nixon, didn't bring him to gettysburg, didn't treat him as an intimate. not one of his closest advisers. you can see on the video that that is not exactly a ringing endorsement of your number two man. he was cool about it and nixon took it personally. host: you talk about polling in the book, and we have done several polls on the president. i want to put on the screen the two different polls. one of them is 1962, where lincoln was number one, wa

the real vernacular he mastered in the seam way franklin roosevelt mastered radio and kennedy reagan mastered television is reality tv production. he announces things. he builds suspense. he pits characters against each other announce iran nuclear deal at 2 p.m. tomorrow. you know, from his account -- you know, and you can hear the music coming almost. so you're fired -- [laughter] and i didn't i never watched the apprentice one of my many -- sure, go ahead. now eyebrow credentials to watch. now i'm living in it. [laughter] like all trapped in this endless loop like it was a horror movie. [laughter] so -- i think that he understands where a huge amount a of the country is culturally in a way that this zip code honestly probably does not. you asked a second about historical presence trump wants to be andrew jackson and not many do so that's -- ands he was coming down to the hermit the man actually he doesn't know much about jackson. i know that will shock you. [laughter] i -- i went to interview him in may of '16, and we were actually together that that morning, and i was -- went over

the way i came to this book is many years ago i became aware of a fishing trip that franklin roosevelt took 750 miles northwest of here in the canadian shield country and in later years when i was working for supporting various national security discussions and negotiationsa which is always a contentious and amending process from time to time i would wonder about that trip to washington was literally the capital for the allies for running the war at that time. how could he leave at a critical point in deciding how to go forward in the war. when i retired i started tracing that thread and it led to some very interesting places and i hope you will agree. so some background. in the beginning of 1943 i saw the alia and important turning point. three pivotal battles of stalingrad have beaten off the threat of defeat in 1942. now they were going on the offensive and the big challenge for the americano british was hw fastrc they could win here. they had differing circumstances and different goals for how the war should end. britain and the d united states favored different strategies. a more

marshall was franklin roosevelt's army chief of staff before he won the nobel force for hislan to rebuild europe. away from the battlefield, not all picks have looked good in hindsight. myanm's aung san suu kyi seemed like a lock in 1991. she habeen living under house arrest by the military junta. but amid criticism over her handling of the rohingya crisis, some say she no longer deserves the award. perhaps one tops them all. >> for what he hopes will be the final phase of the negotiations to end the war in indochina. reporter: henry kissinger shared fothe prize in 1973 negotiating an armistice in the vietnar. nixon's right-hand man, historyh also kno for the secret bombings of cambodia and laos. sometimes the world is too violent for any peace prize winner. >> no nobel peace prize this year. why not? it is that man again. reporter: the nobel committee decidenot to award anyone during the height of world war ii. that's right, no one was peaceful enough, anywhere on earth. then again, whshould we be surprised? this mixture of war and peace, bombast and virtue. nalfredobel made his fortune

people's real needs we have been committed to a process rather than product in the old days the franklin roosevelt days the harry truman days you had to produce something to keep people interested in your candidacy we democrats began back in the seventy's and eighty's to fold then to this whole business of doing theory do one process around that very only when bill clinton came along that we began to think of product but we even criticized clinton for producing product that was more like what gingrich was recommended on things like welfare than what democrats theoretically were for we should have been practicing. with taken care of poor people you better figure out how to package it so everybody shares and the benefits from the humanity that comes with doing that we didn't do that larry and we have not done that and the results are that we have for now literally failed. well they owe as love talking to you hope we do it again soon great to see a look in so well all right larry nice to talk with you to our social media sites like facebook and twitter censoring conservatives brant bozell head of the

franklin roosevelt aligns himself with economic internationalists. he aligns himself with economic elites invested in international trade and international investment. we tend to think of roosevelt as being famous for his speech recalls that captains of industry and describes them as being the new robber barons of the 20th century, but he was closely aligned with wall street bankers. there were several bank that supported his campaigns throughout the 1930's. why? was alignedevelt towards international trade and international investment. republicans were aware of that. some agreement -- agreed with that. dewey was in line with the same approach. it was also aligned from the economic interests. ohiot taft, senator from was not. the allied himself with midwest manufacturing interests. they were extremely trepidations about the idea they would face economic competition from abroad based on lower wages. and closer access to resources. when roosevelt begins to move forward with his economic agenda in the 1930's, sorry about this, passing the 1934 reciprocal

first was insularity,ith the isolationism, provincialism, anti-semitism, and appeasement that franklin roosevelt struggled to overcome in 1940 and 1941. i asked my out -- myself the obvious question. why would any candidate want to associate himself with that sort of a movement? and to this day, i am not quite certain whether donald trump understood the historical roots of america first when he initially associated himself with it or if he was really quite clever in doing so, because very quickly, i came to see that america first resonated. commonsensical. it garnered a lot of support, and yet for me, i thought it sounded quite ominous. am perplexeden i and troubled about historical issues and contemporary issues, i went to my colleague, will hitchcock, and asked him to explain this phenomenon to me. considerable his tion seek --- erudi seemed just as perplexed as i was. we decided why don't we, and the -- why don't we come together and discuss the life, meaning, and implications of america first? fullest --ill and itl antholis, who said sounded like a good idea, and as long as it is nine paters

first up they provide a history of the war refugee board created in 1944 by president franklin rooseveltjective of assisting jewish refugees. then it's the lucas prize, awarded by columbia university for books on american topic of political or social concern. at 9:00 p.m. on book tv "after words", best-selling author explores the science behind how the body ages. : : : that'll happens tonight on booktv on c-span2, television for serious

. - i think that, look, i grew up a believer in the party of franklin roosevelt-- - yeah. - and by the way, tip of the cap to texas' own, lyndon baines johnson, for what he achieved as president, and i think it's underrated in many ways what his domestic agenda was for this country. - he also, by the way, was attacked from the left. - unquestionably. - i mean, the fact is, this is not a new thing. - no, and thank you! a very important historical perspective, it's not a new thing because, unfortunately, on foreign policy in particular, he governed very much as a conservative, but my point is, the democratic party has an essential nature, as a party of working people. a party that is willing to challenge powerful forces that got lost, in many ways,ov. what's happening now, and again, it goes back to the recession, it goes back to occupy wall street, there's a lot of things pre-trump that were already building this. - yep. - bernie sanders' movement occurred before anyone thought trump was serious. all of these pieces are coming together, and democrats around the country who are progressi

as franklin roosevelt said i don't care what they say about me, but when they start to attack my dog.hank my wife ethel. >> it was tremendously exciting, because for some time now he had been building towards this moment, getting an anti-war person in the white house. and now, my god, i think it's going to happen. >> my thanks to all of you. now it's on to chicago, and let's win there. >> "on to chicago and let's win there." i can just still hear him saying it. >> his aides want him to rush to a press conference. the press is waiting. they want him to give a statement. and so they take him by way of shortcut through the kitchen. >> senator. senator, this way. this way. no, no. >> and that's where sirhan sirhan was waiting for him. >> senator kennedy has been shot. is that possible? is that possible? >> oh my god. senator kennedy has been shot. >> ladies and gentlemen, we have kept the air on because we've heard an alarming report that robert kennedy was shot in that ballroom at the ambassador hotel in los angeles. a very loud noise like a clap of thunder was heard. >> the great irony

not lincoln, not james madison, not earl warren, not franklin roosevelt. maybe you can explain how you came to this. >> you feel you pay all this money and all you get is 10 people. how about cameos? madison, louis brandeis, a lot of people but i needed to pick people that went from the beginning of our history to the present. i wanted people who i thought teach us lessons that i think are in need of some restoration. i tried to pick people who have been lost to history or who have or who are remembered that i think misunderstood. hamilton come woodrow wilson. i needed to have people that were diverse to show the history of our constitution is not just the history of the importance of court cases are a series of constitutional interpretation set of the justices or senators. it is a story about america and i found the only way is to use the method by the greeks and romans the romans. you pick a few people and you follow them on their dentures they like and see what kind of picture you can paint about a larger civilization and try to tell people the unknown

. >> he had given her of a book with president franklin roosevelt, and she went from page to page, ande. >> it remains to be seen what the relationship will be between the king and the united kingdom as a whole, and the next american president, donald trump. >> we are going to make america great again. theresa may, who becomes the next prime minister after the 2016 brexit vote, extends an invitation, which would include a meeting with the queen. the invitation sparks backlash. >> in the circumstances, his policies go against everything we stand for. >> after the protest the state visit changes to what is called a working visit, meaningless pageantry and less conflict. >> the queen will never make her feelings known about president trump. it's one of the things on which the queen is going to have to keep a straight face, which is something that she's very, very good at doing, of course. >> the president of syria -- >> she has handled tough characters. i mean, she's had dictators to dinner and dealt with them and handled them at buckingham pa palace, so i think she will put him in his pl

biased the adopting there is really blue dictation and not negotiations and you know once franklin d. roosevelt said the office of the white house is an office of international morality an office of international morality needs john statesman not real estate agents this administration cannot be a partner and of course we our only option is to stay on this land and to be in this land today between that of a jordan and the military and we are the majority as palestinian arabs group bustin and christian and muslim arabs we're fifty point nine percent jews are forty nine point one percent what are they going to do with us. other than creating extremism and then you know when violence spreads and people are being killed and what sides then israel will say oh these people have it in their d.n.a. and they're terrorists and so on i have devoted twenty five years of my life in negotiations with israel to save lives resample athenians to live and let live we have who denies there's a right to exist we have accepted a palestinian state with his recent us capital to live side by side in peace and security

this was recorded at the franklin d. roosevelt library and museum in hyde park new york in 2010. it is about 40 minutes. [applause] >> thank you so much for coming to this talk. for supporting the book, and thank you so much to the roosevelt library for offering this invitation. the new deal is often characterized as progressive, even revolutionary. new policies coupled with a sense of executive emergencies led many americans to celebrate the roosevelt administration as a symbol of change and progress. in the minds of new deal administrators, these programs would alleviate suffering for american families, but they also have the potential to create an inclusive participatory democracy. as cultural visionary louis mumford reflected on this impulse in the 1930s he pronounced "more public good has

with president franklin roosevelt. she went from page to page.e joy in her face. >> it remains to be seen what the relationship will be between the queen and the united kingdom as a whole. and the next american president. donald trump. >> we are going to make america great again. >> theresa may who becomes prime minister after the 2016 brexit vote extends an invitation to donald trump for a full state visit. which would include a meeting with the queen. the invination sparks backlash. >> i don't think we should roll out the red carpet in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for. >> after the protest, the state visit changes to what's called a working visit. meaning less pageantry and maybe less conflict. >> the queen is obviously never going to make her feelings known about president trump. it's one of the things on which the queen is going to have to keep a straight face. which is something she's very good at doing of course. >> she's handle tough characters. she's had dictators to dinner. and dealt with and handle

it was franklin delano roosevelt's wife, eleanor, who pushed anti-lynching legislation while fdr himselfreated the fair employment practices committee, which banned discrimination against of african americans in the defense industry. and by 1948 democratic presidential candidate harry truman runs on a pro-civil rights platform that calls for integrating the armed forces and ending discrimination for federal employees. that caused the departure of many southern democrats from the democratic party. in 1968 it was richard nixon's southern strategy that recognized the racial tensions during the civil rights movement and intentionally appealed to white southerners' racial hostility. in 2005, the republican national committee chairman formally apologized for exploiting racial polarization to get votes. as for slavery being a choice that's so stupid we're not going to dignify it with an answer but tmz reporter van lathan had a good answer for kanye and you can look that up online. announcer: when we return, do you know what that sound is? a new online museum preserving endangered sounds before

not lincoln, not james madison, not earl warren, not franklin roosevelt. so it's a somewhat surprising list. maybe you could explain how you came to this list? >> >> yeah. so ten figures, although you feel you're going to pay all this money and you only get ten people, i have a lot of cameos. [laughter] a lot of people. but pick -- i needed to pick people that went from the beginning of our history to the present. i wanted to pick people who i thought teach us lessons that i think are in need of some restoration. i tried to pick people whose reputations have been lost to history or who have, or who are remembered but, i think, misunderstood. i put hamilton, woodrow wilson, even scalia to an extent in these categories. i needed to have people that were diverse in various ways that show that the history of our constitution is not just the history of the important supreme court cases or theories of constitutional interpretation or that the things said by the justices or senators. it is stories about american human beings. and i found that the only way i could

from franklin roosevelt's new deal to ronald reagan's shining city on a hill, presidents have struggled to make sure that all americans have a chance to achieve the american dream. a president's leadership on issues far more to the economy to education to shops, from health care to conservation another's determines whether we have the opportunity to succeed. at the same time, we also understand that presidents are human and make mistakes and we paid for those mistakes. the strength of the modern presidency is challenged as never before in our history with the partisan divide and dysfunction that makes it difficult to govern. the failure of washington to deal with critical issues facing americans is wanted in part led to the election of president trump. he is friday very different style of leadership to the presidency. he has challenged many traditional norms at the office. his criticized checks and balances in taken executive action to pass policies and he communicates his views to the american people by tweeting. yes, supporters believe he's doing exactly what he was elected to do, cha

franklin roosevelt, ronald reagan those are different kinds ever figures.sident trump in is president because we have a climate of fear in the country. he certainly took advantage of it. he exacerbated it. and fear is an unreasoning, edmond burke said this, nothing makes us so unreasonable as fear. we're a moment of great economic and cultural transition, unquestionably. but basically when we have listened to our better angels, more widely understood the assertion of equality we've grown stronger. we've also always grown stronger the wider we've opened our arms. whether the issue sim gration or free flow of ideas or just open dissent. those are the moments when we are most broad minded that we grow stronger. >> brennan: in a lot of the examples you write about you talk about sort of the office holder having a sense of histo history. their place in history. even though they all had their own personal issues you detail them. >> absolutely. >> brennan: do you believe that president trump has a sense of the office? >> not really. no. i don't. i don't think he h

unless you were violently opposed to fdr and his policies, every historian fell in love with franklin delano roosevelt and it's hard to blame them. and so the story is always franklin. and so the story is always franklin. he marries eleanor, it's lucky eleanor although at the time nobody thought lucky eleanor, all of the social circle thought oh, lucky franklin to be marrying up. - yeah. - yeah. hard to imagine these days roosevelt marrying up. right? he seems like the elite of the elites in the mind's eye. - he was, but he was kind of a dweeb at harvard. he didn't get into the best clubs, he wasn't an athlete, he wasn't a scholar, he was kind of a schlep and arrogant, to boot, and eleanor was tall and slim and had been educated in english boarding school and teddy roosevelt said she was his favorite person in the world. so lucky franklin, and then he goes on to become assistant secretary of the navy and he becomes governor and he breaks her heart, is how the narrative goes, and she never recovers, and in her broken heartedness she goes on to do good deeds for which we are all grateful. - she channele

it wasn't for the vice president to do much and harry truman had been length by 's president franklin roosevelt so nixon, >> that opened the field for to run in the top five. that's a remarkable achievement nd reflects eisenhower's ability to govern from the center which is an admiral quality. > you can get on line and look at our poll. we went out of our way to alance it politically not just have one side as the poll back 1962. footnote from your book. when he was nominated, he told jim haggerty, his press he would go to korea but to "just keep that quiet." that in an oral history and that was before he became president. hy did he want to keep it quiet? didn't he promise that during the election? >> he did. he wanted to drop that at the moment. he said he would go to korea during the campaign. he wanted that to have the that it at he knew would have when the former allied commander of world war ii says i'm going to go to korea and see what's going on there for myself as a candidate, he knew it would be a provocation because it would suggest and it did suggest that harry truman korean war ng th

these leaders you look at them early in their ears for gorbachev was an average bureaucrat franklin roosevelt was a rich wealthy upstate new yorker and will less the was a dock worker. gandhi started as wearing british suits in trying to be a british lawyer. mandela had a certain quality and he would be the only one you could say, it's like lebron james coming out of high school. you could really say this person has a bright future. what a dupe talk about in each of these areas are strategies you can learn from the 20th century adapted to the 21st. bear some similarities in what it takes for rivalries to be managed for human rights etc.. in the epilogue i try to drive altogether and towards the end i come back to where i started which is the reference to kennedy's profiles in courage. i included quote. member that was a 1956. this is kennedy in 1956. everyday life is becoming so saturated with the tremendous power of mask medication. our political life is becoming so expensive so mechanized and is so dominated by professional politicians and public relations man that the idealist dreams of st

that's when andrew jackson went soaring because he was thought to be the populace forerunner of franklin roosevelt's of any part of the polling that you don't like just wait 20 years. [laughter] where do you think -- you mentioned his domestic accomplishments in the environmental protection agency created under nixon, when there was inflation fo the price conts came into effect which would be a vigorous use of the central government. where would he fit in today's republican party? >> he wouldn't. one of the things i was wary about in writing the book is whether there would be an audience in today's polarized politics because nixon was that breed of northeast moderate republicanism that he came from california. any president is elected they get to take portraits to hang in thtaken thecabinet room of theid the one that nixon picked was dwight eisenhower, teddy roosevelt and a democrat, woodrow wilson. so he was definitely of the progressive stream and there really is no place for him in the republican party today as far as i can see. .. >> and now to say politics is tough. others are moderate. and so

franklin roosevelt, the great -- said there's a line after newman apairs with peaks and separate ultimately trend is upward and put a trend is a trend, it's not inevitable. i think it is remarkable -- i didn't think -- i'm a boringly heterosexual southern white man so i didn't think that barack obama was going to win until -- what was the 8 been -- 800-point day. september 20th. i didn't think america was ready for someone named barack hussein own tone be -- obama to be elected president. in we discount the very fact of barack obama having been president for eight years. kind of amazing. and i think, and maybe people can argue this as digging no a several lining unreason blow -- trump others lex, if nothing else, is a ratification of the fact that the country is inexorably changes demographically issue socially and -- the last gasp of the white populist anger. it's a close to last gasp. might be morganses. but it's in the last three or four. because the only way you could get such a ferocious reacts is if the evidence of the action were not so overwhelming. the strength of the backlash is a

he dominates the culture in a way that franklin roosevelt couldn't have thought about doing.i think ultimately that could be his downfall. because the figure he's most like in many ways is joe mccarthy. mccarthy, senator from wisconsin, who led the communist hunts in the early 1950s. roy cohen who was also both mccarthy's lawyer and donald trump's lawyer. sometimes god just gives you these common denominators. he said that he thought mccarthy fell, not least because he demanded too much attention and he wore out his welcome. and i think that's not an impossible outcome here. >> jon meacham, mike murphy, always good to have you. while you were speaking, mr. meacham, some breaking news coming in. apparently one of the president's attorneys, emmitt flood -- emmitt flood -- was part of that highly classified meeting that just wrapped up there at the justice department. according to a source, according to sources, the lawyer there came to the justice department for the meeting. at this point it is not known how long he stayed but he was in fact in the room. we'll be right back. lo

franklin roosevelt said the job is preeminently a place of moral leadership. that's at our best. the great thing about the american experiment is we have a number of forces on the field. we have the presidency, we have the congress, we have the courts, we have the press and we have all of us. we have the people. and we need to make sure that two or three of those forces are pointing in the right direction. >> is that all we've got, meacham? i mean, are you giving up on congress? i just heard you say two. which two? we got the press and the people, and we're screwed with the other two? >> the courts aren't doing a bad job, i don't think, honestly. wait, wait, wait. andrew johnson opposed the 14th and 15th amendments. we should not put -- when we have a president who is not commensurate with the responsibilities, as president bush said last night, quoting churchhill at harvard, the price of greatness is responsibility, right now we have a president who is not up to that job. but what are we supposed to do, foal our tents? no. what we do is talk about it, we protest, we resist. we t

host: you have praise for franklin roosevelt during the times he faced dark moments.he didn't rise occasion at times. specifically japanese internment camp. horse ofsue with this an attorney named or worn. earl warren. president reagan and president clinton ultimately apologized for it. another sign that our great view of faithful in moral and. if you are for perfection this is the wrong place. perfect. be more one of the most interesting things in the book i did not write, a speech frederick douglass gave, not far from here at the dedication of a monument to lincoln. he said the best meditation on the nature of history and the reality of it, he is praising lincoln. he says lincoln, it the white man's president. we were at best his stepchildren, children by adoption. yet this is the man that delivered us from bondage. interesting as the scene at the end of the iliad, talking about life-and-death. it is this stark and uncompromising view the best we can hope for is somebody doing the right thing more than half the time. i think that as a guiding principle gives us a be

not inherit a ward in which more than half a million american soldiers were bogged down by franklin rooseveltand barack obama didn't take it in the midst of a massive financial crisis. although the world how to share problems in the trump presidency began. they were ongoing. not new or urgent. the domestic economy had been growing, slowly but steadily for all but one quarter of the previous six years. the rate of inflation was below 2%. unemployment had dipped below 5%. percentage of americans who regard themselves as middle or upper class had reached 62%, and a greater share than the two dozen a financial crisis. the stock market was already the main. unlike all of his recent republican predecessors, donald trump took office with a republican congress. so you look at it that way, donald trump was dealt a very good hand and honestly, i am somebody who appreciates the significant of the tax-cut bill that was enacted last month into law. when you step back and think what the president's been able to do in the past when i had a congress controlled by their own party? one major piece of legislati