Memos to Trump: Policy Recommen­dations the New President Might Actually Like

A wise man once told me that there is no policy without politics. I’d amend that absolute a bit: In a democracy, relatively few governmental initiatives go forward simply and entirely on their merits. The political implications of a policy shift are usually hovering in the background, and the politicians considering the shift are usually looking over their shoulders, wondering which of the implications might step forward later to bite them.

But they’re also looking around for positive implications, the possibility that a change in the government’s approach might solve a problem and be good politics (or, to be more cynical, to be good politics and also, perhaps, do some small amount of good). Such win-win efforts are not unknown to US governance. In the 1950s, a Republican president was instrumental in funding the interstate highway system, and the country has benefitted materially ever since—as have President Eisenhower and his party in both the political and historical-assessment senses. And despite the political firestorms that erupted in its first years as law, since its passage in 2010 the Affordable Care Act—or Obamacare, if you will—has increased the numbers of Americans with health insurance and gained in public support that reflects positively on Democrats and President Obama.

In this package, we have asked experts in the existential risks areas that we cover to offer advice to President Trump as he takes office a second time, keeping well in mind that for any politician—and perhaps especially this politician—policy recommendations are far more likely to be accepted when they accord with personal and political proclivities than when they do not.