Michelle obama. Joined by the artists at the portrait gallery, home to the only complete collection of National Portraits outside of the white house. Here is a preview. Each of these artists had to walk into the oval office yikes i almost wanted to start each conversation by apologizing for putting them through this process. Just to get this job they had to come to the white house, to the oval office, and get grilled by the president and first lady. Im sorry. [laughter] im so sorry. It was not lost on us how unnerving this experience was for each one of them and when amy came and it was her turn, i have to admit i was intrigued. I was intrigued before she walked into the room. I hadnt seen her work and i was blown away by the bonus of her colors and the uniqueness of her subject matter. So i was wondering, who is this woman . I am not somebody who is a great subject. I do not like posing. I get impatient come i look at this musti think be done. why is this taking so long . It is pretty torturous just tried to take a picture of me, much less paint a portrait. I will say that working with the artist was a great joy. And his, he and his team made it easy. Of ae in the tradition lot of great artists actually cared to hear how i thought about it. Before doing exactly what he intended to do. [laughter] announcer the complete ceremony, including remarks by former president obama and the first lady, from the National Portrait gallery, tonight at 7 30 p. M. Eastern. Brinkley douglas talked about the influence of donald trump on the presidency, joining cspan on todays washington journal. Fromas brinkley joining us austin, texas. Joining us on this president s day. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host we started the hour talking about qualities of the u. S. President. Im interested on hearing your thoughts on the president s you have studied, what makes for good qualities that people bring to the office. . Craig shirley being the right person at the right time. Particularly, wartime president s. We tend to do rankings here at cspan, and the top ranked president s often had to grapple with war. Abraham lincoln is usually number one for getting us through the crucible of the civil war. And then Franklin D Roosevelt getting us through the second world war. After that, i still believe character matters, that the president is supposed to represent what is best in the american public, and tell the truth to the citizens, that we should be demanding that of our president s. , and tell the truth to the citizens, that we should be demanding that of our president s. We have had president s like jimmy carter who have been very truthful but we dont rank very high, and some president to make ngs up quite frequently fdr would sometimes tell one person one thing, another person the next. He would say, i am a juggler, i dont let my right hand know what my left is doing. So there really isnt one particular standard. In the old days, military leadership was a crucial. That is why so many of the old president s work generals, because you could test your leadership in a situation. So many of our early president s, zachary taylor, harrison, rutherford b. Hayes, dwight eisenhower, were generals. Host when it comes to the previous president s, how they have shaped the office, give us your assessment about how this president has shaped the presidency so far . Guest hard to tell. I keep thinking he isnt asterisk president. Asterisk president. Since the day he was inaugurated, the fbi breathing down his back about obstruction of justice, collusion with russia. At willt know where th all end up you are kind of waiting for something to drop. We arenot been free still wondering if this guy is really the president or just andbody that got elected will be under endless investigation. I like to quote the poet robert frost that says the only way out is through. Thing forink the best donald trump is to go through the process of the mueller investigation, get the report out there. If he has nothing to worry about, then i think he has more of an open chance of gathering more than this 35 of the vote. It is very hard to be an effective president without at least 50 of the public. You need half the public behind you and trump has never had that. He has always been seen as one of the lowest rank residence for a first year, although, no were big andx cuts historic. Even inwas going to ask light of the things you listed, he was able to get a tax cut done, people talk about putting neil gorsuch on the supreme court. Even in the midst of all that, he would have victories . Guest i think those are the two shining moments in his first year. Whoproblem is, he is a bull carries his own china shop around with him. He is clamorous, makes a lot of noise. Maybe we are just a Noisy Society and he represents it. But he steps over his own message and awful lot. When we pulled back, we will look at this age of twitter, and it was a marvelous tool for him when he ran as president , even as president , but lately there is twitter fatigue setting in. Out the weekend, sending all of these tweets. I felt a collective who cares . Potent weapon,t if the tweets dont carry weight because everyone is inflammatory in some way, then i think he loses even more of the power he has accumulated. But really when you look at a president , the big thing is, do they get reelected . The reelection is whether the public thinks you are doing a good job or not. It is hard to see how a president will look when you are in the middle of it. In my mind, donald would be very low, has not been able to get traction in the first year. Doug brinkley, talking about that trump presidency, influence on the office. If you want to ask questions, 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488002, democrats. 202 7488003, independents. Mr. Brinkley, when it comes to this use of twitter, talk about how past president s communicated directly to the people. Now in the age of this president , he has the means of bypassing other means of communicating. To not just pick on President Trump, our social media environment is very helter skelter. Im not sure any of us know what is going on with school kids posting, parents dont know about it, people addicted to their electric devices. Is this a good thing for American Society that we are in this social media age . In the past, president s would use whatever medium was at its disposal. I was recently in richmond, virginia. We call virginia estate of the mother of president s, eight president s were born in virginia. George washington, thomas jefferson, james madison, james monroe. In those days, correspondence mattered. The writing of documents, running out policy. Later, virginia president s of harrison, tyler. Harrison died in office after only a month. He was trying to use the inaugural as a way to communicate a big message but he died catching pneumonia. John taylor came in to finish his term. There is an example of a , the war who was great of 1812 leader, the capturing of , fallen timbers, the northwest territory, but only cut the president for a month. Then you have zachary taylor, Woodrow Wilson. By the age of wilson, you have photography, a traveling press corps. Wilson can find ways to reach the public. He is using radio. Fdr uses radio in an extraordinary new way, coming into everybodys home. John f. Kennedy became the master of the press conference, he created it. Ronald reagan using his hollywood background to break the glass on tv and talk directly to the people, move us through his words into a realm of patriotism. So these things keep on changing but twitter is so impulsive. It is that very nanosecond, you are putting in when you are feeling. If ld be angry all day most of us are angry and a cool our jets. But if you really really express your anger, week become a country of namecalling and bitterness, instead of letting things position themselves in the proper way. I think we are much too incendiary right now, and donald trump is a large contributor to that. I assume future president s will have to wrestle with this idea of direct medication via social media. Guest thats right, and it is the wild west of social media. I have three kids that go to school in austin, and there are no classes telling them how to use social media. They just jump aboard. , how is this ways working to the benefit of our society, im not convinced it is. Im not sure generation facebook is a great thing. Others will say, of course it is, it allows everyone to put their life out in the public zone. Itself hasy, cspan been a great vehicle for Public Policy change, covering events all over the country, not just washington, d. C. Star went up,tele we could move images. I could be here in austin and talk to you in d. C. That would have been seen as a miracle to other president s. Telecommunications changes at record rates. It seems to me, the recent manifestations of twitter will probably seem old decades from now but had a real cuttingedge, like a knife over the last year and a half. Talking about the current president s on the office of the presidency. We are talking with Douglas Brinkley of rice university. First call comes from mike, fort wayne, indiana. Democrat line. Brinkley, i will always appreciate when you are on. You are fairminded. Say,l also like to briefly, the deal is, people talk about the current president. Believe, if you go back to the johnson, irter, and know a lot of evangelicals in the south have criticized all of those men. As a black man who grew up in segregation, those men had a backbone. Wouldould not this a not say the things that the current president is saying about individuals, and that is why they are loved in places like the deep south. We can say what we want, we can bury our heads in the sand. Christlikee really when i say this. It is still about race. There is still a backlash over 44th being backtoback. I grew up in paris will, ohio, along the river, not far from south bend. You name three great civil rights president s. Toneed to give high marks kennedy, lyndon johnson, jimmy carter. For civil rights they could not be much higher. Kennedy came in the 1960 running against Richard Nixon and it something very a student, he made a phone call to Martin Luther king after he had been arrested in georgia, and that spread through the africanamerican community. Kennedy was able to win africanamerican votes in 1960. Eisenhower was doing quite well with the black vote in the 1950s. Kennedy claimed it and then stepped up, gave a major televised address on civil admitting james americus into ole miss. At theal but when a long end with the march of dr. King. , what he was able to do for voting rights, civil historic pieces of legislation since the emancipation proclamation. Jimmy carter, out of fairminded, face of the new south. When he was elected governor of georgia, the first thing he did was say, it is time to end the segregation in the south. Then he hung a portrait of Martin Luther king jr. In the georgia statehouse. Alas, not all president s are civil rights warriors. Trump, hee of donald has gone after a different voter, not africanamericans, obviously. Once you say that barack obama was not born in the u. S. And you become the leader of the birther movement, it is hard to appeal to africanamericans. Instead, you pick up the George Wallace segregationist vote in the south, the Strom Thurmond dixiecrat. He put together a Southern Coalition that reminded me of the jim crow ages in many ways. Thats not a new south donald trump was representing, but remnants of the old south, hence, his defense of confederate statues, the mix above rhetoric he gave, a stain on his presidency, when charlottesville occurred, equating neonazi supremacists, bigots to the other protesters there, gave them an equal footing. Dont think donald trump gets high marks on a category of civil rights. On the contrary, he is one of the worst. In the same league of somebody like andrew johnson, who, after lincolns assassination, became president. Host next guest on the independent line. Go ahead. Caller i have two points to make. I am an immigrant. I came to this country 10 years ago. Donald trump, when it comes to immigrants, it is not a good standard at all. Many immigrants voted for donald trump to become president in 2016 but it is not even helping the situation right now because of the way he talks. I cannot allow my daughter to watch tv when donald trump is on. What she says is, i hate this man. Thing, the russians. If donald trump has nothing to hide, how come he cannot take action. They need to act. Host thank you. We will leave it there. Guest those are both very sally and points you make. Ginned up theas antiimmigration rhetoric from the beginning of his campaign in 2016. His symbol became build the wall. Mexicansrly belittled and mexican americans, latino community, did whatever he could to inflame them for his own political purposes. It will not shine well on him in history. He will say it is all about National Homeland security but theres been a cruelty to the way he has done with the immigration issue that i find unforgivable. It is sad that kid sometimes, we dont have somebody who is, that you could tell your kids, i hope you grow up to be like donald trump. I would be worried about parents that say that. Donald trump lies too much, he conflates things, he is a bully, he misuses cyber in a way to divide us. What is there to want your children to learn from . That there are no rules, break them all . Dangle a foot over the line of what is moral and immoral . Yes, he is not a moral leader. People that invested in donald trump are those that believe that our country was sluggish, that we had too much outsourcing , were doing too many factories abroad. He was able to pick up that loose ross perot vote. 19 of the public voted for him in 1992 over that stuff. The sound used to say you hear is the sucking sound of jobs leaving america. Trump went after that vote and got it in ohio, michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin. It is an unusual election. He beat the first woman candidate, by a miniscule amount, this issue of russian appearance in our elections that will be talked about for decades, if not centuries. Somethingave to do about russia heading into the midterms in 2018. Donald trump represents kind of a dark underbelly of america. He has put together a coalition of people who do not like otherness. There is enough ob a going on here. To me, it is not gold star stuff in history. As long as the economy harms, the stock market doing well, unemployment going down, people are willing to tolerate a lot. If he does not get us into a major more, he is not, by any means, toast. He could be reelected a second term. Host when it comes to immigration, compare and contrast his approach to it, back to barack obama, how he dealt with deportations. Guest donald trump, when we talk about him, too often, we talk about him being unprecedented. It is unusual that we have one president pulling on so many different strands of American History but there has been a long antiimmigrant tradition in the u. S. I am catholic, my mothers family was from slovakia. There was a movement in our country not to allow slovakians to come in. John f. Kennedy had to combat the idea that he was catholic in a protestant country. Millard fillmore left the white , become a leader in the know Nothing Party. The whole idea of the know Nothing Party was anticatholic antimormon, antijew. We have the alien and sedition acts in the 1800s, repeating itself in the 1900s. Woodrow wilson has an ugly record when it comes to talking about immigration during his presidency. Trump is just part of a tradition. All president s before donald trump in recent times have been much more open hearted about the immigration issue. Barack obama wanted tough Border Security but wanted to give it immediately the dreamers american citizenship and let them be a part of america, because they already are. Dacad trump has been using as a wedge issue on immigration. Of course, now is tying into the building of this wall. This wall is this idiotic idea. Anyone who travels the border in the rio grande, canyons, i guess you are looking at Additional Border fencing in some patches down there. But the whole thing became a giant metaphor for antiimmigration, antimexican sentiment. It is not a pretty chapter in our nations history. Memphis, tennessee. Democrat line. Caller i am a former administrator myself. Trumpsanted to say, influence, he is a powerful businessman, that is the way people looked at him. He has a poor choice of words that gets him in trouble sometimes. Me. Ow that he can help as a president. I know that i have been wronged by the system. Dealing with the v. A. Under the barack obama presidency. , was wondering, is it possible will this president listen to africanamericans, minorities that are wronged by the system, what do you think he would do in order to take people who were secrecy like that under or discreetly got punished for no reason at all, they got their freedom of speech taken away from them. Host we will let our guest respond. I often have trouble when we constantly say that donald trump is a businessman. That kind of insult people that do business in an openhanded way. You dont create Trump University as a businessman. That is somebody who is trying to pull a scan, a carney, a hyper salesman. The casino bellringer. Come on and get rich. I agree with the caller, that is what people were attracted to him. Personality, Political Correctness had run amok. Trumpt so far, donald seem to be a corrective for that. There was a general feeling, lets give it a chance, maybe trump will break the furniture in washington. That is what needs to be done. I think the strongest message isce trumps reelection, he on it now. Can you do infrastructure . Can you bring meaningful employment to states like ohio, michigan, pennsylvania . Can you take those closed factory towns and get them reopen . He speaks the language, the rhetoric of that, but in truth, the tax cut helps billionaires. Now you are getting back to hoping there is a trickledown effect. I think his most powerful moments, not his greatest policy achievements, but these moments are when he used twitter to deal ,ith carrier, ford motors lets get the job here in the u. S. That is where he wants to be. Economicd of an removal agent, somebody who brings jobs back to america. If he stayed on that message and not start constantly abusing people, namecalling on twitter, i think he would be higher in the polls. 35 that he nee