I assume that similar patterns hold for political discussions, so my pledge is we will make up some time and aim for a safe landing by 12 30, and hopefully wont have to throw anyone off the flight along the way. Let me begin by introducing our very distinguished panel, which in the spirit of this conference combines some luminaries from academia with people who have really rich experience in the political world. Academia with pe really rich experience in the political world. To begin, going from left to right, not necessarily an ideological order, matthew khan is a professor of economics, spatial studies, and environmental science. Ron klain is former chief of staff to joe biden and al gore and a former clinton 2016 advisor. Ron christie is a bbc political commentator and former special assistant to george w. Bush. My colleague jane is a professor of Political Science here at usc, and Abel Maldonado is the 48th Lieutenant Governor of our own california, from 2010 to 2011. Let me begin by asking a general question. Maybe we can just go starting from left to right, because im interested in getting everyones take. The Trump Campaign was unlike any other in modern american history, i think we can all agree. I would like to begin by asking our panelists, since this is a panel on trump at home, how have the first 100 days mirrored the unconventional nature of the campaign, or have they had all . Have what we seen from trump broken with his predecessors, and in what ways are they about par for the course, fairly ordinary for contemporary politics . Very briefly, economists used to be relatively carful in washington. It has fascinated me and many that academicnow accomplishments do not seem to be playing a major role in policy deliberations, so that is a surprise to me. It might be a statement about our value added. Something i teach my students here is we can only know the effectiveness of a Public Policy if we have variation. President trump, by changing Public Policy, we are losing were learning a lot about effectiveness, creating a control group. To an economist, these are very interesting days because there is literature in economics about uncertainty, the investment can freeze up when there is uncertainty about where political winds are going. President trump, who has been a successful businessman and his thinking about how to make the economy grow, i hope he anticipates some unintended consequences. Mr. Klain i think there are three things that have stood out. The first is, donald trump came to the white house as the president least owing anything to a Major Political party in 5060 years, most independent of both parties. He had an opportunity to govern in a bipartisan way. Democrats traipsed to trump tower during the transition. Even liberals were saying they wanted to work on infrastructure. Yet he has governed as a traditional republican, aligned himself with Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan. Unlike bush and obama, he did not put a member of the opposite party in his cabinet. The first surprise is how much of a republican partisan he has been. The second thing that has surprised me is how much he has really abandoned his economic populist agenda in these first 100 days. He started off with health care, not infrastructure. He has restoked cultural wars around immigration, but really has not delivered. October 22, he outlined a 10 point plan of 10 things economically related to do during the first 100 days. Nine of them he did not even sent to congress, let alone get done. Third, personnel. Personnel matters when you are president. There has never been a modern president who has done less to staff his government in the first 100 days. That will have consequences if there is some crisis. As crazy and tumultuous as the 100 days have been, he has been fortunate, spared a major foreign or domestic crisis. When Something Like that happens, he is going to find nobody home in a lot of these agencies. Good morning, everybody. I want to start by thanking my friend bob for the invitation. Hard to say no, so here i am. Three quick points that there when you look at the first 100 days and similarities between previous administrations. For us, the bush presidency, when we came in in 2001, there were a lot of people who questioned his legitimacy, a lot of democrats who were upset hey, we won. There were a lot of democrats who were upset by what happened in florida. Ron and i both know this he was on one side, i was on the other. The first couple of months, the media made a lot of the legitimacy, and you see that now with President Trump. The second, as the other ron mentioned, personnel. My chief of staff of staff used to say that personnels policy and policy is personnel. One of the thing that has struck me by this white house, by having been into it and talking to colleagues, is that there is nobody there. You walk into the white house and offices are dark. There is new computer equipment, chairs, staffers waiting, but they are not there. To put that into perspective, of the 16 executive Branch Agencies , we only have two deputy secretaries. You wonder who is really doing the work. That is something i find intriguing at this point. The third point is, this is obviously the twitter presidency. President s are known for discipline and staying on message. I dont think we have ever seen a president who takes to twitter to get their message out. That certainly is pleasing to trump supporters, gives a lot of people in communication jobs heartburn, and gives the media and all of us something to talk about. Morris, you asked the question over whether this is part of the course and the extent to which we can use previous presidencies as a frame of reference as to how this president is judged. Ronsk i would build on argument or observation about the uniqueness of this particular president , within the context in which we live. All of us think these are amazing times, because these are the only times we are living in. If we have lived in the 1800s, we would have thought those elections were amazing as well. What we have now in the age we exist and is that, as a student said to me, people say things because they want to get noticed. People do things to get attention, rather than wanting to be right, using facts, reasoning, or send something useful, they instead say things to be noticed. , thisk in some respects particular change in the Communications Technology and the ways in which parties and the media have changed health to increase changed help to increase the extent to which a person and a president can either abuse this element of Communication Technology or use it to his advantage. The ways in which we are the same as always is that there has always been polarization, partisan polarization. It has always been the case that anybody who is a republican engages in motivated reasoning that is a good thing he did. On the other hand, if it is a democrat, it is a bad thing. So motivated reasoning, as well as confirmation bias, have always existed. These are general, longstanding psychological prophecies. The partisan polarization we see, the distinction and differences of approval or disapproval by party, should not be surprising. These are normal aspects of politics. Having said that and turning back to the original point about the extent to which people today who want to be popular, who would like to get as, say things to be noticed rather than because they might be true or not true. I think it is useful to think about that within the context of a person who is not only the leader of this country but who is the mouthpiece for his Political Party, and the significance of all of these statements, whether wellfounded or not, based in reality, done at 3 00 in the morning, driven by whatever sentiment they are driven by are nevertheless things that will continue to follow this president and this party will continue to teach young voters, like our students, new immigrant voters 20 of the u. S. Population is immigrant or the child of an immigrant is introduced to u. S. Politics that this is how a president , a republican president behaves. That is the lesson and one of the consequences of a communication strategy such as this. Thank you for having me here. I was asked to say a few words. Obviously, i come from San Luis Obispo county and you had to dig deep to find somebody who would talk about good terms of donald trump. It is great to be here. As 20 you to know that years of Public Service myself, coming from the private sector, i have been watching what has been going on in d. C. Area i have had the opportunity to meet President Trump. It is not who i see on tv sometimes. When i have oneonone conversations, he is very locked on the conversation, very smart, understands the issues. When he comes out of the office, it is a different person. Why do i say this . I was Lieutenant Governor with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and i see a lot of the same. He is a businessman first. You have to understand where he comes from. We heard earlier there are a lot of positions vacant. Putting my businessman had on , i wouldan hat on venture to guess he sees that as savings for the federal government. Luckily, there has not been a crisis, because that is when the rubber hits the road. If you look at the president today, in his first 100 days, here is a man who was never elected to office. You look at the previous president , president barack obama, did not have executive branch experience, but he was a state and u. S. Senator and had experience. You look at president bush he was a governor. Andy card was also an elected official at one point in time. He was a secretary of transportation, very knowledgeable. ,hen you have President Trump who comes into the oval office did not have a Transition Team in place because they probably didnt think theyre going to win. They come in fresh. He hires a chief of staff who does not have government experience either. 45yearold chairman of a party. You have some advisers who have been around him for a long time who have zero government experience. I am speaking as an outsider today, because i am not in parts, but if i go to the store in my community, they love it. But if i go to los angeles and speak to an institute, there are a lot of questions about, why is this happening . It gives you a flavor of the dynamics we have. If you ask me, what has he accomplished in the first 100 days . Well, he has nominated and appointed a 49yearold judge, who is going to be there for 30 years or more. That is a huge accomplishment that he can tout for a long time. People want to know about immigration one of my biggest issues, my passion. I am sad with some of the things that have been said, but i think there is an opportunity to work on immigration. I think there is a lot of places where people are saying, he is trying to correct himself. If you look at Arnold Schwarzenegger, there are similarities. Maybe you have caught on or maybe you have not. Most politicians want to be liked. Most movie stars want to be loved. Arnold was at when speaking, he would always talk in the third term. Switching a girl wants to do this. Arnoldand nader schwarzenegger wants to do this. You dont hear Mitch Mcconnell or nancy pelosi say that. You hear trump say, trump wants to do this. Bottom line, they are brands. When a brand takes a hit, there is a correction in who they are. When arnold got his brand hit, there was a correction. I think President Trump is going through a correction. Joel talked about earlier today, the base is worried, is he going to go left . That is the big question today as to where america is going to go. To the Upper East Side new yorkers take over, or does he continue to talk to the base, as i think you are talking about. Kind of my feeling, where i am coming from i want to be the voice of your of the outsider who is not in office, who was a farmer, who is looking back and saying, maybe there is a change. Also as the author of proposition 14 in california, because i believe the biggest problem facing America Today is partisanship. I think there is a hidden tax on partisanship, because republicans go into a caucus room and worry about electing republicans and not the economy. Democrats do the same exact thing. And we lose, as the people of this great state and country. Mr. Levy thanks very much. A couple of the themes that seemed to come out of this were staffing is fairly unorthodox. In some offices, there is nobody home. Am a. And communication in some offices, there is nobody home period. And communication. To what extent and how specifically have these two idiosyncrasies of the Trump Administration may be helped or hurt the president in moving some of his signature agenda items forward . Anyone who would like to jump in. On staffing, this is a man running a multibillion Dollar Company with 30 people. Of those 30 people, probably one third of them were his family. It is where he is coming from and where his trust is and where thatels, not understanding the federal government is a huge, operation with some i think i read 550 people that need Senate Confirmation that have not even been nominated. That is a big thing that he needs to correct, and i think he well. Some people on my side of the aisle will say, it is the democrats. No, he has got to nominate them. Then you have the democrats saying, he is not nominating them, he does not have anybody qualified. That is just both sides of the aisle trying to come. I think we are going to see movement in the next month. He has been focusing on the 100 days. To be frank with you, outside this room or the city, i have never heard somebody come to me and say, the 100 days are the most important days of the presidency. I think it could set the tone, but when his four years are up, they are going to judge him on what he did over the four years. But the staffing thing, it is mindboggling to some, but to some others, goes back to what you said. There has not been a crisis, so there has not been a situation where he needs to ramp up. But it is a challenge. I see him coming back to people that he believes have some kind of business experience, that hopefully will help them. Secretary,nt at the and the secretary might have a discretion on who the deputy is. Well, that doesnt work. When i was arnolds lieutenantgovernor, we worked together. If you dont work together, a fortune 500 company doesnt work that way. Those are the challenges that i see as we move forward, and the staffing being a huge issue. I hope it is corrected soon, and i think it will be. When we left sacramento, arnold told me something i will never forget. Jerry brown was sworn in, beautiful ceremony. He said, i really liked this job. But it took him five or six years for him to say that. President trump is going to say the same thing. He is going to love this job. They love these jobs, these folks that are like them, but it is going to take some time. Right now, i dont think they are there. Let me try to put this in perspective for you. There is nothing more unusual than showing up to the white house on day one, because there is no instruction manual. There is no this is how you are the deputy domestic policy advisor. You show up in the office and there is literally nothing instead of a literally nothing instead of a band around your computer that says, this is property of the d gao and everything here will be recorded. As you try to sketch out, how can i serve the president , if you dont have the personnel in place, you are in a very, very bad spot. I look at this administration and that the president and say, you have got to stop the inviting. There was a fascinating article on the Washington Post that i largely believe that there are different camps. You have got ivanka and jared, bannon in another corner, some holdovers from the bush administration. They are all signing off on the most minor of appointments. The president needs to have a position in place that allows the opportunity to get the senior people nominated, as the governor said, and sent to the senate as soon as possible. For most importantly, to have the political personnel in place in the agencies that can take direction from the white house and fulfill the president s agenda. I think he is being illserved by his staff with the infighting. Ron and i work for a very headstrong Vice President and president , but you recognize at the end of the day that it is not about you, it is about their agenda. The infighting and stories you hear about that are really undermining and under serving this president. As it relates to communications, this is another area where his staff needs to pick up the ball and recognize it is not about them, it is about the president. We used to have message meetings three times a week. The first one, he talked about what we would do next week, the next month, then the next three months. If you have an integrated communication strategy with a policy message, then the American People can understand what you are trying to accomplish. When you are doing communications via twitter and the press secretary having to correct or amend or otherwise contradict what the president has just we did, you are in what the president has just tweeted, then you are in a bad spot and the news is driving your message. I want to pick up with something the president the professor said earlier. This does feel like the kardashian presidency. He is desperate for attention, tweets things that are patently untrue. That is why even republicans say he is the most dishonest president in modern times. He lies almost every day. That is not a good thing for president. Rallyf some of those lies his supporters and appease his voters and are red meat for his base, ultimately, it erodes his credibility as president. Day when heome a will want that credibility, and it wont be there because he squandered it on ridiculous things like saying barack obama spied on him in 2016. That is one problem with this mode of communication. Mr. Maldonado i do think the governors work t