A Tale of Two Presidents: Hoover and Trump

Hoover and Trump are two Republican presidents with extremely different personalities who come from radically different backgrounds and styles of leadership. The 31^st president was a Quaker orphan from a farming community in Iowa and the 45^th is a Presbyterian surrounded by family from Queens, New York City. Both are second sons, but the Midwesterner came from humble economic beginnings and the Easterner was the son of a multi-millionaire. The former was a highly reserved person while the current president is quite outgoing. Both became highly successful economically and politically, but neither at the moment is regarded highly by the historical community. This essay will start with Hoover and proceed to compare and contrast him with Trump.

The fact that Herbert Hoover was a Quaker and an orphan shaped his entire life and can hardly be overestimated in shaping his personality, character, and policies as president. Hoover was born almost at the stroke of midnight on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa, which was an almost completely Quaker hamlet of 400 on the cusp of the frontier. The family included Bert (short for Herbert), his older brother Tad, and his younger sister May, who were descended from six generations of Quakers. The citizens of West Branch were hard-working, subdued, highly religious, honest, and straight-forward. They abstained from alcohol and took life seriously.

At home, Bert was permitted to read only the Bible and other religious books. Both his parents died of contagious diseases by

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the time he was nine, leaving him an orphan. After living for two years at his Uncle Allen’s nearby farm, he traveled 2,000 miles alone by rail to join his Uncle Henry John Minthorn at Newberg, Oregon in order to obtain a superior education at Friends Pacific Academy, founded by Minthorn. Bert had numerous chores and Minthorn instilled a work ethic in the young boy. These years contributed to his inward-looking personality.

The traditional historical ranking of Herbert Hoover, who rose from humble beginnings to become president, resembles an escalator stuck in the down direction. Historians have described the Quaker Chief Executive as a “do nothing” president who presided over a government as disorderly as scrambled eggs after the economic disaster following the stock market crash of 1929. Hoover, so it goes, led the nation into a destiny with doom. His journey at the White House resembled Alice’s mixture of trials after she fell into a rabbit hole and ended up in Wonderland. Hoover’s story, however, did not have a happy ending. He ended up near the bottom of the heap in the ranking of presidents and is frozen there. Franklin D. Roosevelt ran against Hoover in four consecutive elections, although Hoover was actually only on the ballot in 1932.

The truth is more enlightening and less sober. Hoover was the most activist president in history during hard times leading up to the end of his term. He did not defeat the Depression, but he did mitigate it; he set precedents and programs that outlived his presidency. Hoover built dams, highways, bridges, and public buildings. He created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which loaned money to banks and businesses, as well as created jobs. Highly intelligent, a superb organizer, part engineer, part government efficiency expert, Hoover crafted a program that made life more bearable for farmers and factory workers. He had a brilliant mind and a vivid imagination. But he also had an introverted personality in a profession that penalizes reserve and modesty. He was happy to serve without pay or public adulation, whereas Trump is quite oriented to making money. In life beyond the presidency, he wrote 32 books (many of them bestsellers), chaired two government commissions on reorganization of government under Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, raised money for charities, and helped President Truman feed a hungry world during the aftermath of World War II. His great loves were his wife Lou, all his children, and fishing. He died at the age of 90 in 1964.

Another historical anomaly that bears correction is the de-

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scription of President Donald Trump, who is many things to many people, but not a Populist in the historical sense of the word. He could not be more unlike the men who founded the Populist Party in the 1890s, whose champion was William Jennings Bryan. The only thing Trump and the Populists have in common was and is a desire for change. The Populists of the 1890s were primarily dirt-poor farmers who resided in the West, many of whom were devout fundamentalist Christians. Trump belongs on the opposite end of the spectrum: a prototypical, purely urban New York billionaire. Hardly a religious fundamentalist, he has married three times. Trump is difficult to categorize, but love him or hate him, he is not a Populist in the historical sense. In his own way, he is as misunderstood as Herbert Hoover. By assigning Trump the moniker “Populist,” the press has conveniently rearranged the living room of history by stuffing the sofa into the bath tub.

Hoover was the first President who never held a previous elective office, nor served in the military, and Trump is the second. Many regard this as not necessarily a liability, although it can be; they may draw upon different perspectives than career politicians and bring new and fresh ideas to the Oval Office. (Trump, however, never served in any part of the government.) Hoover was more at home in his previous role as Secretary of Commerce under Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, the only Secretary of Commerce ever elected president. Harding gave Hoover a voice in every economic issue, which made him Secretary of Commerce and undersecretary of everything else. The Quaker became the cornerstone of domestic policy.

During the brief recession of 1921-1922, Hoover foreshadowed his activism as president. He chaired a national commission that helped mitigate the effects of the downturn by construction of homes and development of infrastructure such as highways, the dredging of rivers and harbors to make them navigable, and the planning/onset of dams such as the Boulder Dam on the Colorado River and the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River. Hoover considered infrastructure construction the balance wheel of the economy. He also created job exchanges to match workers’ skills with available positions. The commerce secretary attempted to inspire farmers to plant less because overproduction was the enemy of higher prices. He also urged farmers not to cultivate marginal lands, but to instead plant them in cover crops, which would deter droughts. However, he could not persuade farmers that by planting

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less they would earn more.

Hoover encouraged science and developed an Aviation and Radio Division in the Department of Commerce. Among his friends were such brilliant men as Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Charles Lindbergh. The recession that began in 1921 did not last long and Hoover grew concerned that the economy might overheat. He and Wisconsin Senator Irvin Lenroot wrote a series of letters to the Federal Reserve Board asking them to raise their interest rates because the existing rates encouraged runaway speculation. The Board ignored these Cassandra-like warnings of imminent doom. It was wallowing in the growing prosperity after the end of the recession in 1922.

Hoover was in his element as Secretary of Commerce—whereas in the presidency he was a square peg in a round hole—and his personality blossomed in the Cabinet. He had the trust and friendship of both Harding and Coolidge and wrote legislation and speeches for both of them. Hoover had long private chats in the evening with Coolidge, and their wives paired off as well and became intimate friends. He had a gift for friendship and bonded for life with people. It was said he had enemies but no ex-friends, and he was a gifted conversationalist and storyteller in small groups, a side of him the public never saw. He was in his element as Secretary of Commerce in a sense that he never was in the presidency because he was shy before the masses and failed to inspire during the doldrums of the Great Depression. The Quaker enjoyed the work portion of the presidency, but disliked the political side. It made him uncomfortable to boast about himself and tout his achievements. He did not like to cajole Congressmen. If he had not run for president, he might be known in history as one of the greatest cabinet members in history.

Hoover’s shy, introverted personality grew largely from his Quaker childhood, rugged discipline, and the fact that he was orphaned. As a youth he was often alone, and as an adult (except with people he knew) Hoover did not mix well. Losing his birth parents left him undernourished in love as a child and as an adult, shy with women. At Stanford he met Lou Henry, the only woman he ever dated, whom he married. It was a wonderful match made to last. Unfortunately, Lou died in 1944, 20 years before her husband. Hoover never sought female companionship after her death. Being orphaned instilled a lifelong love for all children. Seeing children hungry or starving made him privately, but not publicly, cry. His

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love for children was the chief motivation for his charitable work and his feeding of the starving during and after the Great War. During the Great Depression, he did not tour bread lines and soup kitchens because he feared breaking down in public. He was a sensitive man whose life’s work was to help the helpless and he did not desire publicity or credit. His joy, like his suffering, was internal.

Trump is an enigma who talks incessantly and whose unfavorable ratings are in the stratosphere. Some people believe he is mentally unbalanced, though that diagnosis has never been made by a doctor who treated him. It is more likely that he is simply uninhibited, unpredictable, egotistical, and a novice in politics. He is also stubborn, although at times he can be pragmatic and compromise. He gets along with many foreign leaders, although he alienates others, and can be his own worst enemy. Trump is extremely emotional and unlike Hoover, he flouts his emotions, his love and his hatred, publicly and repetitiously, frequently tweeting after midnight about the “lying press” and anyone who has offended him. Many wonder whether Trump has the temperament to succeed in the presidency. He is the opposite of Hoover. While Hoover was too stoic for his own good as a politician, Trump harms himself with his lack of emotional restraint. He lashes out and never apologies. Trump has been warned of this public display of emotion and demonization of his enemies, yet persists. It is probable that, like Hoover, he is a better person on the inside than on the outside—certainly his family thinks highly of him.

Trump and Hoover are clearly opposites and different in style, personality, and program. Trump seems to be impulsive and has a swollen ego. His early morning tweets are demeaning to the stature of the presidency, as are his repeatedly heated exchanges with the press, claiming they are unfair to him. While Hoover was composed, Trump is bombastic and nervous with a massive ego, perhaps insecure at a subconscious level. Trump revels in the public glare that made Hoover uncomfortable, sometimes exploding in public, unable to focus on his crafted speech and rambling, whereas Hoover was direct and, if anything, overly discrete. Both men were self-made in important ways: Hoover as an engineer and politician and Trump as a celebrity and politician. Hoover spent the first half of his life as a geological engineer making money and the second half giving it away. He is blamed for the Great Depression but did not cause it; he was simply there when it happened. What will happen in the seventh decade of Trump’s life remains to be seen.

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The fact that Hoover was a Quaker played a major role in shaping his personality inwardly, specifically concealing his emotions, which made him a poor politician. Trump is overly flamboyant and critical, which strains his relationship with the media and damages his programs. Trump seems caught on a moral merry-go-round and his image suffers from his own inconsistencies and his tendency to act first and think later. Trump does not lack intelligence, but he does lack patience, and he is a born activist. If he discarded his ego and channeled his enormous energy, his powerful drive could be an asset. Trump needs to focus his supercharged energy, cease striking out at his enemies publicly, and stop habitually over-promising. Trump is, in fact, often successful when he focuses on one task at a time.

Both men appear to me to be of high intelligence when compared to other presidents. Their weaknesses are related more to temperament; Hoover was understated while Trump overstates. Both have the energy of a locomotive, which Hoover could harness while Trump dissipates his energy. Perhaps a composite of Trump and Hoover in a single person might make an excellent president. It is quite possible that Trump will grow on the job, as Hoover did, if he can learn to tame his runaway ego and listen to sound advice. Hoover, at least, was well organized and accepted innovative ideas brought to him by some extremely able friends. His hobby of fishing also enabled him to unwind, relax, and enjoy the nation’s forests and streams. Trump could benefit from a less frenetic pace and focus his energy on one thing at a time. The tendency of each man’s temperament, in opposite ways, is a liability. Hoover was too inhibited; Trump is too uninhibited.

We should not prejudge Trump. He has great potential; he just needs to demonstrate more self-restraint. Endless energy can be either an asset or a liability. In his post-presidential life, Hoover poured his relentless energy into writing and published an enormous number of books, as well as working for charities such as the Boys Clubs of America. Trump also should find outlets other than politics to direct his excess energy. Even some reading in a quiet setting could bring relaxation to Trump, although there is scant evidence that he reads. Hoover set aside two hours per night to read for pleasure even while president, which took his mind off the hustle-and-bustle of the Oval Office. In the context of the presidency, getting along with people is more of an asset than sheer intellect, an asset neither man completely mastered; Hoover was too reserved,

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Trump is too dominating. Finally, with their momentous aptitudes, each man can learn from the example of others. Quiet relaxing at night might comfort Trump more than tweeting, and learning to dance might have mellowed Hoover’s shyness.

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