Meeting Trump

In early March 2016 the three of us (Arthur, Larry, and Steve) got urgent calls from our longtime friend Corey Lewandowski. Corey was a political activist and organizer extraordinaire, who had worked as the state director in New Hampshire for Americans for Prosperity, a major national taxpayer organizing group.

Corey had been tapped to be the campaign manager for the upstart, long-shot Donald Trump for president campaign. His message for us would change our lives. "Donald Trump would like to meet the three of you," Corey explained. "Could you meet him at four p.m. next Tuesday at his office in Trump Tower in Manhattan?"

Wow. That was unexpected. When Trump had announced his run for the White House — about six months before — we, like most people, thought it was mostly a publicity stunt. Trump was saying some headline-grabbing things, throwing out a blizzard of populist policy ideas for the American people to chew over: "Build the wall." "Repeal NAFTA." "The biggest tax cut ever." Meanwhile he was drawing massive, excited crowds at his political rallies across the country.

Donald Trump, although politically inexperienced and disdained by the Mediocracy and the professional political class, was somehow connecting with millions of voters. Rival candidates (perhaps with the exception of Bernie Sanders) were in denial and ignoring the signs of voter unrest at their own political peril.

We were initially anything but devoted fans. He was part of the New York City scene and had never taken on a significant role in the conservative free market movement. Trump's statements seemed to us to be all over the map, a pastiche of conservative and progressive ideas. True, we were iconoclasts ourselves, and some of our own ideas — our advocacy of a more open legal immigration policy and our confidence that economic growth could balance the budget — were considered borderline heretical by some factions of the conservative coalition to which we belonged.

All three of us had written columns and research papers that had been critical of several of Trump's positions, especially on trade. We were and are staunch free traders. Larry and Arthur had met Trump on many occasions in the past and liked him very much personally. Steve had never met Trump and was somewhat turned off by his brash, media-hogging style.

But all three of us were intrigued by the grassroots political movement that we now know as Trumpism, which was building throughout the country. And we liked what he was saying about chopping tax rates and restoring American greatness. We had openly supported his big ideas on changing the IRS tax code. Trump (and Corey) had taken notice of our public praise.

In several early major primary events, Trump had called out Larry by name. "Larry Kudlow loves my tax plan," Trump had thundered several times in debates and rallies. Larry, on CNBC, was one of the first economic analysts to give Trump credit for some bold reform initiatives on taxes and rolling back unnecessarily burdensome government regulations. Similarly, Trump had gloated to conservative audiences: "I got my tax ideas from the great Reagan economist Arthur Laffer."

We also loved Trump's unyielding optimism about America's potential for much faster economic growth, which would pull us out of the slow-growth ditch the nation had careened into during George W. Bush's last years in office and Barack Obama's entire presidency.

Trump was proclaiming that we could get to 5 percent growth with the right set of pro-business policy ideas. Though we thought that 5 percent was overly optimistic (we thought 3 to 4 percent was definitely doable), we loved the aspiration! We recognized that Trump, as a real estate developer who built skyscrapers and five-star resorts, thinks very big and does not shy away from dramatic license. The October 6, 2016, issue of The New Yorker (in an obvious attempted character assassination just before the election) reported Trump saying to [architect Der] Scutt, ahead of a 1980 press conference, "Give them the old Trump bull[s*&%]. Tell them it is going to be a million square feet, sixty-eight stories ..."

We certainly agreed — wholeheartedly — that the economy could grow much, much faster than most economists believed. The standard trope on the left at the time was that 1 to 2 percent growth was the best America could achieve. After all, if the left's political messiah, Barack Obama, couldn't get the economy moving faster, how could a mere mortal like Donald Trump presume to?

We were ecstatic that finally someone was frontally assaulting the tyranny of low expectations that sold America short. And we loved that Trump seemed to relish that the professional political class ridiculed his Make America Great Again (MAGA) theme. We did not agree with all Trump's policy prescriptions. That said, he certainly had all the right enemies attacking him.

So, yes, we told Corey, we definitely wanted to meet with candidate Donald Trump.

TRUMP TOWER

A few days later we arrived at Trump Tower in New York City and sifted through the massive security detail and what seemed like a tsunami of media cameras in the lobby, heading up to the twenty-sixth floor ... and Donald Trump's personal office.

One thing especially impressed us immediately: everyone around him seemed to love Donald Trump. Trump treats his people well.

It wasn't an act. The Trump team displayed genuine affection for him, affection clearly mirroring his for them. You can tell a lot about a person from how he treats those who work for and with him every day. The vibe of deep mutual respect and obvious affection was telling.

We encountered no arrogance or stiffness. Team Trump was uniformly made up of polite and sweet people, all instantly likable, including our now good friend Rhona Graff, Trump's longtime personal aide and one of his greatest assets.

Donald Trump, also, was punctual.

Our meeting was scheduled for four p.m. At 4:05, Donald Trump came bounding out of his inner office and pumped our hands up and down with an affectionate handshake and a charming smile. While at the Wall Street Journal, Steve Moore had once interviewed the famous college basketball announcer Dick Vitale — the live-wire personality with boundless energy and enthusiasm about everything. Trump seemed to Steve to be a political version of Vitale. We were a bit humbled by this warmth.

We immediately felt at ease as Trump ushered us into his office and excitedly showed us around. Trump's office is like a museum filled with sports and entertainment memorabilia. He shared with us footballs and photos with (and many signed by) George Steinbrenner, Joe Namath, and...