By Winstead on February 20, 2017
The farewell addresses of two great presidents offer three pieces of sage advice for President Donald Trump this President’s Day weekend, if he would take it.
George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower, who modeled his farewell address on Washington, gave carefully crafted warnings not just to their presidential successors, but to future generations about the toxic problems of partisanship, debt and military spending.
Michael Hogue/DMN Staff
So far in President Donald Trump’s term, the country is witnessing a level of political warfare the likes of which has not been seen since Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 brought on secession. Since Trump campaigned on reducing the national debt and changing the way the U.S. military approaches the world, there’s hope he will heed the advice of Washington and Eisenhower in ways that could make him a very successful president.
Neither Washington nor Eisenhower wrote his farewell statement quickly. Because Washington almost chose not to re-up for a second term, he refined his closing thoughts for a period of five years, according to a new book by CNN political analyst John Avlon’s Washington’s Farewell: The Founding Father’s Warning to Future Generations. Eisenhower’s address went through almost thirty 30 during his last 18 months in office, writes Fox News Anchor Bret Baier in his new book Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission.
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(Published in The Dallas Morning News)