Aurora University hosted a conversation with David Axelrod, moderated by Rick Pearson, chief political reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Thursday, February 9, 2017, in Aurora, Illinois. (Jon Langham-for Chronicle Media)

It’s been a chaotic opening month for the new administration, but it would be wrong to write off President Donald Trump — at least for now.

The architect of former President Barack Obama’s rise to the White House said Trump’s showmanship, an appearance of action and a strong base among Republicans will help the new president as he starts to push an agenda through a compliant Congress.

“For better or worse, Donald Trump got to where he is by being an improvisational figure,” said David Axelrod, a former Obama aide, during an Aurora University appearance late last week.

“There’s often been a lot of chaos around him in his business career. It isn’t all like you saw on The Apprentice,” he said. “This is the way he operates. … In his mind, a president is always producing a show.”

Axelrod, a former journalist turned behind-the-scenes campaign manager and later a senior White House aide, discussed Trump’s rise, why Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton lost and traced an association with Obama that dates back to the former president’s days in the Illinois General Assembly.

Axelrod chatted amiably with moderator Rick Pearson, a Chicago Tribune political reporter who posed his own questions plus queries from the overflow audience at Crimi Auditorium.

Despite a perceived rocky start and increasingly vocal opposition around the country, Trump appears to have a solid hold on constituents most important to his success.

“Right now the Republican Party, by and large, is unified behind Donald Trump in Washington,” Axelrod said. “And the Republican Party nationally is unified behind Donald Trump with an 88 percent approval rating among Republicans even as his (overall) numbers are historically low.

“But it’s not love that binds most of them to Donald Trump. Many of them — like half of Congress — ran against him.”

But the GOP will remain loyal if Trump delivers on an agenda that includes a tax cut, deregulation, repeal of the Affordable Care Act and nominating conservative Supreme Court justices.

“If he does some of the things that he says he’ll do, he could do very, very well,” Axelrod said.
“If, on the other hand, he continues down the path that he’s on, the question is how much people are willing to accept. And if he doesn’t produce the results that  he promised — and he promised some pretty lavish results — then people in his core base are going to start walking away.”

Trump lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton, but earned the Electoral College majority to become president. Clinton’s loss to Trump had roots in a 2008 Democratic primary race against Obama  and echoed in 2016.

In private and in small groups, Clinton is said to be gregarious and possessing a big heart. But as a campaigner she was unwilling to share those traits and also appeared to neglect key potential constituencies.

“Hillary Clinton is a very bright and very committed public servant,” Axelrod said. “She’s not a great politician, pure and simple. Some of the things that held her back as a candidate in 2008 held her back again as a candidate in 2016. She is very allergic — partly because of her experiences — to be revealing of herself. She is not one who feels comfortable letting her hair down and speaking from the heart.

“My experience in presidential politics is that authenticity is a big factor. The more authentic candidate almost always wins because people want someone who feels comfortable in their own skin.”

Clinton’s campaign was also very tactical with messaging and campaign appearances, playing to her base while neglecting constituencies like white working-class voters.

“It made Trump’s job easy,” Axelrod said. “His message was ‘you’re disrespected, you’re neglected, you’re forgotten, the system’s rigged against you and I’m going to be your champion.’’’

Before he met Obama, a friend told Axelrod that he felt this impressive Harvard Law School graduate could one day be President of the United States.

“I met with him and I didn’t walk around humming ‘Hail to the Chief,’” Axelrod said. “But he was clearly an extraordinary guy. He could have written his ticket at any law firm and corporation in America. To me, politics divides into two categories: people who want to run for office because they want to be something and people who run for office because they want to do something. He was clearly in that second category.”

Joining Obama’s 2002 U.S. Senate campaign helped reverse Axelrod’s growing sense of alienation with politics.

“I said to Susan, my wife, if I could help Barack get elected to the U.S. Senate I would feel like I had done something really good and that would recharge my batteries. So I signed up with him.”

Axelrod developed a keenness for politics as a youth growing up in New York City. He moved to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago and stayed put, starting as a Chicago Tribune political writer and covered the monumental mayoral elections that thrust Jane Byrne and Harold Washington into office.

He left journalism in the mid-1980s, joining then-U.S. Sen. Paul Simon’s staff to start a political career that has included work in up to 150 campaigns.

Axelrod’s appearance was part of Aurora University’s Town Square series, an ongoing Celebrating Arts and Ideas program that features a wide range of speakers and performances.

— Axelrod: Despite chaos ‘improvisational’ Trump riding high so far —