Former President Donald Trump made no secret that he hated Washington, D.C., when he first ran for president. He even nicknamed it the “Swamp.”
But no modern president more than Ronald Reagan meant it as much and showed the city his backside as often.
Here’s how Reagan biographer Craig Shirley, the author of the forthcoming book The Search for Reagan: The Appealing Intellectual Conservatism of Ronald Reagan, described the Gipper’s disdain.
“Reagan left town whenever he could. He was at his California ranch for one year out of his presidency. He and Nancy went to Camp David almost every weekend. They got out of Dodge whenever they could. He didn’t like Washington. He didn’t like what it represented,” Shirley said in an interview.
“You know, he came back to Washington, I think, twice: once to accept the Medal of Freedom from [former President George H.W.] Bush and the other for his lying-in-state in the U.S. Capitol,” he added.
There are few scholars and former political aides who know more about Reagan than Shirley. He has written four well-received books on the 40th president, and his latest, published by Post Hill Press and set for release Feb. 13, is a delightful addition with something new: an epic takedown of Washington.
Shirley writes off the events out-of-towners love about Washington, such as the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, appearances on Sunday talk shows, and lobbyist-funded Georgetown cocktail parties.
He described the dinner as “where the press and political elites meet in a low-rent feast of mutual admiration.” At social events, he wrote that many can “be seen rubbernecking, seeking out someone more important than the poor schlub standing in front of them.”
Shirley wrote of the ruthlessness political celebrities engage in to get on TV. “The more one appeared on television, the better. A criminal record, being indicted, being unfaithful, or being otherwise unsavory were no barriers to Washington celebrityhood,” he said.
Lobbyists and money, he added, have also turned the city into a classless pit. “Over the years, more and more money flowed to the city-state as class and style were washed out of town. Oh, there were a few ‘classy’ hosts and hostesses in Chevy Chase, Georgetown, and McLean, but for the most part, all the money in the world could not conceal the fact that many in the town ate like pigs, talking and masticating at the same time, using the wrong cutlery, and blowing their noses at a meal table,” Shirley said.
He quoted his pal and former longtime Reagan political aide Lyn Nofziger, who once observed, “Some people come to Washington and grow — others just swell.”
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One exception was during Reagan’s funeral, on June 11, 2004, at Washington National Cathedral. “No one was observed tapping out messages on their BlackBerrys. Few were observed looking around as most heads were bowed. All the usual Washington power games somehow seemed gauche this day,” Shirley wrote.
“Shockingly for the city-state, the attendees had really come to mourn Reagan and not bury their political opponents and enemies,” he added. “The high and the mighty did not need to network as they had already arrived at the heady heights of political power, and the rest who attended, Reaganites all, were simply there to remember the man who had changed their lives, changed America. They came to acknowledge how he had changed the world and to pray, weep, and remember.”
