President Trump, by Scaling Back the Federal Bureaucracy, Cuts the Gordian Knot

Even the greatest conservative leader of recent decades, President Reagan, worked to create the conservative side of the establishment — not to take apart the establishment itself.

Via Wikimedia Commons
Jean-Simon Berthélemy, 'Alexander cuts the Gordian Knot,' 1767. Via Wikimedia Commons

The best explanation of President Trump’s aggressive strategy can be found in ancient Greece. Like Alexander the Great, Mr. Trump is cutting the Gordian knot. 

According to legend, in Phrygia (in what is now Turkey) an oxcart was held together by a complex knot. No one could untie it. An oracle prophesized that whoever could loose the knot would rule all of Asia. 

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