Messitte opinion piece compares Trump, Spiro Agnew

President Zach Messitte contributed to an opinion piece that was published Friday, Dec. 16, in The Baltimore Sun.

“Look to Agnew for insight to Trump” compares some of the current president-elect’s reactions with those of Spiro Agnew, President Richard Nixon’s vice president, who resigned the position in 1973.

The three authors, who are researching a book about Agnew, wrote: “Donald Trump’s victory suddenly changed a portion of our thesis. The 2016 election is not the end of Agnew’s story — it may instead be its apotheosis. And as Mr. Trump organizes his administration, continues to dress down the media, angrily tweets at Broadway and eschews intellectuals, the lessons of Agnew’s own experience a heartbeat away from the presidency loom large. …

“Agnew, like Mr. Trump, opportunistically traversed political ideologies before becoming the voice of the silent majority. … Just like Mr. Trump, Agnew had little patience for the niceties of the establishment and the ‘political correctness’ of identity politics. He especially struck a chord by mocking and attacking the media.”