Mr. President, you need to know this: Elvis has left the building!

We have lived through the first 100 days (and more) of the Donald Trump presidency. So let’s do some catch-up on what we have seen.

It turned out that Obama wasn't the anti-Christ.  Is Trump the anti-Christ?  That's not likely, although it's hard to know for sure since he won't release his income tax returns, much less his birth certificate.

So, the Trump presidency isn't the end of the world?  No, not yet, anyway.  Although I confess that I am not as dismissive as I used to be of the people walking the streets with signs reading "The End is Near."  But this is not something that occupies much of my time.

Is the first 100 days important for a new president?  Yes.  And so is the second 100 days, and the third, and so on, right up until the end of that presidency.  They're all important.  The first 100 can be pretty special and informative about the nature of the entire presidency, although it's not a sure thing.

What does that mean?  The whole "first 100” thing started with Franklin Roosevelt's presidency beginning in March, 1933.  He sounded, looked and acted in the right ways for a nation in great distress.  Luckily for him, his first 100 days happened to coincide with Congress’ session -- with the change to the January inauguration, that does not happen now -- which contributed greatly to what has since been seen as Roosevelt's success in implementing new and helpful legislation and policies.  Some of the legislation had already been in the works before FDR became president, but he gained people’s confidence in his ability to be a leader who could achieve those goals.  Every new employee needs timely feedback on job performance -- the president is no exception -- and 100 days is a convenient milestone for doing that.

After the first 100 days, do we usually know the ultimate success of the presidency?  No.  But they give us an idea of how the new president wants his presidency to look.  That is the important thing about Trump's first 100 days.

Is America great again?  I didn’t know that America had stopped being great.  When did that happen?  Trump’s signature theme and campaign slogan were “Make America Great Again!”  He has spoken about how the country is populated by an abnormally large percentage of immigrants (that’s his assessment of the population) and by too few manufacturing workers.  Putting all of his words together with the demographic and employment history of the country, it sounds like he wants America to look and work like it did in the 1950s.

Trump wants to return America to the way it was in the 1950s?  As described above – yes.  But in reality – no.  For example, during the 1950s the upper marginal income tax rates on top earners like himself were much, much higher than they are now (yes, some would say I’m making a rash assumption about Trump being a “high earner” since we cannot see his tax returns) but he wants to reduce tax rates for high earners, not increase them.

The 1950s were really good "Happy Days," right?  “Happy Days” was a great TV show; I’ve enjoyed it.  And Elvis Presley made lots of great music during the ‘50s, too.  But “Happy Days” never showed the kids hiding under their desks at school during nuclear attack preparation drills, and Elvis is dead and never returning.  You cannot lead a country into tomorrow by going backward to yesterday.

Is Trump a legitimate president?  This is a question that is more on the minds of Trump and his ardent supporters than anybody else.  Trump is defensive and insecure about the fact that Hillary Clinton bested him by three million votes in the election.  Nonetheless, he is the president according to the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the country.  The president is elected by 538 presidential electors, not by the nation’s millions of voters.  Each state has a certain number of electors, and those numbers are not necessarily proportional to the popular vote.  Democracy must be bound by the rule of law, and for that reason Trump is a legitimate president.  

And that leaves us with. . . ?  It is a high irony and embarrassment that the United States, historically the largest and most powerful advocate for democratic institutions world-wide, elects its chief executive by the votes of an elite assembly instead of the popular vote in the national election.  With no popular mandate, Trump will have to serve the interests of those who have not supported him just as well as he serves the interests of those who have supported him in order to be recognized as democratically-legitimate.  It will take that achievement for Trump to be secure in his legitimacy.  Without that happening, and with his constant defensiveness and insecurity, Trump will always be haunted by fears that his presidency is not legitimate.

What happens now?  It looks like there will be a constant stream of things that will puzzle, astonish and enlighten.  And, there’s always another election.