PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

I have been involved in public and media relations for my entire career, which underlines why I have no understanding of the way President Donald Trump conducts himself in public.

To suggest that Trump operates with a media or public relations policy is to express an extreme overstatement.

He clearly flies by the seat of his pants.

I have tried to understand his approach, but it is almost impossible for this reason: Over my career, I tried to help clients get through problems, not aggravate them; Trump’s style is the reverse – capitalize on problems or create them, then say he is the smartest person on earth and is the only one who can solve what he, himself, has created.

For one case in the Trump’s universe, just look at Scott Pruitt, the former director of the Environmental Agency who recently resigned from his post under huge ethical clouds.

This from Walter Schaub, former federal ethics director:  “Scott Pruitt’s resignation should be good news. As former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, he is the subject of at least 13 investigations. His rampage through the EPA is the stuff of legend, and it will feature prominently in annual ethics training sessions across the executive branch for years to come. We are, indeed, fortunate to be rid of him, but the wreckage he leaves behind is no cause for celebration.

“Pruitt’s tenure establishes conclusively that President Trump doesn’t care about government ethics, and Congress won’t do anything about it. Pruitt may have been the most extreme offender, but the Trump administration is failing to live up to the animating principles of public service. In some sense, Pruitt’s failures represent a broader failure of government.”

Or, this from columnist Michael Gerson in the Washington Post:  “We are seeing the sad effects of President Trump’s renunciation of moral leadership on American politics and culture — the waning of civility, idealism and respect, and the waxing of contempt, prejudice and racial division. But how is a similar moral abdication — summarized as the doctrine of “America first” — influencing America’s place in the world? And does that really matter?”

So, in response to such comments as those from Schaub and Gerson, below is a summary of three principles I tried to follow in my media relations, lobbying and consultant career.

Some of them are drawn from what I and my partners learned from a mentor, the late Chuck Frost, vice president of one of my lobby firm’s first clients, Tektronix, then Oregon’s largest private company. Chuck also served as an advisor when we started our lobby firm in 1990 and during about 15 years of our operation.

• Build and bank good will. Establishing a pattern of service will serve you well with clients and in the community. Tektronix, under Chuck’s leadership, set out to do that in the Oregon Legislature and in Congress, earning credit that allowed the company to be seen as Oregon’s high-tech business leader.
• Integrity is your main credential — don’t lose it. Always do the right thing. Honesty in business relationships will stand you in good stead regardless of the business environment.
• Advance principles that are not just in your self-interest, but in the public interest, as well. For our firm over the years, this was a critical test in any lobbying or public relations task. Can we pass a public-interest test — is what we advocate on behalf of a client good for the public and not just the client, and can we describe the objective in those terms?

Frankly, my view is that Trump violates all of these and other operating principles. And, he knows, frankly, that he will continue to get away with unscrupulous conduct because that’s the way he has operated for his entire life, a style that is appreciated, unfortunately, by many in this country.

Consider what happened in Britain earlier this month.

First, amazingly, Trump creating a huge diplomatic incident when he lofted intense criticism of his host, British Prime Minister Theresa May only a day before meeting her on the world stage.

Trump kind of apologized to May, but did not entirely back off the critical statements about her handling of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.

He used a news conference at May’s country home to assail the news media once again, deny facts in plain evidence and make a series of false or questionable assertions.

The second day of Trump’s visit to Britain was a jarring mix of carefully choreographed pomp and pageantry on one hand and the unpredictability of his relentless convention-breaking on the other. The special relationship between the United States and Britain may survive, but, for a day at least, it was in question.

“I am doing a great job, that I can tell you,” Trump said, “just in case you haven’t noticed.”

Typical Trump. Everything revolves around this narcissist. He is always the one who “is doing a great job.”

I don’t think so.