Perhaps a fedora or a bowler hat should replace President Donald Trump’s omnipresent MAGA cap. In recent months, he seems more like an old big city boss than the head of the world’s premier power. Trump continues to dole out pardons, first to a convicted drug dealer who was once president of Honduras and Henry Cuellar, a former Democratic Congressman from Texas, as per usual, justifying the actions with a snappy explanation.

Take your pick of which former New York mayor Trump resembles. He favors Jimmy Walker, who mixed his actions with both panache and style. His public appearances resemble clubhouse gatherings of the boys, generally known as the “Cabinet”, in the Oval Office. He asks for affirmation, and they chirp their approval. Tammany Hall reigns supreme at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. If the Washington Post still had Herbert Block as its cartoonist, maybe it could catch the essence of Trumpism, or one might be able to conjure up the reform spirit of Thomas Nast, who helped nail William “Boss” Tweed in the 1870s.

But for the media, they do not have much imagination in trying to gauge a president who follows rules so old that they seem bizarre in the present. Trump rewards his friends through pardons and protection, using his Attorney General as a personal attorney. Oh, pardon me, Pam Bondi was his personal lawyer. Not to mention his shameless courting of cryptocurrency barons who have supporters among his cronies; it is all pre-progressive-era, which tried to reduce conflicts of interest.

When Theodore Roosevelt tried to implement the rarely enforced Sherman Antitrust Act on the Northern Securities Railway conglomerate, he ran into a corporate minefield: J. P. Morgan. Morgan, who would understand Trump perfectly if he lived today, came up with a solution. “You send your man to see my man, and we will fix it up.” He conflated the Attorney General of the United States with a personal lawyer. Roosevelt did not find this amusing. In the end, he stopped the powerful railways’ attempt to merge and become a monopoly.

During the campaign, Trump inveighed against the “deep state.” But these were seen as matters of national security. What the media ignored is that MAGA wanted to destroy “the administrative state” with its pesky rules and regulations that prevented unhindered capitalism. But what was left out was that it also provided consumer protection, worker safety, and other restraints. Trump may have been a populist during the campaign, but afterwards, he was a pure libertarian. Somehow Robin Hood morphed into Ayn Rand.

Trump is no exception to the American traditions, at least those that existed in the early 20th century. Lincoln Steffens, “a muckraker,” made clear the similarities between business practices and political bossism. To his mind, they were one and the same. Trump, from his perch and from an entirely different point of view, would heartily agree.