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Austin, Texas As president, he cut a grandiose figure. He was a braggart and a frequent liar. He was suspicious of other countries, frequently saying, Foreigners are not like the folks I am used to. He had a reckless disregard for limits. He belittled and browbeat others to intimidate them and give him what he wanted. Historian Robert Dallek said that he viewed criticism of his policies as personal attacks and opponents of his policies as disloyal to him and the country.

He would bully and insult reporters, saying of one that he always knew when he was around, because he could smell him. He told whoppers about voter fraud in his elections. But he did get things done, dominating the political scene for good and for ill.

No, were not talking about Donald Trump. During a visit to the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, I was struck by just how many parallels there are between Lyndon Johnson and Trump. Liberals knew all about Johnsons faults in the 1960s. But it was a different, more respectful media era, and his faults were underreported. The media were also willing to overlook them until Vietnam became a fiasco, because reporters liked his domestic-policy priorities in civil rights and his new government spending. Would America have been better off without Lyndon Johnson in the Senate? And, consequently, without Lyndon Johnson as president? asked historian Torsten Kathke, writing at his blog Thus, History! It is a question of means and ends. Any answer can only be uncomfortable, but that is, precisely, the ground on which politics thrives.

The answer that 91 mostly liberal historians gave for CSPANs new Presidential Historians Survey is clear. Despite all of Johnsons character flaws and the Vietnam disaster, he was ranked as the tenth-best president. LBJ lost ninth place, by a historians hair, to Ronald Reagan, despite the Gippers manifestly greater integrity and honesty. Where Johnson excelled was in the category Pursued Equal Justice for All. There, he barely lost out to Abraham Lincoln, taking second placebut still outscoringthird-place finisher Barack Obama. In other words, Johnsons ends canceled out his means.

With President Trump, conservatives are having to make similar calculations. Many Republicans on Capitol Hill are appalled by Trumps bouts of pettiness and near-paranoia. But they also believe that theyre worth tolerating if it means that tax reform will pass, Obamacare will be replaced, and U.S. military strength will be restored.

Some conservatives go beyond that realpolitik and argue that there is a method to Trumps menace. Writing in the latest issue ofNational Review, Heather Higgins, CEO of the Independent Womens Voice, notes:

Trump repeatedly reverses tone with neck-whipping speed when it suits his purpose to pivot from aggressive attack to gracious conciliation. These are clues that his bravado and bluster are an act. Trump has learned that intimidation, misdirection, controlling the conversation, graciousness, and conciliation all have their uses.

If its true that Trumps grandiosity is all an act, he deserves to retire the Academy Award. But there is evidence to buttress Higginss contention. In the biggest crisis of his business career, he really cared about the art of one deal.

In 1990, Trump nearly went bankrupt and was forced to ask creditors to change the terms on their loans and forgive some of his debts. Trump has said he focused on it with more intensity and purpose than anything hed done in his life to that point. In PBSs documentary The Choice 2016, Gwenda Blair, author of The Trumps, said that bankers held gigantic meetings at Trump Tower with, like, 40 banks all sitting around in a room, Donald very sober, looking like not quite penitent perhaps, but serious. According to Blair, Trump convinced his creditors that he was more valuable to them financially alive than financially dead. So Trump shifted from real-estate deals to licensing his well-known name. The brand was worth now so much that bankers were willing to take a haircut in order to hang onto the name, Blair said.

But for the media it makes little difference if Trumps excesses are habitual or calculated. Media outlets have declared war on him because he represents what they view as an unprecedented danger. On the front page of the New York Times in August, the papers media columnist, Jim Rutenberg, observed that balance has been on vacation when it comes to coverage of Trump:

If you view a Trump presidency as something thats potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than youve ever been to being oppositional. Thats uncomfortable and uncharted territory for every mainstream, nonopinion journalist Ive ever known, and by normal standards, untenable.

But normal standards, as Rutenberg suggested, may not apply when it comes to Trump.

There was a time when conservatives made the same argument about LBJ, insisting he was a unique threat to democracy. In 1964, conservative Democrat J. Evetts Haley sold 7.5 million copies of his self-published polemic A Texan Looks at Lyndon: A Study in Illegitimate Power. According to the Texas Monthly, Haley portrayed Johnson as a vain and vicious man whose climb to the presidency was wrought with malevolence on every rung of the ladder.

Some of Haleys charges such as Johnsons involvement in winning his fraud-ridden 1948 Senate election by getting 202 of his purported supporters to vote in exact alphabetical order were later confirmed in historian Robert Caros magisterial four-volume biography of Johnson.

Some of LBJs former aides also confirmed Haleys view of Johnsons character. George Reedy, who was LBJs White House press secretary, recalled:

As a human being, he was a miserable person. ...a bully, sadist, lout, and egotist. His lapses from civilized conduct were deliberate and usually intended to subordinate someone else to his will.

Were there nothing to look at save LBJs personal relationships with other people, it would be merciful to forget him altogether. But there is much more to look at. He may have been a son of a bitch, but he was a colossal son of a bitch....Nevertheless, he was capable of inspiring strong attachments even with people who knew him for what he was.

I dont know just how much of a miserable person Donald Trump is. I do know that many conservatives have decided that regardless of their personal feelings about him, he is now president and its important to work with him to push through policies that will help the country. Liberals in the 1960s knew what an SOB Johnson was, but they demanded that Republicans work with him to pass legislation. And legislate they did, passing the Civil Rights Act and achieving bipartisan support for the passage of Medicare.

I left my tour of the Johnson Library and its archives this month with a question. Sure, it was easy for people in both parties to hate Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s. Its certainly easy for people in both parties to hate Donald Trump today. But in the 1960s, there was a sense that the legislative process and the wheels of government still had to turn. Back then, the country didnt tolerate blind obstructionism and attempts to delegitimize the presidency.

If were going to increase economic growth, limit racial tensions, and move effectively against terrorism, those who Hate Trump need to ask themselves, Is there any point at which resisting his administration becomes counterproductive? So far, their answer appears to be no.

John Fund is NROs national-affairs correspondent.

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Introducing her husband at Saturdays rally in Melbourne, Florida, Melania Trump began by reading the Lords Prayer, but while the crowd loved it, leftists on social media were not so kind.

Liberals attacked the first lady for everything from her accent and faith to the fact that she read the prayer instead of having it memorized.

With an hours practice I could probably say the Lords Prayer better in Slovene than Melania Trump does it in English, @adrianshort wrote.

@NicoleAngeleen tweeted: I could recite the Our Father backwards, drugged with a gun to my head. If you need to read this prayer, youre not Christian (re: Melania).

God Bless her, but listening to Melania do 'The Lords Prayer' sounds like someone getting cursed to become a 'Dracula,'@carnojoe wrote.

Melania starts the dictatorship rally with the Lords Prayer? NOT EVERY AMERICAN IS CHRISTIAN!!!! Country over party, tweeted @JaimePrimak.

Some even took personal shots at the first lady, calling her a whore.

plus melania read the 'our father' like a whore in confession after a night of escorting, @TrumpUriNation wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted.

Stay classy.

Milo Now OUT at CPAC After Shocking Video Emerges

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Liberals Are Still Angry, but Merrick Garland Has Reached Acceptance New York Times Judge Merrick B. Garland on Capitol Hill last March, soon after President Barack Obama nominated him for the Supreme Court. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times. WASHINGTON You might think it would take a toll on a person, being nominated for the ... and more »

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Happy to return home after after damage to an Oroville Dam spillway in California prompted a massive evacuation, residents remain alert in case they are ordered to leave their homes once again. (Feb. 15) AP

Signs on a fence in Oroville urge residents to support secession and the creation of a new state, the State of Jefferson. Due to northern California's low population, the area has only six state-level representatives, compared to 114 for the southern half of the state, which is home to populous cities like Los Angeles.(Photo: Trevor Hughes/USA TODAY)

OROVILLE, Calif. Eldon Hofeling raises his voice over the roar of backhoes, helicopters, tumbling rocks, dump trucks and 750,000 gallons of water rushing past every second.

Its driving me nuts,hesays.

Steps away from his house, hundreds of contractors are struggling to repair the Oroville Dam before the spring rains arrive in earnest. A stream of semi-trailers unloads chunks of rocks, which backhoes then load onto large dump trucks to deliver to weak spots on the other side of the dam. Helicopters chatter overhead every 90 seconds, lifting in even more rocks to shore up the dams top. Diesel engines rumble day and night, contractors bark orders and neighbors wander by to take a look.

Every bedroom window in Hofeling's house looks out over the dam, at what is now a staging area. Contractors told him this repair effort could last weeks.

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The mere threat of a dam failurelast weekwas enough to temporarily evacuate about 200,000 people living downstream. And a collapse could cause death and devastation in both the short- and long-term: This reservoir stores water to irrigate downstream farms and provide drinking water for Los Angeles.

Residents here in Oroville, Marysville and Yuba City are now living with the fresh knowledge that maybe this dam isnt as safe as they thought. That fact thatthe water benefits people hundreds of miles away from this danger isreverberating around these conservative communities that see little commongroundwith the far more liberal Californians on the coastand in Silicon Valley.

This isnt just idle talk: One of the first signs heading into Oroville, population 16,000, urges residents to support seceding from California to create a new state of Jefferson. Here in inland California, Gov. Jerry Browns name evokes disgust, and President Donald Trump is seen as the one who really cares. Here, residents distrust a state government they think is all-too-eager to help undocumented immigrants and build a bullet train to serve the rich coastal elites, leaving them with little.

I bet that if they put this effort into building it right the first time, they wouldnt have to do all of this, Hofeling, 66, saysas a backhoe drops rocks into a dump truck, shaking the ground.

Its a refrain voiced time and again in Oroville and the surrounding towns: The liberal, more populated parts of California suck up all the political attention and public dollars, leaving little for the men and women who help grow the nations food, fruits and nuts. That dichotomy has bred a mistrust of state government and a healthy skepticism of federal officials, Trump excepted.

How is it, the people here ask, that state and federal officials didnt seem to have the money to properly fix the dams problems when they were first identified, but have seemingly untold millions available when the crisis finally arrived.

To understand the situation, you have to look more carefully at Californias voting tallies. Statewide, Hillary Clinton clobbered Trump, winning 61% of the popular vote and 4.2 million more votes than Trump. On one hand, this is a state that utterly rejected Trump. On the other hand, because California is so big, theres wide variation in political affiliations.

Eldon Hofeling watches contractors load rocks being used to repair the Oroville Dam. The work continues 24 hours a day, making it hard for Hoteling and his wife to sleep in their own home. "I bet that if they put this effort into building it right the first time, they wouldn't have to do this," he says.(Photo: Trevor Hughes/USA TODAY)

The farmers and ranchers of Butte County, surrounding Oroville, live vastly different lives than the millionaires strolling Santa Monicas beaches or riding the Google buses to Mountain View or the Facebook coaches to Menlo Park. Butte County favored Trump in the election 46% to 42%, despite the presence of the more urban and traditionally more liberal Chico within its boundaries. Downstream neighbor Yuba County, home of Yuba City and Marysville, is perhaps a more accurate barometer: It went for Trump at nearly 58%.

In this part of the state, Brown is the bad guy for picking fights with the president over immigration, climate change and national priorities. Trump, in turn, called California out of control and suggested he might try to withhold federal funding, particularly over whether the more liberal coastal cities were acting as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants.

As you know, Im very much opposed to sanctuary cities. They breed crime. Theres a lot of problems, Trump told Fox News host Bill OReilly. If we have to, well defund. We give tremendous amounts of money to California. California in many ways is out of control, as you know.

Brown, for his part, has lauded Trump for promising to repair the nations roads, bridges and dams, but has also promised to use the states scientists, lawyers and resources to fight the presidents alternative facts.

The bad blood has flowed downstream, from the retired homebuilder who trusts Trump over the locally managed state Division of Water Resources, to the traffic flagger who laughs that liberal environmentalists arent worried about rare fish when their own homes are endangered, to the evacuee who refuses to return home or be quoted by name because she doesnt trust what the government will do with the information.

A rainbow arches above the Feather River where it crosses beneath power lines beneath the Oroville Dam. Workers severed the lines during the flooding fear, worried that a flood could rip out both lines and towers, causing even more damage.(Photo: Trevor Hughes/USA TODAY)

Everyonehere, it seems, has a reason to distrust some level of the government. Nowhere was that more evident than when a video showing a National Guard soldier giving out wrong information about the state of the dam and evacuation began ricocheting around social media hours after the evacuation order was lifted. What he said contradicted the official line from dam managers, and the public seemed ready to accept his version over theirs, especially as some Californians already believed dam managers had covered up the extent of repair work conducted in 2009.

Dam managers say theyre making good progress on repairing the damage caused when the reservoir overtopped its emergency spillway, scouring away trees, dirt and boulders. Managers had feared the emergency spillway could collapse, sending a wall of water downstream. That threat has eased, and workers are now shoring up the spillway and removing debris from below the dam.

Still, social media has been filled with rampant rumors and speculation that government officials were misstating the risk for some political gain, and theres skepticism bordering on paranoia that the real story isnt being told by the media or the government.

We have this longstanding history in our country, based on the idea that people control the government, not the other way around, said Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea, who ordered the evacuation and then spent days defending it against critics on both sides of the aisle.

Wading into that political tension are the state and federal emergency-management agencies trying to help.

Basically, theyre like dont mess with us. We dont need youuntil we need you, said Craig Fugate, the head of FEMA under President Obama. You have to understand that level of mistrust. Its not personal.

Fugate said the political dynamic in California mirrors that of many states, from his native Florida to the urban-rural divide of Washington state. The Oroville Dams potential failure could have been the first major test of the relationship between Trump and outspokencritic Brown, who after opposing the president asked him to declare a disaster in Oroville.

An engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers monitors water spilling from the Oroville Dam. The dam is controlled by the California Division of Water Resources, but the Army Corps of Engineers was providing assistance in monitoring and developing repair plans.(Photo: Trevor Hughes/USA TODAY)

Without addressing the conflict, Trump quickly approved the request via FEMA, freeing up potentially hundreds of millions of dollars and resources to pay for the repairs that are now disturbing Hofelings days and nights. Ballpark costs for repairs are set at $200 million.

I learned early on that all disasters are local, as all politics are local, Fugate said. You drop your logos and your egos at the door this is not about you, this is not about your ego, your publicity. Its about the people we are serving in a time of need. Because that need is a non-political need.

In Oroville, few people see it that way. Everyone gets run through the lens of politics. Theyre mad about Browns election (Gov. Moonbeam, they remind visitors), his plans for a high-speed train along the coast, and about the meddling of government in the ways they heat their homes, get their electricity and the kinds of cars they drive.

They feel the dams managers only respond to crises and only when they impact Democratic voters on the coast. And theyre heartened that Trump has vowed to rebuild the nations infrastructure on Saturday night at arally in Florida, he called upon Congress to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure package.

For the people beneath the dam, the fact that no Trump-Brown feud materialized is an example of the new presidents munificence. But theyre also well aware that things could have gone very differently here.Its very frustrating, says 23-year police officer and Oroville resident Jeff Wiles, as he watched the emergency repair work with his son. It just irritates you.

Wiles worked several days straight during the evacuation as police officers, sheriffs deputies and the California Highway Patrol emptied the Butte County Jail and then flooded the town with officers to prevent burglaries and looting. Wiles says he looks forward to retirement in a few years, so he can move his family, maybe to Idaho, to be among fellow conservatives. Hes tired, he says, of living in a state so split between Democrats and Republicans.

You tell the president, we dont want anything to do with you, and then you ask for help? Wiles says. At least hes not holding a grudge. I wouldnt blame him if he did.

Silhouetted by the afternoon sun, a civilian version of a military Blackhawk helicopter flies back to a work yard next to the Oroville Dam.(Photo: Trevor Hughes/USA TODAY)

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Okayso it wasnt an explosive interview. There wasnt much drama. Nothing was set on fire. And no lives were lost. It was a cordial discussion between two people with opposing views. HBO host Bill Maher invited Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, where the discussion was mostly rooted in both mens support for free speech rights. Maher also said that he cared about the "environment and living" as well, taking a swipe at the conservative movements aversion to supporting policies to combat climate change.

The comedian brought up that both of themwere run out of the Berkley campus, albeit the reaction to Yiannopoulos led to violet protests, $100,000 in property, and an FBI investigation into the matter. Milo later noted that Bill literally is the only good liberal left that respects free speech rights and discusses Islamic extremism honestly.

Milo noted how the Democratic Party and the liberal movement has gone insane, Lena Dunham is the face of the partywhich he notes will only lead to that party getting less votes (one could hope) in future elections.

Lets not pick on fellow HBO stars, said Maher.

Yet, another area they found agreementwas comedy and humor, which has become avictim of the political correctness police. Milo noted that this form of progressivism is wholly authoritarian, hence they must more or less silencehumor because its unpredictable. They hate that.Maher agreed.

And also because when people laugh, they know its true, he said.

As we wrote previously,The Intercepts Jeremy Scahill was booked for Fridays episode of Real Time, but backed outwhen he found out Milo was a guest. Yiannopoulos aptly noted that when you dont show up, you lose the debatewhich drew applause from the audience. Maher had issued a statement defending his booking of Milo, notingthat these anti-free speech antics is one the reasons why liberals will keep losing elections.

And also stop taking the bait, liberals, said Maher. The fact that they all freaked out about this little impish British fag, you fucking schoolgirls. You schoolgirls. Of course, Milo relished this, agreeing with the HBOhostwith chuckles of laughter.Its so ridiculous, he replied.

Yet,Maher and Milo disagreed about theBlack Lives Matter movement, Twitter trolls, and other comedians, namely Sarah Silverman and Amy Schumer, but closed his interview by saying that Mio should get off the Trump train.

For a guy who loves free speech, you picked a weird boyfriend, my friend, said Maher. Milo tried to defend the president, but they were out of time.

During Overtime, which airs online after the show, comedian Larry Wilmore, who was a panel guest, took the bait, telling Milo to go fuck himself over his opinion about Leslie Jones, the star of the disastrous Ghostbusters remake, and for calling him, along with former intelligence operative Malcolm Nance, another guestawful and stupid. Former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) was the conservative guest for the shows panel, but more or less opted to let Milo, Bill and Larry go at it.

The question that got caused the tension centered on the Breitbart editor going after a transgendered personat a college, who he says fought for the right to use the womens locker room after this person had left the school.

I dont have a problem with it [a biologically born male thinking hes female], but I think women and girls should be protected from having peoplemen who are confused about their sexual identities in their bathrooms, said Milo.

Thats not unreasonable, replied Maher.

So, at the beginning of the show, where Milo and Maher talked about liberals taking the bait, Larry Wilmore tookthe bait.

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