I don't think Trump is a Pragmatist (philosophically speaking). If he were, he would have been a lot more like Hillary both in the way he ran his campaign and his positions on the issues. And he wouldn't be appointing so many free-market advocates to cabinet positions. I think that, philosophically, Trump is eclectic (as in, "all over the map").

Pragmatism is a philosophy. It does not mean everything that "works". Of course Objectivism works in practice. That does not make it Pragmatism.

You can say that about all ideas about reality and not just for official ideas of Rand. Some of hers ideas required way too much judgement of every thought and every statement of others to the result of completely emotionless thinking without any way to find happiness. In many cases it is not possible to choose an action without the choice of pleasure as the defining motive. It is easy to injure a consciousness by discarding emotion and bodily feelings from all cognition. Of course many of the original ideas of hers are useful and might make lives better, so with most ideas just question them and dump the ones that do not fit objective reality, remembering that what you get has been filtered though some parts of the brain that include very ancient reptilian and mammalian filters of sense data.

And how does one form those principles and prove them without observing a practical, concrete objective reality. Pragmatism deals with meanings of reality and those cannot be produced without observing reality. Rand at times formed principles a priori without actual concretes to point to with the resulting principle. The most referenced example would be 'man's life qua man' because it just floats there with no concretes pointed too, only lives as an ideal man, 'qua man', which is not a concrete, unless one wants to pretend that it is reifiable, but concepts are not part of the concrete world and only refer to it.

His authoritarian statism is dangerous to us and to the country. He is making political appointments to carry out and impose is own ideas of how he will run the country and the economy while threatening those who don't go along. Presidents are not supposed to run the country and the economy. He is supposed to be the executive implementing laws passed by Congress, which in turn are not supposed to control us. The administration is not supposed to be the Trump family business.

Some of his cabinet selections are the best that can be expected under current circumstances and are not what Clinton's continuation and intensifying of the Obama agenda would have been. Others are much worse. But they are all conservatives and Pragmatists with the typical view of government as a tool to make things "work" in whatever realm they think is important, selected to impose Trump's own executive decrees in how he will "run" the country.

His recent choice of Secretary of State is suspect at best: It's another Trump emphasis on "making deals" without regard to principles and enunciated policy, let alone respect for the rights of individuals such as his dealings with his crony Putin. Principles and foreign policy have not even been discussed -- only deal making.

His latest announcement of Zinke nominated as Secretary of the Interior is terrible, but few are paying attention to it. Zinke, like Trujmp, is an advocate for permanent Federal control of the land and expanding its domain. As a Republican on the House Resources Committee he has fought reforms of the Federal land agencies and has pushed for expanded funding for Federal acquisition. His support of energy production is not the complete lock it up preservationist mentality of the viros, but is still the Federal authoritarianism of control over the land and its use. Eco-fascism is not the only form of fascism.

Zinke was selected under pressure from the Trump "kids" who see the 30% of the land base under direct Federal control as their domain for upscale hunting expeditions while wallowing in the scenery. Rep. McMorris Rodgers, who had previously been reported as the selection, would have been much, much better, but was pushed out under this family pressure and the Federal land lobby the "kids" associate with.

The vast and expanding Federal lands are to be the plaything of the new Trump family business under Trump's assumed executive authority to do what he wishes, and the rest of us are to do as we're told.

A lot of people have been "considered" and quickly passed over. It is Trump support for the kinds of principles Allison stands for.

my apologies, I thought the reference was to Tillman. please for give me.

Thanks. I totally did not remember that scene.
No wonder I did not blink! blink! notice the author..
Barely had time to read--no, scan--the title of a book I knew nothing about.
I'm sure I was like most people who had forgotten that scene before even leaving the theater. .

Perhaps Jeb Bush or John Kasich would be more to your liking. They would be polite and not ruffle anyone’s feathers, and they would get along nicely with Democrats in the spirit of bipartisanship and compromise. Of course they would not repeal Obamacare, but they would make it more efficient and “compassionate.”And they would make sure that we were properly deferential to the U.N. and “world leaders”. And they would populate their cabinet with like-minded people to make sure that America continues the policies of Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama as we continue our march into a progressive paradise.