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It’s pretty late in the game, but maybe Trump can still discover that a public sense of humor would do more for his approval rating than nasty tweets.
For a president to survive in Washington, it helps to have two things: a sense of humor and a dog. Donald Trump is the first Oval Office occupant in decades to have neither.
Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law and an animal rescue advocate, has been pressing him to get a rescue dog, ABC News reported. But at a rally Monday in El Paso, Texas,  Trump made clear there’s probably no puppy in his future. “I don’t have any time,” he told the audience, adding it “feels a little phony, phony to me.”
In fact, a dog’s genuine love, along with a sense of humor, can go a long way toward smoothing over lapses, extinguishing fires and softening unappetizing traits.
But the only use Trump seems to have for dogs is as epithets. His critics have been “fired like a dog” and “dumped like a dog.” They choked, cheated, lied, sweated or begged like dogs.
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As for a sense of humor, even with a script, a stage and the perfect occasion, Trump can still blow it. He had a shot last March at Washington’s Gridiron Dinner, an annual gathering that brings together journalists and politicians for a mutual roasting.
He got off to a strong start: “My staff was concerned heading into this dinner that I couldn’t do self-deprecating humor. … And I told them not to worry. Nobody does self-deprecating humor better than I do.”
It was a good line, and the audience was with him. But after several laugh-worthy moments, Trump descended into a long and unfunny stream of consciousness. As for next month’s Gridiron, it’s unclear whether he will attend.
At least Nixon had a dog going for him
A few presidents — John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, in particular — had keen senses of humor that they used to great advantage. (“Please tell me you’re Republicans,” Reagan famously quipped to surgeons after he was shot in a 1981 assassination attempt.)
The last president to have no sense of humor was Richard Nixon. We all know how that story ended.
But at least Nixon had dogs. He was often photographed on the beach in San Clemente, the Western White House, with his gorgeous Irish setter King Timahoe.
In 1952, his daughters’ cocker spaniel, Checkers, saved his threatened vice-presidential nomination after accusations he took campaign contributions for personal use. Appearing on television to refute the charges, Nixon vowed to keep one personal gift from an admiring voter: a black-and-white puppy the family named Checkers. ''The kids, like all kids, love the dog, and I just want to say… that regardless of what they say about it, we're going to keep it.” Corny and sentimental, sure. But Nixon emerged from what became known as the Checkers speech with a cleaner reputation.
Many other presidents had “celebrity” dogs, too. Warren Harding’s Airedale terrier Laddie Boy had a special chair to sit in during Cabinet meetings.
George H.W. and Barbara Bush’s English springer spaniel, Millie, “dictated” a children’s book about her adventures as first canine. And who could forget Bush’s yellow Labrador service dog, Sully, lying faithfully by the side of his owner’s casket in the Capitol this December?
A sense of humor and a dog would go a long way
One of the most famous presidential dogs was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Scottish terrier, Fala, an inseparable soul mate to FDR, who took him on diplomatic trips. During the 1944 election campaign for Roosevelt’s historic fourth term, Republicans accused him of accidentally leaving Fala behind on a trip and sending a Navy destroyer to pick him up at taxpayers’ expense.
At a Teamsters Union speech, Roosevelt replied: “These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No … they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks … but Fala does resent them.”
The Teamsters ate it up, as did a nationwide radio audience — making it a turning point in the campaign.
It’s pretty late in the game, but maybe Trump can still discover that a public sense of humor would do more for his approval rating than nasty tweets.
As for getting a dog, Trump is right, it wouldn’t work if it were just a prop. “How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn?” he wondered aloud at Monday’s rally. Actually, the president might just look more … human.
Saundra Torry is a former USA TODAY editorial writer. Follow her on Twitter: @storry1
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