[darawk]

> First, Reagan was not a monarch who shared personality with the State, so any deprecation of government he did was not self-deprecation

It is absolutely legitimate to characterize the president denigrating government as self-deprecating, splitting hairs about this is silly.

> Second, he is not at all unique in that. Bush (43 more than 41) and Trump have done much the same, and even Clinton did it off and on.

Reagan was more unique in his ability to actually do it, though. The others had much less impact.

[dragonwriter]

> It is absolutely legitimate to characterize the president denigrating government as self-deprecating

No, it's generally not (there may be specific cases where it is), especially when the President in question is selling himself as an ally of the people against government.

> Reagan was more unique in his ability to actually do it

Actually do what? If you mean literally denigrating the Government, no, Trump's done much more of that.

If you meant reducing it's role.. Reagan didn't even do that; he shifted the burden of paying for it, sure. But it was much bigger, more intrusive, and more expensive when he left office than when he entered.