Within hours of winning the presidential election, Donald Trump immediately began taking steps to fulfill his wide slate of ambitious campaign promises—leaving the corporate media, the Democrat Party establishment, and even some Republicans in a state of shock and bewilderment.
Although many Washington, D.C., powerbrokers are not accustomed to candidates doing what they promised to voters on the campaign trail, Trump’s actions make clear that he is determined to deliver on his promises to the American people no matter what obstacles stand in his path.
Barely over a week since Trump’s historic victory, the president-elect has already nominated America First stalwarts to key cabinet and staff positions, announced the creation of a new agency to rein in the rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal bureaucracy, and visited with congressional Republicans on Capitol Hill to discuss his second term agenda. More than any other president-elect in recent memory, Trump has laid the groundwork to begin aggressively implementing his agenda on day one.
But in response to some policy and personnel announcements, the liberal establishment and corporate media have flown into a fit of rage and hysteria—as if they expected Trump to retreat from his campaign pledges and subserviently bend the knee to the Washington swamp.
This left-wing frenzy was seen most notably with Trump’s nomination of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz as his Attorney General. “Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department,” Trump announced in a statement. “Matt will root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the Department to its true mission of fighting Crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution. We must have Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency at DOJ. Under Matt’s leadership, all Americans will be proud of the Department of Justice once again.”
In response, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) condemned the pick as a “red alert moment for democracy,” slamming Gaetz as “dangerous.” MSNBC called it “shocking.” The New York Times castigated Gaetz as a “bomb-thrower.” And establishment Republicans like Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) lamented the nomination as not “serious,” presumably out of concern that Gaetz would oversee sweeping changes at the Department of Justice following years of department corruption and the Biden administration’s weaponization of law enforcement against the American people.
But Trump’s pledge to revamp the DOJ and restore its proper mission is not new. In an April 2023 policy video, for instance, Trump pledged to “completely overhaul the federal Department of Justice and FBI” and “restore the fair and impartial rule of law”—including by “launch[ing] sweeping civil rights investigations” into left-wing prosecutors who selectively enforce the law on the basis of race, political belief, and other arbitrary characteristics.
Trump’s nomination of Gaetz—who has himself been unfairly targeted by the DOJ under the Biden-Harris administration—demonstrates that he is taking his promises seriously, and it should by no means come as a surprise.
Similarly, following Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., as Secretary of Health and Human Services, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow claimed the pick is “meant to shock us, and adjust our sense of what is normal.”
But Trump’s alliance with Kennedy goes back months—and his role in the administration has long been expected.
“Millions and millions of Americans who want clean air, clean water and a healthy nation have concerns about toxins in our environment and pesticides in our food,” Trump said at an August rally in Arizona. “That’s why today I’m repeating my pledge to establish a panel of top experts working with Bobby to investigate what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic health problems and childhood diseases, including autoimmune disorders, autism, obesity, infertility, and many more. We want every child in America to grow up and to live a long and healthy life.”
The media also responded with outrage to Trump’s nomination of Army veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth, a political outsider, to lead the U.S. Department of Defense. “President-elect Donald Trump’s Tuesday night surprise pick of a conservative commentator and television host as his Pentagon chief shocked Washington,” Politico reported.
But for anyone who paid attention throughout Trump’s campaign, Hegseth’s nomination would come as wholly unsurprising. “The State Department, the defense bureaucracy, the intelligence services, and all the rest need to be completely overhauled and reconstituted to fire the Deep Staters and put America First,” Trump said during a March 2023 policy video.
Likewise, Trump’s creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, which will “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” elicited pushback from the left for being too extreme. But this announcement also falls squarely in line with what Trump promised during his campaign.
Four years after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris campaigned as moderate centrists, yet governed as far-left progressives, Donald Trump’s return to the White House is poised to mark a much-needed return to his first administration’s mantra of “Promises Made, Promises Kept.” And although the left-wing ruling class and corporate media are predictably losing their minds over his cabinet picks and policy initiatives, in the end, the federal government—and the nation itself—will be better off because of them.
Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.
