In only 100 hours, American public life has been significantly changed, perhaps more deliberately changed in the shortest time ever, and certainly changed with less actual surprise than might be expected considering the political consequences of that change.
After an extraordinary election campaign season, the year’s persistent mantra needs to be proclaimed one more time: We are in uncharted political territory.
The prime mover of this phenomenal moment is Donald J. Trump, whose electoral reincarnation was so amazing that it seemed more like a work of contrived literary fiction than a true historical event.
Mr. Trump rose from the catacombs of controversial defeat appearing to be hopelessly encumbered by the shackles of a media and political establishment hostile toward him, a series of unprecedented criminal indictments and trials designed to bury him, serious primary opponents in his own party, obsessive hatred directed personally against him, and no modern precedent for regaining the presidency after a re-election defeat.
There is a new cottage industry already booming trying to explain how he did it, and widespread delusional theories by those who opposed him and didn’t think he could.
But perhaps even more astoundingly, once sworn into office, Mr. Trump has attempted to accomplish, primarily with a dizzying number of executive orders, so much change without the historically slow initial pace of a new national administration.
Some of his orders may face rejection in the federal courts, including perhaps his challenge to “birthright citizenship,” which grants automatic legal status to children born in the U.S. whose parents are not citizens. In the past, the legal justification for this right was drawn from the language of the U.S. Constitution. If this interpretation is upheld, Trump’s executive order could be quashed.
Most of Mr. Trump’s orders, however, are clearly within a president’s prerogative and address a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues.
All presidents use executive orders to implement their policies, but what is notable about President Trump’s use of them to change the course of U.S. political and cultural life is how significant his orders have been and the rapid manner in which he has deployed them.
Since he articulated his specific intentions so often throughout the long presidential campaign, Mr. Trump has claimed that he has been given a voter mandate from the results of the just-concluded national election
The election also gave Mr. Trump and his party control of both the U.S. House and Senate. The Republican’s margin of control in each, however, is small and vulnerable to opposition from a few vocal individual members from his own party as well as the Democrats.
Mr. Trump, who served a full term as president from 2017 to 2021, will not be able to run again in four years, and he faces a traditionally difficult midterm election in less than two years. The broad range and speed of his domestic and foreign policy actions are driven by the political reality that his ability to succeed is probably greatest in the few months just after the election when his support and popularity are likely to be strongest.
As the re-election of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson demonstrated, Mr. Trump’s ability to dissuade mavericks in his own party from blocking his agenda is likely now at its peak. As the midterms approach, this power is likely to diminish.
Unlike the Democrats in recent years, Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate are less likely to be team players. Today and in the next few months, defying President Trump and his administration is not a practical option for most GOP legislators. But as elections in 2026 (and 2028) approach, his political influence will likely be gradually reduced.
For all the aforementioned reasons, delay is a political recipe for stalemate and failure for the Trump agenda.
In his first term, Mr. Trump learned that the devotion and loyalty of his cabinet and White House staff were key elements in getting things done. In this term, he has chosen persons who know what he wants to do to reform the government and its bureaucracy and won’t try to second-guess him.
This has resulted in several of his cabinet choices and other appointments being unorthodox and controversial. He learned in his first term that the establishment media would always oppose him, so he now makes little effort to placate them and the elite class of bureaucrats who will attempt to defeat him.
Mr. Trump did not come to the presidency with a background in public office. He came with a background in the rough-and-tumble world of big-city real estate development and the challenging complexities of the private sector. He was not a legislator; he was an executive. He knew the patterns and rhythms of television communications. He understood the vagaries of the entertainment business and the marketplace.
Mr. Trump clashed often with politicians and bureaucrats in his first term. A once-in-a-century pandemic upset his economic timetable, and he failed to win re-election.
It is clear that President Trump and his closest advisors believe that they must now move quickly and effectively. In U.S. politics, time is often not an ally to those who want to enact widespread changes.
The executive orders are the easy part. Now comes the difficult task of defending those orders in court and then legislating to ensure they cannot be undone by the next Democrat administration. That is the hard part.
Barry Casselman is a contributor for AMAC Newsline.
