Trump off and running on 2nd-term agenda — after pointed shots at Biden on Day One | Opinion
After a campaign like no other, it seemed fitting to have an inauguration like no other. Others had been forced inside by cold, but from Ronald Reagan in 1985 to William Howard Taft in 1909, neither address featured a detailed evisceration of a predecessor sitting within earshot.
For Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, it had to feel like forced attendance at a Donald Trump rally, as the freshly reinstalled president unveiled a checklist that could have been labeled “Reversing Everything You People Did.” Even the opening prayers contained a jab at Biden, as Franklin Graham intoned: “Mr. President, in the last four years, there are times I’m sure you thought it was pretty dark; but look what God has done.”
If it seemed a little harsh for Trump to torch the outgoing administration on transition day, it is worth remembering that these are the people who spent the last four years painting him as a Hitler-level “threat to democracy.” And as supporters gathered in a downtown basketball arena for what passed as the indoor “inaugural parade,” there was a predictable parade of gasping analysis from media voices whose efforts on behalf of Harris fell short.
On NPR, Mara Liasson lamented what she called the “threat to the rule of law” as Trump mused that some of the Jan. 6 defendants have been punished enough. In an online article, her colleague, Domenico Montenaro, described Democrats “waiting fearfully” to see what Trump does. They are entitled to those takes, of course, but one thing he may do is end taxpayer funding for such analysis.
That’s just one of the vast reform ideas that propelled him past failed impeachments, prosecutions and assassination attempts to stand with his hand raised Monday to take a second oath of office. The breadth and energy of those reforms captured the imagination of voters who may or may not share Trump’s politics but were nonetheless attracted by a pledge to blast through government corruption and waste.
After Mitt Romney lost to Barack Obama in 2012, egghead Republican strategists fashioned an autopsy designed to improve the party’s future prospects. It involved striking a tamer tone on immigration and the “culture wars.” In the next election, 62 million voters rewarded Trump for ignoring such foolishness. Now, 77 million have rewarded him again for thwarting the timid wing that has slowed the GOP since Reagan left office. Declaring an emergency on our southern border and announcing an official policy defining two genders, Trump took the reins Monday by giving voice not just to red-meat conservatism, but to the ravaged concept of common sense.
So, can he be a “unifier,” as he promised in the Capitol rotunda? No president has ever unified according to the word’s real definition; our most popular presidents have still had millions of opponents. But from the peace and prosperity that benefited Bill Clinton legacy to the landslide re-election that cemented Reagan’s legend, we will occasionally have presidents widely accepted, even by critics, as successful and consequential.
Trump is already consequential. He has reshaped the entire Republican Party in his boisterous, impatient and determined image, and now, he has reclaimed the mantle of the presidency against the steepest of odds.
Next comes the success part, which is harder. There is no guarantee that his approach to reshaping government and reorienting the culture will work or win favor along the way. But it is clear that some lessons from his first term have stuck.
He knows Washington now. He knows what it is like to meet a wall of establishment obstruction in both parties. And he knows how to recognize self-serving saboteurs who will try to ingratiate themselves into the administration, only to turn on him later.
That explains the stellar litany of nominees who have hit towering home runs in Senate confirmation hearings. Under desperate attack from Democrats looking to exact some degree of damage as their agenda hits the ropes, Trump’s picks have succinctly and artfully described their intention to return America to the concepts of accountability and meritocracy.
Berated as an inexperienced ragtag chorus of loyalists, they are redefining the meaning of relevant experience. After decades of power placed in the hands of dusty academics and intractable bureaucratic fossils, the incoming Trump team shares a talent for leadership and a spine for real change. This is what people voted for, and this is what America is going to get.
Now we get to see how this second term plays out. Just a few months out of his first gate, the summer of 2017 saw his job approval underwater by as much as 20 points in some polls. The public warmed somewhat by 2019, until COVID consumed the news cycles of the election year and buried its result in controversy. Without the pandemic, this moment in history might have seen the end of a second Trump term instead of its beginning.
He is back in the Oval Office with some of his highest approval numbers ever, with the MAGA faithful joined by converts willing to give him a chance. If his winning issues were immigration and the economy, those will be the areas on which he’ll be graded as midterm elections draw near. The borders seemed to improve on Day One, with the extinction of the ridiculous app that enabled wanton asylum claims. The economy will take longer.
Trump 2.0 launches with lofty approval, but those poll numbers will soon face the tough test of lofty expectations.
This story was originally published January 21, 2025 at 3:25 AM with the headline "Trump off and running on 2nd-term agenda — after pointed shots at Biden on Day One | Opinion."