The Full Trump from Day One

Before the inauguration speech was even over, President Trump declared it was a new Golden Age in America, promised to take back the Panama Canal and reinvigorated the much maligned phrase, Manifest Destiny, this time applying it to our quest to conquer the stars, and he was just getting warmed up.

Love him or hate him, there’s no doubt that President Donald J. Trump does things his way, turning the classic Frank Sinatra song into a personal anthem of political defiance.  To his detractors, this makes him an abhorrent threat to democracy, if not the entire world; to his supporters, it is the basis of an almost decade long bond, but I think it’s fair to say that he managed to take it to yet another level following his inauguration earlier this week.

If we thought we’d seen Full Trump prior to the first indoor ceremony since 1985, we were about to learn otherwise before his speech was even over, when he declared it was a new Golden Age in America, promised to take back the Panama Canal and reinvigorated the much maligned phrase, Manifest Destiny, this time applying it to our quest to conquer the stars.  “The golden age of America begins right now.  From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.  We will be the envy of every nation. And we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer,” he began in remarks that were considered controversial to some for thinly veiled criticisms of his predecessor and the broader establishment.  “During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first. Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end. And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud and prosperous and free.”  As he described the situation before his swearing in, “For many years, the radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens. While the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair, we now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad.  It fails to protect our magnificent, law-abiding American citizens but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions that have illegally entered our country from all over the world. We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders but refuses to defend American borders, or more importantly, its own people.”  Of his own journey back to the White House, President Trump said, “Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history, and I’ve learned a lot along the way. The journey to reclaim our Republic has not been an easy one, that I can tell you. Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and indeed to take my life. Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”  Regarding the Panama Canal, he explained why he wants it, “We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made. And Panama’s promise to us has been broken. The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape or form, and that includes the United States Navy. And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.” Regarding Manifest Destiny, “The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”

For most incoming Chief Executives, this speech, followed by a parade, the signing of a handful of executive orders, and attendance at a few celebratory balls in the evening would have been enough.  The entire day, likely from what underwear they chose in the morning, would’ve been carefully scripted despite the unanticipated change in venue on account of the inclement weather, a showcase of American might via the pomp, circumstance, and majesty of the Washington establishment coming together to celebrate the peaceful transfer of power.  President Trump is, however, defined perhaps by his brazen, improvisational style as much as anything else.  During his scripted remarks in the Capitol Rotunda, he seemed to be chafing at the restraint of using a teleprompter, a caged animal ready to be unleashed.  Not surprisingly, he appeared shortly thereafter to deliver much more freewheeling remarks to supporters, closer to a campaign rally than anyone who’d have expected for anything as formal as inauguration.  The Associated Press’ live event feed says it all.  After reporting that “Trump is speaking from Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitors Center,” they followed up with “Trump unleashed” and “Trump reverts to rally style weave.”  As they described it, “After delivering a relatively staid inaugural address reading from a teleprompter, Trump is now unleashing during a freewheeling, off-the-cuff second speech at the Capitol Visitor Center.  Trump is angrily railing against his enemies, promising action on what he calls the ‘J6 hostages’ calling former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney ‘a crying lunatic,’ and bashing what he calls the ‘unselect committee of political thugs’ that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.  He’s also criticizing the pardons Joe Biden issued right before Trump was sworn in and in recent weeks,” and “It’s a remarkable moment for the new president — moments after being sworn into office, rambling into a long speech of familiar promises, grievances and insults. Trump is holding court at the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall, his vice president and the House speaker looking on, as he talks unscripted for what was expected to be a quick stop to supporters.  Instead, he is speaking on a range of topics, a weave he has called it.” Even this proved to be just the opening act in a day defined by major actions.  A few hours later, he was at the Capitol One Arena for an indoor parade, another rally, and the very public signing of a series of executive orders, ranging from the small to the large, the minor to the consequential almost beyond words.  At the Arena, he was joined by the families of US hostages still held by Hamas, while he once again rallied in support of the “J6 hostages” before holding a “signing ceremony in an unusual venue” according to the same Associated Press.  “Trump is turning his rally at a downtown Washington arena into a signing ceremony for executive actions that his new administration is taking to institute major policy changes.  The setup included a small desk, chair and microphone, where Trump was sitting to attach his signature to official actions.”

By 7 PM, he’d signed orders both expected and surprising, ending 78 Biden-era executive actions, preventing bureaucrats from issuing regulations until he controls the government, freezing government hiring except for military and a few other essential areas, requiring federal workers return in person, directing department and agency to address the cost of living crisis, withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords, restoring freedom of speech and preventing censorship, ending the “weaponization of government against the political adversaries of the previous administration.”  A short while later, he’d ended birthright citizenship – or at least set the stage for a legal challenge – ended a 2021 Title IX order to limit the government’s role in transgender issues, even renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and restored Alaska’s Mount McKinley to its original name.  By 8, he’d returned to the Oval Office and delivered on his promise to pardon the “J6 hostages,” but he did so while holding a press conference with reporters, where he variously praised former President Bill Clinton’s “great political sense,” a “very interesting politician” who was “disrespected” and “not used properly,” claimed he was having “some crazy conversations” with former President Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral last week, and defended himself from placing techno-billionaires in the front row at the inauguration, insisting “they’re with me now.”  Perhaps more so than anything else, the audacity to attempt to end the long standing practice of birthright citizenship based on an untested implication of a reconstruction era amendment encapsulates the size and scope of President Trump’s ambition.  To be certain, the President lacks the authority to end birthright citizenship by executive fiat and based on his own comments, President Trump knows this.  His plan, however, is to issue the order to prompt a legal challenge, hopefully rising to the Supreme Court that will clarify the meaning of the phrase “jurisdiction” as it relates to who is a citizen and who is not.  Sure enough, less than 24 hours later, at least eighteen states plus the District of Columbia and San Francisco have sued to stop the order from going into effect on February 19.  New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matt Platkin said, “The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period.”  Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a U.S. citizen by birthright and the nation’s first Chinese American elected attorney general, described his state’s suit as personal, “The 14th Amendment says what it means, and it means what it says — if you are born on American soil, you are an American. Period. Full stop.  There is no legitimate legal debate on this question. But the fact that Trump is dead wrong will not prevent him from inflicting serious harm right now on American families like my own.”  While assorted legal experts are doubtful President Trump will prevail, the situation is not nearly as clear cut as these attorneys general claim.  The actual clause in the 14th amendment reads, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”  The question of birthright citizenship hinges on whether someone born to parents residing in the country illegally is “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” and though the idea has been enshrined in law since 1898, no formal ruling has ever been issued.  The closest we have come is the decision regarding Wong Kim Ark, who was born in the US to legal residents from China, but after traveling abroad was denied reentry on the grounds that he wasn’t a citizen due to the Chinese Exclusion Act.  The Supreme Court ruled that he was, but it’s not clear their logic would have been the same if Mr. Ark’s parents weren’t here legally in the first place.

By the time the President and First Lady appeared at the celebratory balls later in the evening, where he danced with an actual sword – yes, an actual sword – Democrats, the mainstream media, and even the President’s supporters were exhausted, barely able to keep up with the frenetic, freewheeling pace of activity.  As even CNN’s Stephen Collinson described it, “Donald Trump on Monday restored the warp speed presidency.  Proclaiming a new American ‘Golden Age,’ Trump consolidated power hours into his new term, wielding massive executive authority in seeking to obliterate large chunks of Joe Biden’s legacy and showing he plans to learn from his first-term failures to pull off a transformational presidency.”  He continued, “In a freewheeling news conference back in the Oval Office, Trump demonstrated a capacity to drive his own message and move geopolitical chess pieces in public in a way that Biden lost when age caught up with him. The imagery was of a well-briefed new president eyeing big goals, confident that his first term gives him a heads-up on how to wield the levers of power and determined to make the most of a second chance.”  The next day, Mr. Collins was claiming it felt like full term already, “It already feels like he’s been back for months. Donald Trump is setting a frenetic pace in his second term, fulfilling campaign promises, imposing undiluted power and settling scores. After the sedate Joe Biden years, the return of a presidency that is an incessant assault on the senses is a reminder of why so many millions of Americans see Trump as a compelling, historic figure – and why millions more deeply fear him.”  For his part, Fox News’ Brett Baier was practically speechless at times, repeating, we’ve never seen anything like this, and I think the world in general agrees.  Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers argued for energy in the executive, writing “Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.”  More than a century later, Teddy Roosevelt made a cultural argument for an Americanism, proud, strong, and embracing its destiny.  To say President Trump hit the ground running, clearly exhibiting both, is an early candidate for understatement of the year, but perhaps more importantly, he did it his way, as he always does.