Wednesday, January 22, 2025

It’s Donald Trump’s world now

 

"Monday was one of those very few days that draw a line in the sands of history. America observed the inauguration of the 47th president of the United States as Donald Trump became only the second president to be elected to two non-consecutive terms in office. But the return of Donald Trump to the White House is not merely a new footnote in presidential history, it is the marking of a new political age.

This political era will surely be seen as the Age of Trump. Donald Trump is the single most disruptive electoral force in American politics to appear in the modern age. In some sense, Franklin D. Roosevelt could be seen as a combination of the global energies of his relative, Theodore Roosevelt, and the administrative energies of Woodrow Wilson. On the other side, Ronald Reagan represented a conservative course correction from within the political mainstream.

Donald Trump is a singular. He comes from no mainstream whatsoever. He held no public office until he was elected president of the United States in 2016—an electoral victory that evidently surprised him as much as it shocked the political class. There is no precedent for the 47th president of the United States except for the 45th president of the United States, and even that precedent is limited in predictive value. The Donald Trump who entered the White House on Monday is a seasoned political veteran compared to the same man who entered the Oval Office eight years earlier. This time, Trump comes in with, by his own estimation, infinitely greater political experience, as well as a battle-tested team and a clear sense of purpose.

He is a man of exaggerated arguments and extravagant language whose political aims—the disruption of the administrative state, a rewriting of the international order, a reduction in the cost of government, and a confrontation with progressivist ideology—represent a deliberate and unconditional rejection of the political order represented by the Democratic Party and its progressivist ideologies and what he sees as the sell-out leadership of the Republican Party’s traditional elites. He wears the disdain of the intellectual elites as a badge of honor, and he intends to govern by force of will rather than incremental policies. This time, he comes to the Oval Office with what he sees as an undeniable mandate. He intends to use that mandate. If you don’t like it, he doesn’t care. As a matter of fact, elite disdain is the oxygen he craves, and that includes the condescension of the older accommodationist Republican leadership class. In President Trump’s eyes, the distinction between a Bush and a Clinton is negligible."

Click here to read the entire article by Albert Mohler at World Magazine.


Image is the Presidential portrait of Donald Trump

Library of Congress https://loc.gov/free-to-use/presidential-portraits

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