By
Ed Kilgore,
political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015
Normally, a president, particularly a second-term president, must choose one of two prime objectives: Down one path is achieving policy gains, even if that means cashing in hard-earned political capital; down another is trying to build up political capital via popular moves that increase the odds of victory for the president’s party in future elections.
In the opening months of Trump’s second term, it definitely looked as if he was choosing the path of instant policy gratification. He pursued an incredibly audacious right-wing agenda with maximum aggression, along with wildly controversial high-level appointments, to accentuate the message that it wasn’t just the Republican Party that won in 2024 but an ideological movement and a cult of personality. It was pedal to the metal 24/7, electoral consequences be damned, with Elon Musk’s rampage through the federal bureaucracy and the kitchen-sink One Big Beautiful Bill Act setting the tone for the entire administration.
