Trump Unshackled

Dan Balz: “For President Donald Trump, the first week of his second term was everything he had promised, with multiple attacks on executive agencies, undocumented immigrants, perceived enemies and other obstacles. It was, however, only Week 1 of a four-year term and far too early for him to hang up any banner proclaiming mission accomplished.”

“The opening directives included scores of orders, actions and statements designed to disrupt agencies across the federal government and beyond. Together the week of activity underscored Trump’s determination to try to bring about wholesale changes far more radical and punitive than what he tried in his first term…”

“No single order in his first days in office was more alarming than the pardons. Ahead of the election, his opponents worried openly that there would be no real guardrails around Trump in a second term, that he would stock his White House and administration with loyalists and banish the types of advisers he regretted hiring in his first term. The pardons were proof that Trump will act as he wishes.”