Shock and Eh

Anyone who was shocked by Trump's first day hasn't been paying attention

Photo by Joseph Corl on Unsplash

Yes, it was awful. But scene one of the Trump sequel played out pretty much as we expected. Maybe even a little better than expected.

There was an onslaught of executive orders designed to overwhelm and overpower, a flagrant first-day abuse of the pardon power, and an inauguration pockmarked with conspicuous corruption and copious lies. We predicted all this on Monday.

But the inauguration itself felt constrained and lackluster and did not provide the optics of the conquering hero returning to claim his spoils. Moving the event to the Rotunda sapped it of its grandeur, and Trump responded appropriately by giving a flat, cold inaugural address where he talked about himself and looked and sounded like he would rather be golfing. If Trump was hoping to use the event to establish his supremacy, he missed the mark.

However, he did a good job establishing himself as a fake populist.

Where Jimmy Carter exited his limousine to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue during his inaugural motorcade, Donald Trump decided to feature the ascendant oligarchy in his. Standing behind him in the cramped Rotunda were the wealthiest people in the world, including media moguls and tech oligarchs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, who stood in front of Trump’s own cabinet nominees.

Meanwhile, the people who provided the votes to return him to office were left in the cold—literally. They no longer have anything to offer him.

Then there were the lies. Between his inaugural address and subsequent comments Trump made to supporters, Factcheck.org found lies and distortions on a dozen topics. You can check out their analysis. It’s long.

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These lifeless ceremonial activities were followed closely by the promised flood of executive orders and pardons. This is where Trump intended to impose his MAGA regime on the nation.

The executive orders read like a MAGA wishlist of cultural warfare. Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border (for unspecified fictional reasons), eliminated federal DEI initiatives and attacked transgender rights, withdrew from the World Health Organization, and unilaterally declared an end to birthright citizenship.

He also expanded oil drilling—something he said he would do repeatedly during the campaign—and withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement as he had during his first term. Ominously, but no less predictably, he began the process of reclassifying civil servants in order to fire them, a central part of the Project 2025 plan to build a bureaucracy that puts loyalty to Trump over professional service.

And he changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Kind of.

Then, Trump capped off his first day back by issuing sweeping pardons to over 1,000 people charged in the January 6 insurrection and commuting the sentences of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who were convicted of sedition. This came closest to being shocking, but only if you believed J.D. Vance when he said that people who engaged in violence at the Capitol “obviously . . . shouldn’t be pardoned.” Please never believe J.D. Vance. Trump was always going to pardon all of them, because that’s how he shows he is free to do whatever he wants.

The pardons are the one action that can’t be stopped or overturned by a future president, which is why he issued them in prime time. Because the pardon power is absolute, with self-constraint being the only restriction on its use, Trump’s election made this travesty inevitable and he intended to flaunt it.

Still, the optics of the day didn’t quite communicate the overpowering force of a new order as Trump had intended.

There was a lot he did not do. He did not end the Ukraine war on day one as he had promised (as if he could). He did not declare an economic emergency and impose tariffs on day one as he implied he would, suggesting he is still getting conflicting input on how to proceed.

Most of all, he didn’t quite get to dictate.

In fact, within hours, the pushback began.

By Tuesday, Trump’s executive actions were already being challenged in court. Democratic leaders in 18 states and multiple cities filed suit to block the birthright citizenship order because the guy who hours earlier took an oath to preserve and protect the Constitution doesn’t have the power to unilaterally change it.

A government labor union representing 37 federal agencies and departments sued to block Trump’s civil servant reclassification, claiming it is an illegal abuse of presidential authority.

Three lawsuits filed by progressive groups seek to block DOGE, Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” that’s not a real department, claiming it violates transparency laws.

This is also as expected, and will be a key component of fighting back against the administration.

Also by Tuesday, senators were ducking under rocks to avoid commenting on the pardons. Caught between defending the indefensible or crossing Trump, the few who spoke to reporters fell back on tired constructions like it’s time to look past the pardons to the future, or hid behind the factual claim that it’s the president’s prerogative to grant pardons, or weakly expressed disappointment.

Then, midday yesterday, a remarkable scene transpired at the inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral. The Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C., the Right Rev. Mariann Budde, looked directly at Donald Trump and appealed to him to have mercy on the vulnerable:

You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.

Trump looked down, looked away, and looked like he wanted to throw ketchup at the wall. It was stunning. If you haven’t seen it, take two minutes to watch.

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I do not dismiss the seriousness of the damage Trump has already done to the country. But every day that he fails to assert himself absolutely is a day he fails to create the intimidating persona he will need to silence dissent beyond a group of craven senators or venal oligarchs.

To silence the rest of us, he needs to instill fear. And to instill fear, he needs to appear untouchable.

There will be fraught moments ahead once Trump claims full control of the executive branch and is better positioned to weaponize it. But there are also obstacles ahead—and soon—that will throw a dose of reality into his grandiose plans, like lifting the debt ceiling and keeping the government open.

That’s why every day Trump can be blocked, and every day he can be diminished, is a good day. Every day we can trivialize Trump—without minimizing the horrific things he does—is a good day. Any day Trump is forced to sit in church and be called out by a bishop is a good day. It’s why yesterday, for all its awfulness, was a good day.

This is not how Trump intended to open this second term.