Donald Trump is back in Washington. So is the Trump Show: a 24-hour, nonstop spectacle of governance and politicking that runs both his critics and the media (sometimes one and the same) ragged.
After taking the oath of office at noon on Monday, the new president sprinted through his first day. Issuing more than 200 executive orders and other actions, Trump began his administration’s assault on birthright citizenship, environmental protections, and parts of Joe Biden’s legacy with directives targeting a staggering scope of issues.
This was all carefully calculated: a “Day One” agenda that captured Americans’ attention in a way that Biden and his former running mate/replacement Kamala Harris never could.
News coverage of the day fixated on the Trump administration’s expansive policy push, rather than the mob of Proud Boys parading around the capital, posing for pictures in front of the courthouse. But this was a day of exultation for both the marching Proud Boys (who saw their imprisoned former leader Enrique Tarrio granted clemency by the president) and Trump’s wider base of voters, who witnessed a day of delivered promises and a vow of more to come.
Very little will happen immediately as a result of these orders, of course. But some changes to immigration systems — a freeze on new refugee admissions, the reinstitution of a policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while claims are processed — will take place at once. Some changes are largely aesthetic, or will have no impact on Americans: the renaming of Denali to Mount McKinley, referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” or ending federal government staffing initiatives for diversity, equity and inclusion.
But with 18 states now embroiled in a lawsuit with the new administration over the redefinition of birthright citizenship, the White House is diving head first into its first big fight at the Supreme Court. And the president is promising to provoke further battles in the days ahead.
While border czar Tom Homan said an initial push to target illegal immigrants with raids in cities across the country was apparently delayed due to information about the operation leaking to the public, that surge of enforcement action is still on the way, with cities run by Democratic mayors and city councils on the list.
The promise to widely expand the use of U.S. territory for fossil fuel production is also poised to cause the government to lock horns with states and environmental groups.
The spectacle is the point: Trump will have no issue, unlike his predecessor, getting news of his administration’s accomplishments to voters. Signing more than 200 directives didn’t just grab eyeballs across traditional media, where high-information voters still reside. It resonated across social media and streaming platform Twitch, home to the elusive younger male demographic that swung heavily to the right last year. Big name streamers of different political bents all tuned in for the Trump Show: Asmongold, XQC, and Hasan Piker all had audiences of tens of thousands watching Elon Musk do what many later accused of being a Nazi salute onstage.
Those same audiences were still watching into the evening as Trump, onstage at the Capitol One Arena, continued his directive-signing marathon in front of the cameras and a large audience of his supporters — even carting out a big wooden desk for the occasion.
This is governance as reality TV: the future Americans and the world can look forward to for the next three years and eleven months. With their party in full retreat, Democrats may wish to ask themselves whether an innate ability to grab attention is such a bad feature to have.
