We America First folks need to brace ourselves for disappointment in the first hundred days of the Donald Trump 2.0 administration. No, not because Donald Trump is going to fail us. In fact, President Trump has demonstrated a remarkable change in attitude and execution, starting with his flawless election campaign through his focused and efficient transition. He and his organization have not only shown strategic savvy but have managed to overcome obstacle after obstacle thrown up by the Democrats and their regime media and Deep State lackeys. Trump 47 is set up for success, but it is also incumbent on us – his supporters in this coalition – to realize that we are not going to get everything we want.
But, as the man said, if we try real hard, we might just get what we need.
It’s often hard to counsel conservatives that they should be patient and trusting. After all, they are the abused spouses of American politics. We conservatives have been betrayed and betrayed and betrayed, again and again and again, by politicians who campaign as hardcore, then come to Washington and demonstrate that their core is as soft as overcooked linguine. We have been lied to, misled, disrespected, and generally treated like something that they would scrape off their Gucci loafers. No wonder we are hyper-vigilant for any sign of apostasy, to any indication that we are about to get a dagger stuck between our scapulas yet again. And we are right to be suspicious. Trust is earned, but too many squishes in the Republican Party have spent the last couple of decades on credibility welfare.
Donald Trump intends to keep his promises. He did in his first term, when he got the economy going and won back America’s respect around the world. If it weren’t for that virus cooked up in some Wuhan lab by the Deep State in association with their friends the Chinese communists, he would’ve gone even further. After the 2020 election – we all know it was fundamentally unfair, even if we don’t need to bother relitigating it now – the Democrats demonstrated what failure looks like. Joe Biden wrecked everything. And now Trump is back, determined to succeed because success is the best revenge, and he’s got a lot of enemies to take vengeance upon.
But Donald Trump also faces a challenge called “reality.” The reality is that we barely control the House and have only a little more control over the United States Senate. With a margin that narrow in the House, every lunatic can suddenly grab a spotlight and a hosanna from the regime media just by getting in Donald Trump’s way. It’s a little different in the Senate, but not much. All it takes is a handful of these puffed-up mediocrities to bring the Trump agenda to a flying stop. Nor is the Supreme Court a sure thing. Everyone says we have a 6-to-3 majority, but one of the six is John Roberts, who never climbed a conservative hill he was willing to die on. Another is Amy Coney Barrett, and she’s becoming almost as disappointing as a Bulwark staffer’s wedding night.
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Then there’s another consideration, that we’re now in a coalition that includes more than just conservatives. Before 2024, our coalition was various shades of conservatives. But even then, we had conflicts between the America First and traditional Republican folks. Now we’ve added to the mix populists, no-forever-war folks, union members, and even anti-seed oil granola zealots RFK brought along. Everybody who came to the table wants a slice of the standing rib roast, which is reasonable. Somehow, we’ve all got to come to a consensus and get along. That’s going to be tough.
And let’s complicate the situation even more. The Democrats haven’t gone anywhere. They’re just waiting for two or three Republicans to get run over by a bus or get busted in a bus station bathroom to retake the House majority. The Deep State is trying to undermine the president and his appointees at every turn. And then there’s the regime media. Suddenly, at about 12:01 pm on January 20, 2025, the hordes of hack journalists are going to rediscover presidential accountability. They wouldn’t report on a tenth of the terrible things that Joe Biden actually did, but they will report on anything they can to take down Trump and, once again, they’re not going to let a little thing like the truth stop them.
So, the bottom line is the president is facing huge challenges. He’s got one hell of an ambitious agenda, which includes, in the short term, fixing the border, tax relief, ending DEI, rebuilding our military, and reining in the Deep State. And you know what? He’s going to try to do all those things, and he is not going to be able to, at least not as quickly as we’d like. President Trump, like every good leader, is going to have to prioritize. He’s going to have to focus on some things and let up on others until he can get around to them. And there are those in our movement who are going to freak out about it. If he doesn’t do everything on Day One, there will be plenty of people on social media declaring Donald Trump is a failure and a sellout and that we’re doomed and blah blah blah blah blah.
When somebody starts running his mouth with that nonsense, you need to tell him to grow the hell up.
Donald Trump will have to make strategic choices, and sometimes my favorite initiative will not be the priority. I’m sure he will get to them eventually, but you can’t do everything all at once. You can do a lot – and you should. Trump should do as much as possible all at once so that the enemy can’t effectively focus on any one thing to turn into The Very Worst Thing That’s Ever Happened In The History Of Ever, as it is wont to do. But the reality is that Trump is going to have to make deals. He is going to have to compromise. He is going to have to back-burner some issues while turning up the temperature on others. We may not like all his choices, but we need to understand why he’s making them. We need to understand that we’re not on the precipice of yet another massive betrayal. Rather, we need to understand that this time we have a much more mature and effective politician in the White House working for us, and we’ve got to have his back. He needs to get what he needs done done. It’s not all going to happen instantly. It’s not even all going to happen in the sequence we want it to. We’re going to see some missteps, and we’re going to see some failures. But you know what? That’s how life works. Nobody’s perfect, and only children expect perfection.
Give the Trump administration the benefit of the doubt. This doesn’t mean we don’t hold President Trump accountable to his promises. Of course, we do. When he starts going in a direction we don’t like, we need to speak up loud and clear. An effective administration will address our concerns and make sure that we understand why things are happening that we don’t expect or understand. Clarity and transparency are the key, and that’s the job of his chief of staff. Of course, his chief of staff is Susie Wiles, the genius who managed to take him from being the Bad Orange Man hassling Rosie O’Donnell on Twitter caricature and turn him into a presidential and effective candidate who demonstrated to a plurality of American people – nearly a majority – that he is going to calmly and soberly fix this country.
So don’t freak out. Don’t panic. Don’t go nuts. Give the administration a little space. They have earned our trust. Let’s give it to them, but also, let’s do what we need to do with every bunch of politicians and watch them like a hawk.
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