Just two weeks into his administration, Donald Trumpâs presidency is off to a rapid pace. But even by his standards, Monday was especially frenzied.
With protests still simmering over the refugee and immigration ban heâd imposed days prior, Trump that morning mocked the Democratic leader of the Senate for shedding what he deemed âfake tearsâ for those affected by the ban.
That piece of mockery alone would have been enough in the past to stir a dayâs outrage and news coverage. But it was followed by so much more. There were the rumblings of a constitutional crisis as customs agents reportedly disobeyed court orders to let the detained see lawyers. Trump signed another executive order dramatically curtailing regulations. His White House continued bickering with the press over his top political aide being named to the National Security Council. Jewish groups denounced his refusal to specifically mention Jews in his Holocaust Remembrance Day statement.
And then came the night. The acting attorney general announced that she would not defend Trumpâs ban on grounds it may be unconstitutional. So Trump fired her, finding a replacement who would do his bidding. Then he fired the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And to cap the evening, he let it be known that the next day, heâd be nominating a justice to the Supreme Court. The political universe was left trying to simply catch its breath.
âThere are so many fires burning in so many different places that there is sensory overload,â said David Axelrod, President Barack Obamaâs longtime adviser. âThere was a lot of action at the beginning of the Obama administration. But it was focused on dealing with a crisis. This is of a different nature and magnitude. I wouldnât say an order of magnitude, because order is not necessarily part of it.â
Itâs often said that the office of the presidency ages the president. But in the era of Trump, the public and Congress are aging as well.
His first two weeks have been the equivalent of a political sugar rush, repeated on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. Itâs left government officials both invigorated and exhausted. Itâs overwhelmed staffers on Capitol Hill. And itâs made Democrats nervous that theyâre playing whack-a-mole, chasing the last Trump controversy as a new one inevitably emerges. Some suspect it all may be by design.
âWe have not seen anything like this,â said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) âAnd Iâm sure some of the older people who have been here a longer period of time would say that. Itâs moving at a very rapid pace. I would hope they would wait until they got their feet under them, to a certain extent, and the ban was one instance of that.â
âWe know whatâs going on,â said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). âBut I worry that sometime this speed is to make sure the American public doesnât know what to do.â
There are so many fires burning in so many different places that there is sensory overloadObama adviser David Axelrod
For Trumpâs aides, confidants, and biographers, this has a familiar feel. The Trump they know thrives on drama and chaos. When, during the campaign, he spoke about the importance of stamina and energy, it was meant both as code to mock Hillary Clintonâs health and Jeb Bushâs verve, but also in the strictly literal sense.
âIt is not about physical stamina. It is about psychological scar tissue,â said Timothy OâBrien, a Trump biographer who was unsuccessfully sued by Trump, and a former top editor at The Huffington Post. âHe really is like the Energizer bunny of the political landscape, and people have to recognize that about him because he is formidable in that way. The weakness he has is his vanity. He cares about ratings and cares about center stage. And he needs, always, to be the winner on that center stage.â
In the portrait that Trump paints of himself, perseverance is a central theme. His books are littered with boasts of steely resolve, painfully few hours of sleep (a myth, OâBrien suggested), and political and legal hurdles he has overcome. One telling anecdote comes in The Art of the Deal, Trumpâs bestselling business book. He describes how his mentor, the bare-knuckled lawyer Roy Cohn, resorted to homophobia to mask his homosexuality. Instead of feeling empathy for Cohnâs psychological torment, Trump was awed at his cold-blooded drive.
âRoy never talked about it. He just didnât like the image. He felt that to the average person, being gay was almost synonymous with being a wimp,â Trump wrote. âThat was the last thing he wanted to project, so he almost went overboard to avoid it.â
In the spirit of Cohn, Trump believes that toughness â or, better put, the ability to endure more pain and discomfort than the competition â is what begets his success, his aides said. It is the best explanation they have for his kinetic, chaotic first days in office.
âI could not stop laughing when the mainstream media said, âOh my God, the Mexican president has canceled his visit with Trump,ââ said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump aide, in reference to the dust-up in the presidentâs first week. âI think Trump loved it. If I had to guess, he is negotiating. ⊠The idea that the president of Mexico will affect Trump or scare Trump because he wonât attend a meeting with him at the White House is hilarious. Trump has plenty to do. I donât think he cares.â
On the Hill, Democrats worry that the incredible backlash that Trump has engendered will eventually fade; that the executive order banning certain immigration from Muslim-majority countries will outlast the will to protest it.
But others see genuine opportunity. The ACLU, for instance, received an unprecedented amount of donations after Trump signed the order. And Adam Jentleson, a senior strategic adviser leading the anti-Trump campaign at the Center for American Progress, said his organization had been inundated with donations, offers of pro-bono help and leaks from inside the government.
âWe can do this all day,â Jentleson said. âWe are flourishing in this environment.â
Already, there is evidence that the public is tiring of Trumpâs pace. Forty-seven percent of respondents in a Gallup poll said he was moving too fast, while just 10 percent said not fast enough.
Whether Trump has it in him to pump the brakes is another matter entirely. The rigors of the job do seem to be taking a toll. In reports about a seemingly disastrous call Trump held with the Australian prime minister over the weekend, one excuse offered by Trumpâs aides was that it had come at the end of a long day of conversations. The call took place around 5 p.m.
But there is a difference between an appetite for work and an appetite for controversy. And, as Democrats were left shocked that the president offended a close ally and Republicans scrambled to clean up the mess (Sen. John McCain called the Australian ambassador to patch things over), Trump simply moved on to other matters, meeting with CEOs to talk jobs, provocatively threatening Iran on Twitter, and asking the National Prayer Breakfast to pray for Arnold Schwarzeneggerâs ratings on âThe Apprentice.â
âI think the pace is obviously very fast because of the methodology used by this administration,â McCain told The Huffington Post. âI donât comment on that methodology. Iâve given up on that long ago.â
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