I’m struck by the degree to which the mainstream media is still living in the Trump 1.0 world of 2017-2020, using words like “chaotic” or “transactional” to describe the new administration’s behavior.
“Chaotic” may have been an appropriate moniker for actions in the first term, when for example the Muslim ban had to be retracted due to poor drafting. But Trump 2.0 has been anything but chaotic. He is executing a deliberate strategy for implementing policies he promised on issues like immigration and tariffs. While he may be bluffing tactically, imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico and then delaying them, this is part of a bargaining strategy.
Similarly, the personnel actions undertake by Musk, DOGE, and OMB Director Russ Vaught are based on the Project 2025 playbook that has been in the making for four years. Some of the individual actions like the federal funding pause were poorly executed, but we are seeing a deliberate rollout of an effort to destroy the “deep state.” This is not chaos, though it may be perceived as such by those on the receiving end.
Similarly with the word “transactional.” This is used to imply that many of Trump’s actions are not tied to a coherent world view or set of values. This is true in some sense, but here too there is an underlying coherence: Trump’s actions are deeply selfish, either in terms of his personal power and interests, or else represent a kind of classic 19th century form of realism, in which great powers simply seek to maximize their power regardless of values or ideology.
In the runup to last November’s election, many normie Republicans were arguing that Trump’s first term wasn’t that bad, and voted for him on that basis. In his second term, he is demonstrating that he is a radical of a sort that we have not witnessed before in American politics, as if we had somehow elected Vladimir Lenin. So stop using words like “chaotic” and “transactional” to describe a very purposeful individual.
