Trump Ends America’s Wilsonian Century

Americans obsess about our “original sin” domestically – but what about America’s foreign policy “original sin”?

As with all big events, I defer long-term assessments to the Zen Master, yet it can be confidently stated that the first hundred days of Donald Trump’s nonconsecutive second presidency represent a milestone in American politics. We’ve been here before, but not often. Comparisons to the start of the transformational presidencies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson are inevitable (in the case of the latter, after his 1964 election).

Both FDR and LBJ set out to fundamentally transform America, as indeed they did. Domestically, the United States would never be the same thereafter, between the former’s New Deal and the latter’s Great Society. Barack Obama boldly promised fundamental transformation in 2008 but his real legacy after three terms of Team Obama in the White House is Trump’s improbable comeback and payback-oriented second term. Since Trump lacks the Congressional majorities which FDR and LBJ enjoyed, he is ruling by executive order – he has Obama’s pen and phone too – but the revolutionary nature of his rule is incontestable.

While Trump may not succeed in dismantling the “administrative state” as MAGA craves, his administration is changing how Americans view the federal government. Elon Musk’s ketamine-fueled crusade against Washington, DC, seems likely to implode sooner rather than later, particularly without real Congressional majorities for Republicans to formalize policy, but the game-changing intent is impossible to miss. When Trump came to the Oval Office the last time, it was a fluke, a publicity stunt that succeeded too well. There was no coherent policy agenda worth discussing. This time, Trump’s cadres are ready to rule.

Americans are focused on Trump’s domestic agenda and opinions vary on what that means, ranging from enthusiasm to hysteria, but polling indicates that Trump is more popular now than he’s ever been. However, this understandable focus on domestic events obscures the real Trumpian revolution, which involves America’s place in the world. By constitutional design, any president’s control over domestic policy is limited. Foreign policy, however, is different. Here, the commander-in-chief can change course, even significantly, at least to some degree, without direct pushback from Congress or the judiciary.