A More Confident Trump Tallies Forth

Dan Henninger notes a subtle change in Trump after being long accused of “breaking norms,” now calls him a “Disrupter in Chief.” He concludes, “That’s progress.” Is it enough? Aren’t we also seeing a more confident man who knows his time in the sun is short?

As the WSJ columnist notes, Trump has been since his remarkable comeback election, dominating the daily news cycle with “shock & awe” waves of controversial & sometimes inspired cabinet appointments, thought provoking new ideas like buying Greenland, and endless promises to succeed wherever and whenever Joe Biden allegedly failed like ending the Ukraine War on “day one.” Nothing “new” about that No. 45-47 chutzpah. Yet, Henninger suggests we “step away from the [latest] Trumpian hyperactivity and what you see is a president behaving as if he were entering a first term with big congressional majorities, not his final four years with a House majority that is wafer-thin.”

Could we have said that of Trump in 2016? Or even 2020? It’s that newfound quieter confidence that seems to be befuddling his enemies, putting them back on their heels. As Henninger concludes, “The clock is ticking on Trumpworld, and it seems clear that he is overloading the political system’s circuits, expecting to suffer some losses on policy and personnel but also increasing the odds of a net-positive presidency.” The pundit worries that while Trump’s ability to disturb the status quo got him elected, “a successful presidency [the second time around] is going to need more than that alone.” Yet, isn’t BELIEVING you can get things done half the battle? Isn’t that also called confidence? Or, that “something more” Henninger is looking for?

Davd Soul