Everything, everywhere, all at once

The first 15 days of Trump 2.0 have been a whirlwind of action, but not necessarily impact for those who need it

It’s hard to keep up with all the changes happening in Washington. 

The first two weeks (yes, it’s really just been a little more than two weeks) of the Trump administration have been a whirlwind of foreign policy shifts (and reversals), aggressive government overhauls (and reversals) and tragedy.

In just the past week: The White House introduced tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. Then, within a day, paused the tariffs on Mexico (which would have immediately increased the costs of avocados, tomatoes and other goods for Americans), after Mexico agreed to send troops to the border.  A few hours later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced tariffs would be delayed after a border deal. 

Meanwhile, the White House paused funding all federal grant programs — long enough to create confusion and take crucial funding sites down — only to reverse its pause. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he was in charge of USAID — hours after Elon Musk said he was “shutting it down.”   President Trump also announced he would oversee the creation of a US Sovereign Wealth Fund, an idea that has had bipartisan support — and that could compete with foreign entities, but funding structure and Congressional approval was still unclear.  

And then there was the tragic accident: A US Military Helicopter and American Airlines flight bound from Wichita, Kan. collided, ending the lives of all onboard. 

The news is a lot — some of it all over the place, and it can be confusing as it sorts itself out. (As I said to my husband recently sometimes it feels like one day in the Trump administration is like 3 weeks during a different time.)   

For some Americans, they’ve tapped out.  Others get very frustrated because they vehemently disagree with what President Trump suggests.  And still others  — I was surprised by a text of a relatively moderate family member — believe that we’re headed in the right direction. 

I’m not sure what direction we’re headed in.  And, according to well-respected Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, Republicans on Capitol Hill aren’t either. But one thing IS clear, Noonan noted: “No modern president has achieved this level of complete cultural saturation.”

An untraditional transition

When you work in government you quickly learn there’s the policy you plan for, and the disasters you don’t.

Transition periods are always critical in the US, because so many are changing positions, and there’s the off chance you could miss something.  Traditionally, there’s a need to keep experienced hands on the job to avert disaster.  President Obama asked Robert Gates, President Bush’s Secretary of Defense, to stay on. Bush, for his part, kept Norman Mineta, a Democrat, in his Cabinet as Transportation Secretary when he was elected. 

This is an untraditional transition because President Trump is coming back to power. And, by his own statements, he is quite uninterested in continuity.  His team is more formed and ready to move even more swiftly than his first term. In other ways, his team is less traditionally Republican than the team of the past. 

Every President inherits the problems of their predecessor, and the opportunities.  President Obama didn’t know the global financial crisis would be in his lap, until well into the general election when President Bush convened a meeting with both candidates about next steps.

President Biden took the blame for the pull out of Afghanistan after much had been negotiated during the Trump administration with the Taliban.  Trump has argued that he’s inherited a mess from Biden that requires a massive government overhaul.

It’s exactly that massive government overhaul that we’ve now got.

One thing I’ve learned over time, though, is that government competence is often taken for granted, and when it’s gone it can really hurt. 

A human tragedy

Amid all of the rapid change in Washington, tragedy struck. The news last Wednesday night of the crash of the American Airlines plane and the US Military Helicopter was heartbreaking.  

The American Airlines flight originated from Wichita, Kan. The flight was already on its descent, minutes away from landing, with some already texting loved ones about their arrival. The military members were in our nation’s Capital on a routine training flight.  Their families expected them home that night. 

And then a horrific accident ends it all.  

At its core, the crash is a human tragedy. So many taken too early.  Too many with loved ones lost. 

Much of what went wrong will come to light. It is already clear the Federal Aviation Administration has had near misses and that the staffing issues have plagued the agency for too long.  It would seem imperative then that we should have more people hired to these critical jobs, not less. 

That’s not exactly the message President Trump delivered the following morning from the White House podium, as rescue teams continued to retrieve bodies from the Potomac River.   

After a brief moment of silence, President Trump went on a diatribe about how diversity, equity and inclusion played a role, citing no evidence.  He blamed Presidents Obama and Biden, though both tried to staff up the agency, while President Trump had just come into office initiating a massive federal government hiring freeze. 

As I watched the news conference, I wondered who this press conference helped.  The families who lost their loved ones?  The system that needs improvement?  I wondered why so often after tragedy it becomes a blame game, how much better it would work if we could work together on improvement.  How there are young people out there — of every background — who should fill the critical jobs for our nation.  And how sad it is that politicization has so many just running away. 

Results matter

Every President comes in with big plans, believing they have a mandate, and President Trump has a megaphone in which he announces everything he’s thinking. It can spin heads and keep reporters chasing ghosts. But government does impact people, and real effects will come to light.

Whether it’s those in North Carolina, California, Wichita, Kan. and beyond, Americans are still recovering and need help.

Close to my home we will in time find out what effect President Trump’s recent actions in California have had. He claimed this week that he found the taps in California and turned on the water. Indeed he did order the release of water from two dams designed to store water for farmers who need the water in the summer. He shared the photo on social media, though local water officials were confused about how it could help, as that water doesn’t flow to Los Angeles. And farmers, who know too well the significance of that water, were not happy.