Analysis-Trump, at the zenith of power, moves quickly to ‘take control’ of Washington By Reuters

Per Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump has been in office for five days, yet he has already imposed his will on Washington with ruthless speed and efficiency, demonstrating that even his most radical campaign promises were far from mere bluster.

The Republican president has taken the first steps toward fulfilling his promise to remake a federal bureaucracy that he believes was hostile to him during his presidency from 2017 to 2021, reassigning or firing hundreds of public officials in simultaneous moves against a series of agencies.

He has brought the military to the southern border, fired the head of the US Coast Guard and defied decades of constitutional law with a series of wide-ranging executive orders (26 of them issued within hours of taking office ) that cover everything from environmental regulations to US citizenship rules.

In perhaps the boldest move of all, he pardoned some 1,500 supporters who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, the global symbol of American democracy.

Trump allies have compared their initial shock-and-awe raid to a special forces raid that has taken federal workers, unions, advocacy groups and even the media by surprise.

They credit years of meticulous work by conservative allies who have spent much of Trump’s time out of office drafting detailed policy plans that would allow him to hit the ground running.

“This is the beachhead team taking over the federal government,” Steve Bannon, who served as White House chief strategist during Trump’s first term and is close to many top political advisers, told Reuters. of Trump.

Trump’s opponents say he is distorting the U.S. Constitution and expanding the limits of executive power beyond what was intended. They also say Trump’s initial moves show he is less interested in uniting the country than in radically transforming it and, in many cases, exacting revenge.

In one of his first moves, Trump removed the security clearances of dozens of former intelligence officials who attributed unflattering media reports about Hunter, former President Joe Biden’s son, to a Russian influence operation.

Trump also stripped three former national security officials of their security details, including in the face of credible threats from Iran. His aides found time to remove from a Pentagon hallway the portrait of one of his harshest critics, Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He purged the White House National Security Council of career officials whom Trump’s team considered insufficiently loyal to the president. The move allows him to import loyalists into more than 100 national security roles.

“He’s clearly not a man who throws away his grudges easily,” said William Galston, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who has worked in and out of government for more than 40 years.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

YEARS IN PREPARATION

Even Trump’s enemies say the last five days represent a striking contrast to his first term, when infighting and poor preparation derailed many of his most ambitious policy initiatives.

“In terms of the scope of all this and the speed, his team has shown the results of extraordinary preparation,” said Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian and former director of the Nixon presidential library.

Many of Trump’s policies dovetail with those advocated by “Project 2025,” a consortium of conservative organizations that has spent more than two years drafting policies in anticipation of Trump’s possible return.

Trump distanced himself from the project last year, saying he knew nothing about it, even though many former aides were deeply involved. But his influence on his new White House operation is all too clear.

Project 2025 advocated for the purge of career officials on the National Security Council.

Another bill-driven policy that Trump has already adopted is making it potentially easier to fire hundreds of thousands of public officials by creating a new category of federal workers known as “Schedule F.”

Trump has also proposed an overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency that would transfer many of FEMA’s functions to the states, another Project 2025 proposal.

“There have been politicians and political stalwarts who have believed in Trump… and immediately began working in 2021 for Trump’s return to the White House,” Bannon said. “And that’s what you’re seeing come true.”

HEIGHT OF POWER?

Trump’s agenda faces obstacles ahead. The first weeks of his administration may represent the height of Trump’s power, some supporters acknowledge.

Many of Trump’s executive orders test the limits of constitutional law. A federal court has already ordered an order ending birthright citizenship, a constitutional doctrine that holds that nearly everyone born in the United States is automatically a citizen.

Several other pledges and orders have immediately faced lawsuits from states and advocacy organizations, and the shock and awe of his first week could be bogged down in litigation that lasts much of his term.

Trump may face the challenge of maintaining the narrow Republican congressional majority in the House of Representatives in two years. The incumbent president’s party often loses seats in midterm elections. If that happens, the already narrow legislative path would be completely closed to Trump.

“Trump has a decisive mandate from American voters to bring dramatic reforms to Washington,” said Mike Davis, a close Trump adviser on judicial matters.

“That political mandate will fade if he doesn’t deliver, and he does so quickly.”