The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
Like predecessors, Trump threatens to do more than voters expect
By Carl P. Leubsdorf
Published: November 23, 2024, 6:01am
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The votes were still being counted when President-elect Donald Trump proclaimed that he had received an “unprecedented and powerful mandate” from the nation’s voters.
His words were reminiscent of those 20 years ago from George W. Bush, the last prior GOP president to win a popular majority, who said the 2004 election provided him with “political capital, and I intend to spend it.”
It did not work out well for Bush. He squandered that capital on an ill-fated effort to partially privatize Social Security and an endless war in Iraq, and his party lost the White House four years later. His experience was more the rule than the exception. Presidents from both parties have regularly overreached their “mandates” and gotten themselves into political trouble by trying to do more than the voters expected.
Outgoing President Joe Biden, for example, was narrowly elected, primarily to normalize Washington after the vicissitudes of the first Trump presidency and manage the aftermath of the COVID pandemic.
But he took advantage of narrow Democratic congressional majorities to push through major domestic programs. While the nation will benefit in the long run, his failure to respond to the post-pandemic inflation and the festering immigration problem sapped his popularity and led to his party’s loss of the presidency.
Trump’s victory, which included a sweep of all seven battleground states, looks somewhat more modest today than it appeared on election night. His popular margin over Kamala Harris is under 2 points, and his share of the popular vote, likely to be just below 50 percent, is the second lowest of the last six elections.
But that has not stopped the president-elect from proceeding as if he won by a landslide. In particular, he is mapping plans to implement some of his most far-reaching campaign proposals, such as mass deportation of undocumented workers and vengeance against those who prosecuted him or refused to help overturn his 2020 election defeat.
He picked the ethically challenged Matt Gaetz, one of his most outspoken congressional supporters, as attorney general despite pending allegations of sex with a minor and possible drug use. As his Justice Department deputies, Trump chose three of his personal lawyers.
Gaetz, an unpopular figure among fellow Republicans for his role in unseating House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, withdrew Thursday as Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general. Regardless, Trump seems likely to succeed in bringing the Justice Department under tighter White House control.
Other dubious choices include Pete Hegseth, a Fox News personality and former National Guard member, as secretary of defense; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines and the medical establishment, as secretary of health and human services; and former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who echoed the Kremlin line blaming Biden for the war in Ukraine, as director of national intelligence.
Trump also named Tom Homan, a former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to manage plans for deporting millions of undocumented workers, starting on his Inauguration Day.
While polls have shown most Americans favor such deportations, public attitudes may change if people discover the effort sweeps up not only alleged criminals but their law-abiding immigrant neighbors or the farm and construction workers who are crucial to the American economy.
Also risky politically is the prospect of the massive cutbacks in federal programs that have been threatened by billionaire Elon Musk, named by Trump to co-chair a Department of Government Efficiency. While polls always show widespread support to cut federal spending in general, specific cuts of health and education programs may prove less popular.
For the president-elect, this is just the start. Trump has vowed to impose stiff tariffs on all U.S. imports, a move that could lead to a renewed spurt in the inflation against which he campaigned.
And congressional Republicans are talking of reductions in Medicaid and food stamps to pay for the tax cuts they hope to enact in Trump’s first 100 days.
Trump’s more egregious personnel choices unpleasantly surprised some GOP senators, though his intent echoed his campaign promises. Some Trump voters might be unpleasantly surprised at the impact of the changes for which they voted.
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