He cannot stand inactivity, especially now, and will take the fast and dirty route every time.
Every day with the Trump administration provides another opportunity to exercise restraint. Originally, I was going to title this post “Let Trump Cook,” i.e., just wait and see before condemning the president for his every misstep from conventional fusionist orthodoxy. But I can’t stand the imperial presidency, so I couldn’t honestly demand deference to a man for whom I wouldn’t even vote. And yet there’s an obvious (at least to me) explanation for just about everything Trump has done up to this point: He cannot stand inactivity and will take the fast and dirty route every time.
There are several reasons for this.
One, he has always been a time guy. Some businessmen are quality or quantity guys — Trump is a done-now guy. While much of his ghostwritten memoirs are fluff, the Central Park ice-skating rink episode is illustrative of just how much delays chafed him even early on. His calling up dozens of people a day was another nudging mechanism he developed. He’s an impatient creature voted to helm the world’s largest bureaucracy. And let us not forget that Republicans have a very good chance of losing at least half the legislature in 2026, so three years and change is more like one and a half.
This leads to point two: Trump assessed the points of failure of his first administration and despised what he saw. Last time around, he had a conservative cabinet and VP that cautioned against rashness — yes, many would eventually be cut loose. Still, their dillydallying and the quiet insurrection of many agencies cut the tendons from Trump One’s aims. This time around, Trump brought in heavies — extremely wealthy and powerful movers — and picked a VP who has no issue breaking kneecaps for his boss. It’s an ugly show, but it manages to move at a pace never before seen — McMahon-esque, coincidentally.
Third, Trump is old and was two inches from involuntarily landscaping greater Pennsylvania with his grey matter. While a retired professor friend of mine scoffed at the notion that a handful of assassination attempts have goaded Trump, I’m confident that his lizard brain has computed the probability of surviving his term despite age and act of terror and decided that he will do everything in his power to be remembered as a reformer/martyr. Melodramatic much? Yeah, that’s his shtick, . . . and he has a point. He saw the way Biden moldered until he was so incapacitated that he was loaded in a wheelbarrow and rolled off to Delaware; Trump took a look at that and said, “Sorry old b******, that’s not for me.”
Some will concede the above and rightly think, “Yeah, but just because he has his reasons doesn’t mean he should. Couldn’t this lead to a constitutional crisis?” Anything is possible, but I seriously doubt it.
For one, the Supreme Court and the lower courts have been very good at ultimately smacking down stupid, overreaching executive action. Second, in situations like the president’s control of the executive branch and its inhabitants, a review of 50 years of questionable congressional action is warranted. Further, as a bootleg engineer who learned three things at naval nuclear school and the owner of many junker vehicles, I stand by hydrostatic testing: one should not baby a system for fear it fail but rather test it beyond normal operating pressures so that one can be confident in the system. Trump is that 110–150 percent pressure for 30 minutes. I’m such a Constitution homer that I’ll bet you the system will win out and that it will be healthier and more trustworthy because of its trials. Same idea with old cars: they will go as hard as you push them. Baby your throttle and your brick Volvo’s PCV system gums up, or your Honda Odyssey’s VCM causes cylinder failure. As Bill Cosby put it in 200 M.P.H., “Ya gotta burn the gunk out.” Trump is one taking the custom Shelby of State down a side street, burning out the gunk.
It’s a vile display of smog, noise pollution, and redline abuse, but it’s also necessary. Time is Trump’s enemy, and he’s going to be seven Dukes of Hazzard reruns a day until January of 2029. Best to get comfortable and take in stride some undercarriage and valve-cover components lying in the yard. No one needs Coltrane’s blood pressure.