The breakneck speed of President Donald Trump‘s first 19 days in office is nothing like we’ve seen out of any president this fast out of the gate.
The executive orders, approaching 60 at the time of this writing, are coming so quickly and in such contrast to everything that we’ve seen over the previous four years that it’s impossible for Democrats and their allies in the resistance media to keep up.
We’ve seen executive orders, seemingly on an almost-hourly basis, on all the campaign promises that helped Trump win the popular vote and every swing state. And these positions aren’t unpopular with the public, either.
There have been multiple executive orders on the border and deportation. Drug cartels have been designated as terrorists.
Foreign aid for some of the most ridiculous items imaginable that have nothing to do with advancing U.S. interests abroad — do we really need to fund a transgender opera in Colombia or build electric vehicle charging stations for Vietnam when we can’t even do it here? — have been halted for review.
Trump has rightly suspended the security clearances of those 51 former intelligence officials who declared Hunter Biden’s laptop was the product of Russian disinformation shortly before the 2020 election despite having zero access to said laptop before coming to such a conclusion.
The president also signed an executive order defining a person’s sex based on (gasp) biology while also signing another preventing sex changes for minors and another banning diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in the military and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Another ban that’s immensely popular is biological men competing against women in sports. And my favorite, an executive order signed Friday eliminating paper straws. Say hello again to plastic, America!
These are just a handful of what Trump has accomplished in under three weeks. Even Politico couldn’t help but be in awe:
“Trump might be the oldest president ever to swear the oath, but he’s not slowing down,” reads Thursday’s Politico Playbook. “The pace of executive action has been off the charts. And Trump has made public appearances and taken media questions almost every single day. Each EO signing turns into a press conference; every trip on Air Force One an impromptu gaggle with hacks. Trump has dominated every moment of the news agenda. Joe Biden he is not.”
Trump also will reduce the federal workforce by at least 40,000 after offering incentives to resign to those who don’t feel like showing up for work. He also reportedly plans to keep fewer than 300 staff members at the U.S. Agency for International Development, an agency that once employed approximately 10,000 people. Two-thirds of USAID employees are based outside the United States.
The USAID plan has particularly ignited the ire of Democratic lawmakers, with many targeting Elon Musk, who heads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. And the reactions have been patently unhinged.
“We are gonna be in your face, we are gonna be on your asses, and we are going to make sure you understand what democracy looks like, and this ain’t it,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), screamed at an anti-DOGE rally outside of USAID headquarters.
“Goddammit shut down the city!” Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) exclaimed. “WE ARE AT WAR!”
Democrats are allowing emotion and cheesy performance art to guide their resistance to Trump, all while making Musk out to be the next threat to democracy. But here’s two reasons why that’s falling flat.
First, the Blue Team repeated this same rhetoric throughout 2024. Trump is a fascist, they claim. He’s an existential threat to democracy and therefore must be stopped (Ryan Routh echoed that sentiment when he tried to assassinate Trump in September, the second such attempt of the year).
But after Democrats installed then-Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee without the backing of one voter in July, it’s been hard to take the party seriously as the guardians of democracy.
Second, Trump was duly elected to serve as the nation’s 47th president. As head of the executive branch, he can listen to whoever he wants to. When Musk makes a recommendation, Trump can choose to accept or reject it, as any executive at any corporation does. This isn’t anything new.
Democrats are oddly choosing to defend keeping the status quo and trusting the government to spend wisely. But the latest Associated Press poll on the matter of spending, for example, shows that just 16% of the public believe the government isn’t spending enough money, meaning Democrats are siding with the 16% who want it to continue.
That’s political suicide, especially in this environment of deep distrust in the government.
For Trump, he correctly sees a mandate to take a sledgehammer to existing norms. Winning the popular vote has only emboldened him, as has the fact that in 2017, when he entered office for the first time, he didn’t know how Washington worked. And more importantly, party loyalty to him was not remotely what it is today.
There is no John McCain to give a thumbs-down to his effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. There is no Mitch McConnell running the Senate to ensure enough establishment Republicans hinder his agenda.
As evidenced by his Cabinet nominees, some unconventional and controversial, likely all being confirmed, and virtually no leaks from inside the White House undermining his program, it’s a far cry from eight years ago, when palace intrigue and allegations of Russian collusion dominated the news cycle.
“Over the past eight years I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history,” Trump said during his inaugural address on Jan. 20. “And I have learned a lot along the way.”
What he’s clearly learned is how to exert power and who he can trust around him to carry those orders through.
Trump is also embracing the Ronald Reagan tone of optimism. With the Gipper, America was “the shining city upon a hill.” Reagan won 44 and 49 states in two presidential races, respectively.
With Trump, “American Carnage” was the theme at his first inauguration in 2017, which the New York Times predictably called dark and “a notable disconnect from reality.” In 2025, at his second inauguration, he hailed a “Golden Age of America” with a call to fix the “horrible betrayal” bestowed upon the public by Biden and Harris, who were sitting just a few feet behind him.
The mood in the country is far different this time around, yet Democrats still believe shouting “RESIST!” is the way to go again.
For example, more than a million people attended women’s marches across the country in 2017 after Trump took office. In 2025, the attendance paled in comparison. In Washington, for instance, more than 500,000 women marched in January 2017. For Trump’s sequel this year, that number dropped to just around 50,000.
“There were 10 to 20 times as many people the first time,” Karen Elkin of Virginia told NPR. “I had like 10 people staying at my house from all over the country. And I have zero people staying at my house this time.”
The relatively muted protests are partly due to Trump being more popular than at any time before, including his entire first term. One big factor is that he’s on the right side of major issues.
Look at border security as a prime example. In 2017, Pew Research found that 62% of voters opposed a border wall. Today, 64% approve of the wall being completed. The massive shifts can also be found on issues ranging from men competing against women in sports to continued funding of the war in Ukraine.
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Trump 2.0, unlike the first act, has a clear, bold, bull-in-the-China-shop plan and an understanding of what needs to be done to achieve it.
As the great Yogi Berra once famously said, “Life is a learning experience, only if you learn.”