It's been a week and a half since Donald Trump took office, and I feel like I'm still playing catch-up when it comes to all the dynamic, game-changing executive orders the president has signed. It's been a dizzying flurry of executive action, and it's all too easy for a key order or two to slip under the radar. From immigration to energy to terrorism to gender ideology to free speech, President Trump has been incredibly busy doing his best impression of 2014-era Barack Obama: "I've got a pen, and I've got a phone." (Of course, unlike the nation's constitutionally challenged 44th president, Trump's executive orders have been signed pursuant to legitimate inherent or delegated authority.)
Counter to the mainstream media's predictable spin, the American people are also loving it. According to a recent Morning Consult poll, Donald Trump's subject-matter net approval ratings thus far are +21 on his handling of national security, +20 on immigration, +17 on the economy, +16 on foreign policy, +15 on energy, +13 on taxes, and +13 on trade. President Trump isn't merely kicking butt—he's kicking butt with the American people firmly in thrall. In the year 2025, the MAGA agenda can hardly even be considered "edgy" anymore—it's broadly popular and, frankly, in many ways outright mainstream. The public polling on such specific issues as mass deportation of illegal aliens, for example, has changed a lot over the course of the past decade. It's the two-way politics-culture street in action, as I recently wrote about.
The real question at this point is: Can Trump possibly keep it up? He has all the momentum in the world right now. The wind is at his back. But there are going to be challenges ahead. There are going to be subversive Deep Staters and obstructive bureaucratic holdovers from old Democratic administrations. Republicans' congressional margins, especially in the House of Representatives, are rail thin. And while Republican nominees constitute a technical majority on the Supreme Court, that majority includes squishy centrists such as Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett. In short, while things look extraordinarily rosy at the moment, there are inevitably going to be bumps in the road. What happens then?
To be sure, certain prophylactic measures can, and should, be taken now. The president can invoke Schedule F, for instance, and fire larger swaths of the inherently left-leaning career civil service than he might have otherwise been able to. But in general, when the times get a little tougher, one way or another, here's hoping MAGA 2.0 can keep it up and not fall to some of the forces that derailed the Trump presidency the first time around. This more polished MAGA 2.0 certainly appears to be very different; I wouldn't bet against it, that's for sure. But at some point soon enough, we will all likely find out for ourselves what it looks like when the rubber meets the road.
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On another important note: Make sure to preorder my debut book, Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West, which will be released March 18 from Diversion Books/Radius Book Group! I poured all my heart into this book, and it would mean the world to me if you would pre order a copy today. Related to that, I am also participating in a Steamboat Institute-sponsored debate at Princeton University on February 11 on the topic of U.S.-Israel relations. You can register to attend the debate in-person here, and the online debate live-stream will be found here.
Our highlighted recent Newsweek op-eds include selections from Gordon G. Chang, Sean Spicer, Erin Hawley, John Yoo and John Shu, and Steve Cortes.
Have a great rest of your week, everyone. We'll be right back in your inbox next week.