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Trump’s big bang approach to Day 1

His burst of action may set new expectations for inaugurations of the future

President Donald Trump addresses the crowd in the Emancipation Hall overflow area after being sworn in as the 47th president on Monday, with first lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the background.
President Donald Trump addresses the crowd in the Emancipation Hall overflow area after being sworn in as the 47th president on Monday, with first lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the background. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Monday was quite a day — for a lot of promises, some bad precedents, and what amounted to the equivalent of a policy “big bang,” set to create what President Trump called a “revolution of common sense.” It was democracy on display.

First, the speech. It was classic Trump. Too much political talk about the election, especially as he opened. Uplifting rhetoric always serves presidents better when delivering inaugural addresses, and no one needed to hear about voter demographics or target states. 

The speech did have some rhetorical high points applauding the American experiment and the determined people who pushed it forward over the decades. Kudos for the positive historical take often lacking in our country and particularly its classrooms.

That said, Trump was on a solid footing as he moved past politics to policy, putting meat on the bones of his America First agenda. With the RCP average of 28 percent of the country believing we are on the right track, the policy component of Trump’s speech was exactly what people, tired of Biden and what they see as his out-of-touch administration, wanted to hear. 

The American people wanted change; they voted for it, and the new president gave it to them on Jan. 20, or as he put it, “liberation day.” 

Admittedly, it was at times awkward to watch the new president skewer the old sitting at his back, not by name but by a scathing recitation of Joe Biden’s four-year legacy of failed policies, weak leadership and personal shortcomings. But after a little reflection, perhaps a 30-minute dose of reality, uncomfortable though it may be, was justified given the bankrupt decisions made by Biden in his final days and even hours, which gets us to the bad precedents.

Biden’s decision in the last moments of his presidency, literally, to pardon a slew of controversial characters — most notably, most of his family — has further sullied what remained of his dismal presidency. By covering for his family, he has set one of the worst precedents for those who will sit at the Resolute desk in the decades to come. Presidential pardons exist to provide clemency and sometimes mercy in deserving situations, usually done, but not required, through a legal process.

Biden’s choice to preemptively pardon his family flies in the face of what he has argued in the past about pardons and what he promised the country specifically.

In December 2020, Jake Tapper asked President-elect Biden whether he had concerns about rumors that outgoing President Trump might pardon his children preemptively.

Biden replied, “It concerns me, in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws and justice.” He then went on to promise, “Now, in terms of the pardons, you’re not going to see, in our administration, that kind of approach to pardons. … It’s just going to be a totally different way in which we approach the justice system.” No irony there.

One can debate the timing and breadth of Trump’s J6 pardons hours after Biden’s, but presidents, in an effort to heal national wounds, have employed the pardon before, often stirring up controversy in the process. Jimmy Carter gave amnesty to Vietnam-era draft dodgers, and George H.W. Bush pardoned Iran-Contra targets. Bill Clinton granted clemency to FALN members convicted of seditious conspiracy, along with his brother for a drug conviction.

But Biden’s family pardons, announced just minutes before the inauguration was to begin, will remain a stain on the Biden presidency that won’t be soon erased, if ever. 

Beyond the pardons, as Inauguration Day progressed, the contrast between the policies of Biden and Trump was astonishingly obvious. After four years of bad decisions, Trump sent a clear signal that a new sheriff was definitely back in town and determined to change not only the nation’s priorities but how the government would implement those policies. Quite a change from the early days of the first Trump administration.

Of the many executive orders Trump signed Monday, his reversal of Biden’s green energy policies is no doubt sending the biggest shock waves through the progressive community but also offers ordinary Americans a welcome off-ramp from the inflationary policies of the Biden administration. 

Climate change has long been a top-tier issue for the progressive elite, but not for ordinary people who put the economy first. Trump’s executive orders on energy production recognize that it is both an economic and national security issue ignored by the Biden administration. 

During the campaign, Trump also promised an end to the open border policies that came to exemplify Biden and his administration’s lack of both transparency and competence. Trump got the last say between the two with his executive orders on immigration, reversing Biden’s ill-fated decision to cancel Trump’s border policies on his first day. 

Other Trump actions on everything from ordering federal employees back to work, freezing federal hiring, depoliticizing the Department of Justice and effectively putting an end to status quo progressive rule-making will have a tremendous impact on how the government operates in this new era. 

Sure, out of the slew of executive orders signed Monday, there are a few that fit the unorthodox category, but Trump may just have set a new precedent of his own with his “shock and awe” policy offensive, which embodies Trump’s journey back to the White House. Given the scope of his executive orders on Day 1, he may just have made Inauguration Day the most important day of every president going forward. 

Congress may have something to say about some of his executive orders, but most should not have come as a surprise to anyone who listened to what Trump promised during the campaign. 

The inaugural address was pure Trump. In the end, it was a frenetic day of dinners and dancing, press scrums, parades and executive order signings that were pure Trump, too, along with a bit of controversy that we’ve come to expect from 47. 

David Winston is the president of The Winston Group and a longtime adviser to congressional Republicans. He previously served as the director of planning for Speaker Newt Gingrich. He advises Fortune 100 companies, foundations and nonprofit organizations on strategic planning and public policy issues, as well as serving as an election analyst for CBS News.

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