It has been one month since Donald Trump’s second term began, but it feels like he has been president for at least the past decade or two.

Every day brings with it chaos, disorder and turmoil, which is exactly what the 45th and 47th president of the United States wants. 

He relishes being in the media continuously, not only because his ego demands attention but also because his “flood the zone” approach to governing requires him to keep his adversaries on the defensive. 

Of course, the president isn’t interested in nibbling around the edges of ideological change. He wants to shrink government by destroying institutions and programs that once seemed untouchable.

Unlike decades ago, when members of the House and the Senate guarded their constitutional rights and responsibilities closely, today’s GOP appears more interested in supporting the president no matter what he thinks.

In the early 1980s, conservatives most closely associated with the “New Right,” including elected officials like North Carolina GOP Sen. Jesse Helms and conservative strategists like Paul Weyrich and Richard Viguerie, wanted to do exactly what Elon Musk and The Heritage Foundation (through Project 2025) are now doing. 

For example, the New Right always had utter contempt for the Education Department, but it wasn’t strong enough back then to take on the establishment, and President Ronald Reagan was not the ideological bomb thrower that many on the political right wanted.

Developments over the next three-and-a-half decades changed that.

The establishment of Fox News and the growth of the internet gave the right platforms to communicate with and mobilize conservatives, and the change from broad-based parties to rigidly ideological political parties made wedge issues more effective. 

Conservatives spent years demonizing our political institutions and demanding change until a substantial chunk of Americans decided that radical change was worth a try. As Trump put it to Black voters, “What do you have to lose?”

The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the expected demolition of the Education Department give conservatives victories that they could not achieve when Reagan was in the White House. And you can bet on more firings and further cuts to established institutions in the months ahead.

On the other hand, Trump’s positions on foreign policy are light years from those of the New Right in the 1980s. Helms and Weyrich were strong anti-communists who supported defense spending and the projection of American power around the globe.

In contrast, Trump and his foreign policy team care little about America’s allies and national defense. The president has shown more deference to Russian leader Vladimir Putin than the leaders of Western democracies or U.S. intelligence services.

Trump looks to be more interested in making Canada a state, purchasing Greenland, taking over the Panama Canal and controlling Gaza than in controlling Russian expansionism. Trump is more focused on planning apartment buildings and resorts in Gaza than defending Ukraine and strengthening NATO.

Republicans defend Trump’s positions in part by arguing that he received a mandate in November. As Musk put it recently, “The people voted for major government reform.”

But Trump’s 1.47 percent margin of victory in the national popular vote hardly demonstrates that voters agreed with the president on every issue or wanted him to cut spending on every program. 

Sure, Trump’s 2024 victory suggests that voters gave him an opportunity to shrink government, shut the southern border and boost the economy. But those same voters were not demanding that he raise tariffs, slash government spending and pardon Jan. 6 rioters, some of whom were convicted of assaulting police officers.

Finally, Trump’s Cabinet, which includes many who are inexperienced and untrustworthy, reflects the president’s preference for chaos over competence and his penchant for disruption. 

He selected a Defense secretary, director of national intelligence, Health and Human Services secretary and FBI director primarily because of their willingness to follow the president’s dictates. (Trump’s initial attorney general choice, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., was an absurd selection and had to withdraw.)

The only wild card is congressional Republicans, who so far have shown little interest in taking on the president and who seem more worried about their reelection prospects than their constitutional responsibilities. Will they ever show the courage to confront Trump?

Trump’s victory, along with Republican control of both chambers of Congress, gives the president the right to set his agenda. But it does not make him beyond criticism, and it does not confirm his recent comment that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”