Donald Trump completes hostile takeover of Washington, puts both parties on notice, by James Hohmann.
President Trump completed his hostile takeover of the Republican Party last July, and on Friday he completed his hostile, if temporary, takeover of Washington. …
No president has ever before referred to “the establishment” in his inaugural address nor declared that every country in the world ought to pursue its own self-interest. But the guy who ended the Bush dynasty and then vanquished the Clinton machine, in a period of 17 months, put “the establishment” of both parties on notice once more. …
Trump’s inauguration speech sounded like that of a man of the old left, before identity politics and political correctness took over the left:
The last time a Republican was president, Trump was still a registered Democrat. His improbable success should be viewed mainly as the triumph of an independent populist who used the splintered GOP as a vehicle to win power.
A veteran Democratic operative told me recently that he believes, if Trump had decided in Sept. 2009 that he wanted to stay in their party and pandered accordingly with a similarly protectionist and isolationist us-versus-them message, he would have defeated Hillary for the nomination in 2016. This person, it should be noted, spent last year working on Clinton’s behalf. …
The Republican establishment:
Just as Trump figured out a way to co-opt the conservative movement, Republicans in Washington (from K Street to the Capitol) are now trying to co-opt him and the Trumpist movement. In many cases, the Trump-GOP relationship can be symbiotic. But the inaugural address hinted pretty strongly at the fundamental divergence between the two sides over the virtue of free trade, the value of immigration, the size of government, the role the state should play in people’s personal lives and America’s place in the world. …
So much for the New World Order:
The new president repeatedly proclaimed this afternoon that he will be guided by the doctrine of “America First,” a mantra first popularized in the 1930s by isolationists like Charles Lindbergh as they sought to stop the U.S. from helping Europe save itself from the Nazis.
Trump explicitly wants America to scale backs its footprint overseas. …
Authentic Trump:
Stephen Bannon described the speech afterwards as “an unvarnished declaration of the basic principles” of Trump’s brand of nationalism. “I don’t think we’ve had a speech like that since Andrew Jackson came to the White House,” Bannon told Bob Costa. …
The anarchists in the streets are playing right into Trump’s hands:
The mass disturbances across Washington today highlight some of the non-GOP resistance Trump will face, but the anarchy — including a limo being torched right outside of The Post’s newsroom — plays into the president’s hands. It earns Trump public sympathy and validates his dark warnings about lurking dangers on the home front. It also makes it harder for conservatives to resist potential executive overreach. …
Someone in the stands loudly blew a whistle as he took the oath of office, which could be heard on stage, as another protester yelled that he was “illegitimate.” Both noises were drowned out by a 21-gun salute.
