RUTHFULLY YOURS

It’s almost as if elections have consequences. Donald Trump hasn’t been in office for a full week yet, but already the mood of the entire country seems to have undergone a beneficent metanoia. Sure, there have been hundreds of executive orders on matters large and small. There were many pardons, for 1500 people who engaged in that self-guided tour of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and also for many others.

But it is more than that. In his first term, Trump endeavored to “drain the swamp” and counter the woke ideology that had infiltrated so many university campuses and government agencies. But Trump was a political greenhorn, surrounded by people who were not on board with his program. He said many of the right things. But in many cases when it came time to implement the policies he outlined, the message got lost or garbled in transmission.

This time, older, wiser, and now surrounded by better counselors, Trump is not fooling around. Within hours of taking office, bang! Trump suspended the security clearances of the 51 intelligence officers who had, for partisan reasons, signed a public letter announcing that Hunter Biden’s laptop bore “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” He lifted the security details assigned to former National Security Advisor and current anti-Trump fanatic John Bolton. Ditto the security detail for Anthony “Mr. Science” Fauci.

One of the hallmarks of Trump 2.0 is his attention to the importance of moving past words to deeds. On Tuesday of last week, he sent a memo to the heads of all government agencies, ordering them to shut down their DEI offices by 5 p.m. the next day. All DEI hires were to be placed on paid administrative leave “immediately.”

That’s not all. Aware that the order would spark panic among the sinecured bureaucrats in and around the DEI apparat, the memo went on to say, “We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language. If you are aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024, to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, please report all facts and circumstances.” And just in case that wasn’t enough, the memo included this warning: “There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting” on efforts to disguise DEI programs. “However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences.”

Do you really think government agencies would attempt to disguise DEI programs under their auspices? Let’s ask Lisa T. Boykin, who works (worked?) at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Last Monday, Boykin was listed as the Bureau’s “Chief Diversity Officer.” But by Thursday she was listed simply as “Senior Executive” on the agency’s website. Same picture. Doubtless the same remit. Different title. Uh-oh.

Breathtaking changes are coming thick and fast. On Friday, Marco Rubio, Trump’s newly confirmed secretary of state, sent a cable to all U.S. diplomatic posts announcing that nearly all foreign aid would be frozen for 90 days while the U.S. determines whether that aid is in alignment with Trump’s agenda. There are exceptions for emergency food aid and military aid to Israel and Egypt, but the blanket moratorium, “effective immediately,” has stunned the diplomatic corps and their clients. Professional humanitarians and other passengers on the U.S. gravy train have their knickers in a twist. No matter. Rubio is committed to implementing Trump’s policy. “Every dollar we spend,” he said last week, “every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?” What a refreshing set of priorities.

Around midnight on Friday, having just returned from visits to devastated areas in North Carolina and Los Angeles, Trump fired some 17 inspectors general in the Defense Department, State Department, Energy Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Veterans Affairs, and elsewhere. The wailing among Democrat politicians and the fired inspectors was as plaintive as it was astonished. Quoth one former inspector: “It’s a widespread massacre. Whoever Trump puts in now will be viewed as loyalists, and that undermines the entire system.” Ah, yes, “the system,” hitherto so full of integrity and independence. If we were talking about computer software, we might venture to observe that what this fellow describes is a feature, not a bug.

I, like many others reporting on Trump’s Blitzkrieg in the first week of his second term, have deployed Colin Powell’s phrase “shock and awe.” As I write, we are but 6 days into Trump’s second term. But it is as if we had suddenly awakened from a bad dream. Things that would have seemed impossible last month are suddenly not only possible but real. There will be—there already is—plenty of pushback against Trump’s efforts to bring about “the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.” But his momentum is extraordinary. I expect there will be disappointments along the way, but it does appear that this extraordinary, and extraordinarily energetic, man will do an enormous amount to make America great again.