Trump’s Pieces are in Place & Most Americans Are with Him – Top 3 Takeaways – November 25th, 2024
- The pieces are in place. By now it’s crystal clear that the second Trump administration is set to operate much quicker, and in keeping with the newly created DOGE featuring Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, efficiently. While there’s been some drama with cabinet selections, a la Matt Gaetz’s AG nomination (which as I laid out on Friday, I believe was highly intentional) and continues to be with DOD nominee Pete Hegseth and HHS nominee RFK Jr., along with many still floating Tulsi double-agent conspiracies...what’s evident is that Trump is a man with a plan who’s on a mission. By midday Saturday, with the nomination of Brooke Rollins as Agriculture Secretary...President-elect Trump had nominated the top 15 cabinet officials in record time. That’s in addition to his newly established DOGE leaders. By way of comparison, it wasn’t until January 18th of 2017, two days before being sworn into office, that Trump nominated his first agriculture secretary. And timing matters. In part due to his administration's slow start in selecting cabinet officials eight years ago, Trump’s first 100 days were almost completely consumed with getting his cabinet confirmed as it took him 97 days from the time he was sworn in until he had his whole cabinet together. Trump is determined not to see a repeat this time. If a president is aiming for maximum efficiency, as clearly Trump is, there are fourteen days in January that are the most critical days for a president-elect to take advantage of. The time the next senate is seated, on January 6th, and the time the next president is sworn in on January 20th. Already, by nominating his cabinet picks which require senate confirmation (or at a minimum a senate recess vote to allow for a recess appointment), the vetting process is well underway which will speed the process along. But most instructive of all is the 14-day window in January. With the top cabinet picks in tow, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune can take temperature checks of each of the nominees to see if they have the necessary votes to gain confirmation. He can then begin to roll out the votes for those nominations on a conveyor belt...
- To be ready for January 20th when Trump is sworn in. On January 20th of 2017, Donald Trump had only two cabinet nominees requiring senate confirmation confirmed – heading into the day – Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Homeland Security. And on January 20th of 2017, only one more confirmation took place – Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State. Another vote on another nominee didn’t even take place for another three days. With Trump’s nomination pace this time around, regardless of whether there may be controversies with picks that abound (that’s always going to be the case when you’re attempting to fundamentally transform the federal government), there is the chance that Trump can have his cabinet in place on Day 1 in office. The pieces are in place and Trump’s ready roll right away. And speaking of which...the American people currently view Trump 2.0 as being...
- Better than ever. 31 states, 310 electoral college votes, winning the national popular vote by 2.5 million votes, there’s no doubt that Donald Trump’s third presidential election was his best ever (and the best by a Republican presidential candidate since George H.W. Bush in 1988). So perhaps its most appropriate that Donald Trump currently has his best approval ratings ever. Joni Mitchell made famous the words... You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. But clearly the phrase applies to more than just urban development. President Biden entered this year with the lowest approval rating by any first-term president in American history (dating back to when approval polling began in the 1930’s). That culminated in his unpredicted exit from the race after having already clinched the party nomination for the race. The bottom line is that Americans obviously had a significant case of buyer's remorse by bumping Trump for Biden four years ago. With that said, there’s a big difference in being perceived by voters to be the lesser of two evils (which is effectively what was the case when he won against an also unpopular Hillary Clinton in 2016) and being the presidential choice most voters want. Never before in Donald Trump’s eight years on the presidential scene, had he had a net positive approval rating. That is until now. According to the Pew Research Center, Trump’s plans and his upcoming presidency are viewed positively by most Americans (once again regardless of what most reporting on his cabinet picks and plans may suggest), which has also led to Trump having a net positive approval rating for the first time on record. Pew found 53% of Americans approving of Trump compared to 46% who don’t. A net approval rating that’s currently 22% better than Biden’s. This also includes Americans approving of what they’re hearing about his plans in the upcoming administration. 59% approve of Trump’s economic plans, 54% of his criminal justice/immigration deportation plans with 53% happy with what they’re hearing about his approach to foreign policy. Yes, Trump’s pieces are in place. Yes, Trump’s ready roll, but also importantly – for the first time yet – a broad majority of Americans – even more than who voted for him, are with him in his quest to Make America Great Again.