Martin Gurri explains how the second Trump administration will differ from the first.
“So it was with the first Trump administration. We heard, loud and clear, what Trump was against: immigration, the news media, Nancy Pelosi, etc. He often spoke in crudely nihilistic terms. But what was his positive vision for the country? It was hard to say. Trump was trapped in a life-and-death struggle with his political antagonists—maybe it was unfair to expect soaring ideals from him at that juncture. But the fact remains that his energies, during his first term of office, were concentrated on negation.
“This time around, all thoughts are turned to action. Trump’s ambitious program will advance on many fronts—unshackling the economy and restoring the worth of citizenship, for example—but the main strategic thrust is an effort to tame Leviathan, that is, to narrow the democratic gap between modern government and the public. Trump means to grapple with, and if possible, cauterize, the festering sources of revolt. His instrument will be the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, an
advisory group led by Musk that aims at “sweeping change,” including the dismantling of “antidemocratic” structures in the federal behemoth. Redundant units and regulatory agencies lacking explicit congressional approval are certain to fall, with proportionate “reductions in force.” The goal appears to be to enhance accountability as well as to increase efficiency and savings
"The crucial question is whether the system can be reformed. Evidently, Trump was elected to do just that. To the extent that he can persuade his voters that change is possible—that their revolt was a legitimate gesture, armed with a militant program—Trump can begin to restore the public’s trust in the institutions and the principles that sustain them, very much including democracy.
“There’s a human dimension to reform, too. It has long been apparent that our current elite class must be replaced by people who feel at home in the twenty-first century. By recent standards, including that of his first-term cabinet, Trump’s new advisers and appointees are relatively youthful. Vance is 40, Gabbard and Kash Patel are in their 40s, while Musk, at 53, is somewhere between a perpetual child and an elder statesman. Besides enjoying the full vigor of life, members of this crowd have few memories of Vietnam, Watergate, or even Monica Lewinsky. Their eyes are fixed on the present and the future—beyond the digital culture that so distresses our decrepit elites to the next tidal waves of disruption, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain technology.
“Of course, the odds are stacked against them. Failure is more likely than not. But it would be the crowning irony of Trump’s improbable trajectory if the motley collection of pirates and adventurers presently around him turn out to be the next American ruling class."
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An ex-CIA analyst, Martin Gurri is the author of The Revolt of the Public