Trump is already driving the left crazy

A phenomenon that will likely be with us throughout the second term of Donald Trump as president is a dynamic of left-right crazy that will foment anxiety and desperation with ludicrous speed.

Here’s the way the ouroboros tangles: a right-wing voice indicates that Trump is about to do something crazy in a positive sense. A left-wing voice responds with anxious fear that this crazy step is about to be taken in a negative sense. Then this crazy thing doesn’t happen, but there’s an explanation — the right-wing seizing upon the idea that a crazy good thing was undermined by various forces, while the left wing is sure their online pushback was key to stopping the crazy bad thing from happening.

The early days of the second Trump administration seem designed to appeal to both of these factions. On the one hand, the collection of misfit toys Trump has chosen to name as his cabinet seem designed to inflame the worries of the poor unfortunate souls who still rely on the likes of the Bulwark for their news. On the other, their actual ability to run roughshod over the norms and rules that restrain any administration is dubious at best. So MSNBC types can cast aspersions at RFK Jr., Jay Bhattacharya and Kash Patel, but their actual effect when given the job assuming their confirmations will be far less than they fear and perhaps not far enough to satisfy their supporters.

The overall need here is one of effectiveness. If these individuals can achieve their goals in reform of the institutions they’ve been named to head, it could be a truly great thing for the country. But that is at the moment an open question, and the general lack of experience on the part of many of these choices — Dr. Oz at CMS? Isn’t that job mostly about accounting? — doesn’t bequeath a lot of confidence in complex reform of agencies and systems designed to resist it emphatically.

So perhaps a better way to think about this task is to understand that having had the negative experience of a surprise presidency in 2016, Donald Trump now has the opportunity to run a presidential team that is far more expected. The think tank world has come to his aid, and his emphatic victory has every Republican eager to join the team for the big win. Whatever the risks associated with picking such an outside the box cabinet, the staffers who will be underneath them are more experienced and familiar with the inside game. It’s as important that they get opportunities to do what they know ought to be the reform priorities, because they’re the ones who know where the bodies are buried. And it’s that dull business of bureaucracy that will almost certainly determine whether this second Trump administration is more successful than his first.