President Donald Trump's first seven days in office were historic, chaotic, often astonishing and sometimes unsettling. With a flurry of provocative executive orders, surreal events, unapologetic falsehoods and did-he-really-say-that tweets, Trump continued to obliterate political norms, serving notice that the gaze of history won't change who he is. He made so much news and did so many unorthodox things that it was hard to keep track of everything that was changing in Washington. The question, though, is what did all that sound and fury signify?
It certainly didn't signify nothing.
Most of Trump's initial actions won't have much direct impact on public policy, but many of them suggest huge changes are on the way. Some actions didn't seem to justify the media hype, like his executive orders reining in Obamacare, blocking a cut in low-income mortgage feeds and freezing all new rule-making, or the typical start-of-term controversies over the alleged muzzling of government bureaucrats.
Other developments actually seemed underhyped, like his apparent success in persuading congressional Republicans to support his entire Cabinet and ignore his enormous conflicts of interest, or
new immigration restrictions that got overshadowed by Wednesday's headline about his official push for a border wall. And it's hard to assess how much hype some of Trump's pronouncements deserve. Who knows whether he truly meant his threat to "send the Feds!" into Chicago to address street violence, or whether he was just tweeting off steam while watching a Bill O'Reilly segment?
Comment: Further reading: You're fired! State Department top ranks didn't resign in protest, they were given the boot