In Silicon Valley, they move fast and break things. In Washington, they move slowly and tweak them. Lenin could have been forecasting the opening to Donald Trump’s second term when he quipped that there are decades where nothing happens and weeks when decades happen. Washington, an institutional town where respect for “regular order” binds its natives, is not equipped for the speed with which Trump has been flooding the zone in the past 20 days. How he fares in remaking the US republic in his image hinges on overwhelming America’s federal capital with shock and awe. Aside from several court-ordered stays of action, his tactics have so far been effective. 

He has two unerring goals. The first is to recreate the imperial presidency that was buried in the mid-1970s after Richard Nixon’s resignation. Post-Watergate Washington passed a flurry of reforms that tied the hands of the executive branch, notably the CIA, the Department of Justice and the FBI. Trump is dissolving those restraints. The second is to make money for himself and his family. The multibillion-dollar value of the meme coins that the president and first lady Melania Trump launched shortly before his inauguration shows that is also going to plan. 

Trump is a master of distraction. Whether he is blaming America’s worst air disaster in years on DEI hiring or vowing to put US boots on the ground in the Gaza strip, Trump fills the stage. The tempo is almost boringly shocking. Another three weeks of this could become shockingly boring. Either way, Trump has bandwidth dominance.