ANALYSIS — Donald Trump’s second-term governing doctrine could be summed up by these nine words the president uttered last week: “No one leads us. We do what we want.”
That’s been Team Trump’s approach, so far, at home and abroad — drawing praise from congressional Republicans and scorn from many Democrats, with his 100th day milestone coming on April 30. The president made that declaration in reference to negotiations with Iran over its nuclear ambitions as he talked to reporters in the Oval Office last week, and it reflects a high-octane governing style that Democrats haven’t been able to slow down.
Most recently, Trump’s handling of sweeping tariffs, his administration’s refusal to retrieve a Maryland man deported to El Salvador despite a Supreme Court order to “facilitate” his return and his talk of deporting U.S. citizens with criminal records to prisons on foreign soil show a chief executive determined to exert his will.
