I & I Editorial BoardWhen Donald Trump takes the oath of office today, he will do something no president has managed in modern times. He’s getting a second chance to make a first impression.
Normally, when a president enters his second term, the country is already tired of him. He’s a lame duck. He struggles with whether to keep certain people on or find fresh blood, which usually results in the B-team taking over. Everyone immediately starts talking about the next presidential race. Scandals tend to surface.
Today, Trump is like a breath of fresh air after a long, dark, and dreary winter. The team he’s assembled is completely new, bursting with top talent eager to kick reforms into high gear. Where incumbents usually take their second terms leisurely, riding on their successes, Trump’s second-term agenda is more aggressive and wide-ranging than his first.
If Trump had won reelection in 2020, the press and his political opposition (we know, we repeat ourselves), would have simply continued to act out the same script – Trump is a dangerous, corrupt, fascist monster who must be stopped. The effort to kick him out of office would have been relentless. Never Trumpers would still be a force in the Republican Party.
Instead, Trump is like the new kid on the block. The terrible Biden years – with the endless string of failures, embarrassments, incompetence, and lies – are finally over. There’s hope in the air again. Hope that food prices will come down. That the government will stop wasting trillions of dollars. That the economy will kick into high gear and optimism will return. Hope that the cancel culture will be canceled and that the people around the president will at least be competent. Trump himself has more energy and enthusiasm – and far more experience – than he had eight years ago.
And all those stories about Trump being a “danger to democracy”? It’s hard to make that case when the country overwhelmingly rejected it, and when even the sainted Barack Obama was seen laughing it up with Trump at Jimmy Carter’s funeral.
The fact that Trump withstood relentless mockery, insults, legal attacks, and two assassination attempts and not only won a decisive victory against a tapped-out Democratic Party but completely revitalized the Republican Party – is something that has never happened before and likely will never happen again.
America loves a comeback story, and Trump’s is epic.
Even the entertainment industry, which for years tried to convince itself that calling Trump evil was funny, is treating him with some modicum of respect.
“Saturday Night Live’s” “cold open” is a case in point. Instead of attacking Trump, it mocked MSNBC for fixating on every utterance Trump makes – which it and every other network has done for the past nine years.
“This time around, we’re not going to get sucked in by every new shiny crazy statement from Trump,” says “Joy Reid.” After which the panel is repeatedly interrupted by “breaking” news alerts about Trump tweets. They even make fun of Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow by having the panel get them confused.
It still wasn’t funny – can anyone remember when SNL was funny? – but try to imagine the show doing anything like this if it aired on the eve of a Trump second inaugural in January 2021. Never would have happened.
We can only hope that common sense survives past the first day. That Trump will be judged on his actions and results, not a flippant comment. That debates over issues will be civil. That reason will make a welcome return. That Trump succeeds in making America great again. And that SNL will be funny again.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
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To paraphrase President Ford, the long “international” nightmare is finally over. Sadly it will take far longer than President Trump’s single term to correct the course of the country. Two terms of President Vance may not even be enough. Still it is still America where dreams do come true and hope springs eternal.
As for SNL, the show was never funny. It was and always has been a juvenile and banal forum for has beens, never weres and washed up performers. It was the epitome of Newton Minnow’s description to television as “a vast wasteland”. They seek now to redeem themselves in an effort to remain viable. May they fail.