David’s view
The best show in Washington this week, free to watch, was the White House’s briefing for “new media.” On three separate days, Karoline Leavitt chased her ordinary press conference with one for conservative influencers and streamers. Some of the questions were about Ukraine negotiations, and family-friendly policies the president might support. Some other questions focused on vengeance.
“A lot of people in America are questioning if there’s any possibility that we could see further investigations for anyone that could have violated our election integrity rights,” asked X influencer Dom Lucre. “Is there any possibility for names such as Barack Hussein Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to ever just possibly get investigated?”
Eric Bolling, a former Fox News host, asked if Trump’s lawsuit against CBS will “go to fruition,” and possibly roll up more of the press. “Will the New York Times be enjoined into that lawsuit?” he asked. “Will Trump sue Fox for their methodology in polling?”
Revenge has been the great deliverable of the president’s first 100 days in office. No modern president had worked so quickly to knock out the foundations from left-wing institutions, which the influencers appreciated. A year after he said he’d be “too busy for retribution,” at a time when his campaign worried that voters didn’t want him to focus on retribution, he had done plenty. The State Department was even combing its records for information on some Trump foes.
This has terrified big and small “L” liberals. It’s also been fairly easy, exercising powers that don’t need congressional approval and other presidents were reluctant to use. Trump can credibly tell supporters, like he did in Michigan this week, that he kept his promises.
How many more of them? House Republicans punted again on this year’s funding bill, and no negotiator has ruled out including every benefit that Trump ran on. They were worth billions. He ran on free IVF coverage, which his executive order couldn’t provide; eliminating taxes on tips; eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits.
In office, he’s talked about eliminating taxes on income under $200,000. He hasn’t endorsed a $5000 “DOGE dividend” check, but Elon Musk has, and the Trump joint fundraising committee sent donors an email this week warning that Democrats wanted to “STOP YOUR $5000 DOGE DIVIDEND CHECKS.”
Any reporter who’s been outside Washington has met voters who expect some of this. We won’t know, until House Republicans tell us, how much is real. One appeal of Trump, for his old and new voters, is that he makes lots of promises and either executes them or tries to. Barack Obama suggested in 2008 that he might support a “truth and reconciliation” commission to scour the Bush years, then said in 2009 that he wouldn’t. Activists, influencers, and donors have never had this much ability to get their issues in front of a president; ask Laura Loomer. “I can outpromise him,” Huey Long said of Franklin Roosevelt, but Trump actually got to do that to his opponents twice.
Until Trump says no, the expectation is that all of the harder, costlier promises will be fulfilled, too. Nobody has said “we can’t,” yet.