Posted originally on CTH on May 23, 2025 | Sundance

I returned yesterday following another whirlwind trip to the one place in America I genuinely believe is rooted in evil enterprise, Washington DC.  What I found there was similar to prior visits yet there are some structural and cultural changes afoot that are visible if you know what to look for.

First, the level of opposition to Donald Trump is bigger than in term-1, way bigger.  The hatred is likely a magnitude of three times as strong against President Trump and what/who he represents.  The opposition sentiment, now three times more vitriolic, is held by around 90% of the inhabitants of the region, perhaps more but I am trying to be gracious.

Somewhere are 90% of every thought, word, deed and action, as well as tone therein, is bitterly against President Trump’s perspectives, policies and intentions for government reform.  In term-1 and prior visits that percentage was likely around 75%.  The current scale of opposition is actually stunning albeit not surprising.  However, it does give you an idea of how impossible it is for a MAGA-minded political official to live, work and even breathe in the environment.

This is why so many elected officials we count on collapse after only a few weeks/months of effort.  The hatred they face is like a flea looking into a furnace, and unfortunately when put into that kind of battle geography only those who carry the purest armor of God are going to keep stable footing.  Everyone from the 7-11 attendant to the pizza delivery guy and beyond, will openly hate you if you even suspect you are Trumpy minded or even MAGA adjacent.

There is pure evil deep within the Washington DC hatred, and it emanates, vibrates like a frequency you can physically feel and mentally sense.  This is not America, not even close.  In the last two decades this place of “fundamental transformation” has become something else entirely. I will note there is approximately 30% more office space for lease today than prior visits. Perhaps DC is shrinking.

The various independent American survivors trying to cope within the region live like French resistance forces under Nazi occupation rules.  Secret meetings, safe venues, careful transit, eye signals, questioning glances, knowing nods, stunning nervousness and other identifying survival tradecraft are very visible.  This is a putrid and horrid place. In its modern form it is much worse than most can fathom, and you would be safer on the streets of Mogadishu.

Inside the security perimeter where the illusion of democracy is maintained for tourists’ things are safer; however, getting there requires a very deliberate effort to keep your head down, walk briskly through the safari zone and stay on very narrow paths carefully avoiding eye-contact lest you be suspected as an outsider.  Yeah, I dislike this place immensely.

My favorite question, and I’m very careful about how I ask it, is: “when was the last time you encountered joy?”  Try asking that question in Washington DC and you’ll need more than a Snickers as you await a reply.

We need to emphasize this context because this is the place where President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have to operate in order to carry out their official duties.

It is absolutely no surprise why President Trump and First Lady Melania try to exit the region frequently in order to breathe.

As an apex predator and warrior Donald Trump has keen survival skills, but the scale of the opposition is intense.

I often think about the level of mental fortitude it would take to exist in this environment of constant probing attacks because it helps to remind me how strong President Donald J Trump really is.  [I have my wrist stopwatch timed to spend 47 minutes in focused prayer and thankfulness each evening before bed, for exactly that reason.]

Overall, my objective was successful, and I am confident President Trump has people earnestly trying to bring reform that could change the direction of our national journey.

From my perspective the problem isn’t the motive of the people trying to get things done; the biggest problem they face is their ability given the scale of the problem.

There is a big difference between what the problems look like and what the problems actually are, and the business system inside Washington DC operates on maintenance of the former, while the latter is never addressed.  President Trump has this challenge in part because the American people have a different view of the core problem.  I digress.

♦ Prioritization.

Think of what President Trump is attempting.  In an average day President Trump has to support his cabinet efforts, take phone calls from global interests, address surfacing crisis, negotiate how to keep people moving forward, maintain a focus on national economic benefit, try and bring an end to expensive conflict, coordinate with legislative allies, respond to questions, defend the advances and stabilize the ramparts against inbound attacks.

In the big picture, President Trump is a dealmaker for material benefits that deliver substantive financial benefits to the American people who go about their daily lives trying to do the best they can for themselves and their family.  MAGAnomics is at the core of the effort, whether through trade, tax policy, energy policy, resource development, deregulation or just trying to convince multinationals that prosperity in America is in their best interest.

There are only 24 hours in a day and President Trump works in a more focused manner on that priority than any modern president before him.

Everything else falls into a second tier of prioritization.  Yes, the Silo reform efforts are critically important, but at the same time priorities have to be made if the biggest impacts are going to be felt.

So, President Trump provides the greatest opportunities for the second tier to succeed by appointing the best people he knows are available and supporting everything they ask of him in return as they go about their endeavors.  However, President Trump cannot reasonably micromanage the daily tasks within each of the silo reform efforts.  That’s what cabinet level ministers are appointed to achieve, and the absence of progress is where we find the majority of the frustration expressed by the MAGA-supporting American electorate.

Yes, ultimately the buck stops with the desk in the Oval Office, and it is not supportive of the mission objective to avoid that reality.  However, cabinet members have a role and responsibility to deliver on the expectations and turning fire toward President Trump, regardless of the merit of the frustration underpinning the fire, is also not going to change the responsibility dynamic.

The leaders of the various cabinet agencies are responsible for the executive decision-making within a governmental reform effort.

President Trump’s apex priority focus is on the economic stuff that touches every American life. On those issues he doesn’t delegate the potential for success, he directly ensures success is achieved.  Then, for the lesser, albeit also incredibly important – but not the apex stuff, Trump provides the opportunity for the greatest success but cannot micromanage every nuance. There’s just not enough time in a day.

What we may be noticing, via the absence of the success or progress many people desire, is not a disinterest by Trump to achieve the goals of silo reform amid some of the most historically challenging agencies (DOJ, FBI, etc.), but rather the inability or incompetence of the best option Trump had to get it done.  I do not assign or target frustration toward President Trump; I direct my ire toward the cabinet officials and their decision-making.

At CTH we see things as they are, not as we would wish them to be.

♦ Recently a thought exercise via the Twitter was presented around the issue of assigned trust then and now.  I modify that a little bit to hit more on the expectation equation.  What competency or effectiveness was expected, versus what we are seeing.

Harmeet Dhillon: 15% effectiveness expected / 20% effectiveness now visible. The only DOJ-CRD change was the elimination of Disparate Impact, that caused around 200 people to leave because they no longer had anything to do. According to her public promotion tour, Dhillon is now reviewing ‘Consent Decrees.’

Kash Patel: 15% then / 15% now.  The guy is unchanged because expectations were/are low to begin with.  Current FBI people within the agency openly admit their director is in over his head and state he has no idea what is actually happening in the agency he leads.  He is fed busy-work to keep him occupied, and he likes the indulgences afforded by the position.

Dan Bongino: 50% then / 25% now. The Stephen Jensen promotion rollout is an example of non-leadership.  If Bongino and Kash Patel were going to be earnest, and if what they claimed recently is true, they should have been visibly open about making the FBI’s lead J6 attack dog a whistleblower and then promoting him.  Unfortunately, they view sunlight as against their institutional interests. The DC Silo system loves that approach.

Marco Rubio: 25% then / 70% now.  Remarkably his confrontation with the Senate, with USAID, with VISAs, and calling Ukraine a “USA proxy war” were big jumps in the effectiveness and competency versus what was expected.  Still watching for direct IC confrontation with his move to NatSec Advisor, but I totally understand why President Trump is supporting him with more authority.

Pam Bondi: 10% then / 10% now. Her entire value is keeping Main Justice pro-Trump.  Pam Bondi is keeping the internal lawfare operatives inside the DOJ from targeting the office of the president.  She’s doing that well, but that’s the sum total of what we expected.  Bottom line, she’s a fibber, a user and a socialite climber.

RFK Jr: 25% then / 40% now.  Vaccine removals/confrontation, Rx advertising stopped, and Food Safety reform are still outstanding issues.  But to be fair, he seems to be leaning in.

Tom Homan: 100% then / 100% now. Mr consistency.

Mike Waltz: 5% then / 0% now.  CTH said Waltz would be the first one gone, and he was.  Mike Waltz was/is the Nikki Haley of Term 2.

Kristi Noem: 25% then / 50% now.  Considerably exceeding expectations. Big border support gains and her honest evaluation of a “totally corrupt FBI” were big steps forward in sunlight; but lots remain to be done.

Tulsi Gabbard: 25% then / 50% now.  Biggest jump was from removing National Intelligence Council (NIC) from the CIA. That was a huge and proactive move that likely headed off a major effort by the IC to undermine President Trump.  But again, the ultimate IC confrontation and declassification stuff remains.  [I somewhat suspect Gabbard will shift from DNI to NatSec Advisor]

Howard Lutnick: 50% then / 75% now. Solid support for MAGAnomics, Trump tariff approach and more.

Kevin Hassett: 80% then / 90% now. Solid on tax effort, trade assists and structural domestic MAGAnomics. Last 10% = Results, and the USMCA issues.

USTR Greer: 25% then / 75% now.  Excellent confrontation of EU, ASEAN and China on trade.  He’s exceeding expectations by following the lead of President Donald Trump.  Greer also didn’t flinch when Trump hit the tariff hammer during his congressional testimony. Impressive.

Scott Bessent: 50% then / 75% now. Making the whistleblowers part of the audit group was a good move. Trade and MAGAnomics policy advancement are very solid.  Strong supportive MAGAnomic understanding and excellent follow-through.

John Ratcliffe: 25% then / 25% now.  The CIA still appears to be operating albeit without the conduit of USAID.  The Qatari stuff is annoying and the CIA operations in Ukraine are unchanged.  With CIA operations in EU continuing as before, the status of the CIA operating as a shadow government cannot be seen as improving.  Tulsi Gabbard intercepted the NIC issue, but for the NIC to be plotting while Ratcliffe is Director, well…  meh.

Like I said, AG Pam Bondi appears to have one job, keep main justice from Lawfare operations against the White House.  She seems to have her hands around that now.  Meanwhile these guys are doing the heavy lifting regionally (Blanche), at the Supreme Court (Sauer) and within the silo investigative stuff everyone wants to see lead to accountability (Martin).  We are all waiting for results.