For President Trump, turnabout is fair play. Following the election, President Biden opened the Office of the President-Elect in Delaware. He would give speeches and make announcements from behind a podium that looked very much like the one the president uses. It was a blatant attempt to minimize the outgoing administration’s coverage and put to rest any issues raised about election integrity. While the moniker was not new, Biden took it to a new level.
Today, President Trump officially opened the Former President’s Office in an obvious troll to make a broader point. He is not going away, and neither is his policy agenda. While he will need to figure out how to amplify his message off Twitter, it does not appear he intends to stay quiet or take up painting like President George W. Bush.
If the Trump organization had one strong suit, it was marketing. Positioning him as a champion for the American people in this announcement is authentic and the essence of his policy agenda. President Trump was the first to give a voice to disenfranchised voters by saying he would end international agreements that disadvantaged Americans. While his tax policy and judicial appointments were typically Republican, his trade policies and, to some extent, his foreign policy were not.
He used tariffs to leverage other countries to come to the table on trade and immigration with success. Trump was the first to confront China in any significant way and used the military surgically to destroy the ISIS caliphate and eliminate key actors in global terror networks. Thanks to fracking, which allowed for energy independence, his administration could pursue a principled and effective strategy for greater peace in the Middle East. Other NATO members started paying their fair share and the organization endured.
While there were rumors that Trump was thinking about starting a third party, the language in this announcement appears to indicate a different approach. Read more…
