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At the entrance of the Oval Office, where the president and his visitors can see it every day, hangs the mug shot taken of a glowering Donald J. Trump after being arrested and charged with racketeering to overthrow an election.
A couple of hundred feet away, in the grand foyer of the White House state floor where the official portraits of past presidents in solemn poses are on display, hangs a painting of a defiant Mr. Trump, blood splattered on his face by would-be assassin’s bullet, angrily pumping his fist and shouting, “Fight! Fight!”
These icons of Mr. Trump’s journey back to power loom large as he completes the first 100 days of his second presidency. There is a reason he has placed these images in positions of prominence. They reflect the crucibles of a man who escaped existential threats of prison and death in his quest for vindication and vengeance. They fuel his self-authored narrative as a man of destiny, saved by God to save America.
In the opening chapter of this new term, Mr. Trump has acted like a man on a mission, moving with almost messianic fervor to transform America from top to bottom and exact retribution against enemies at the same time. He appears intent on demolishing the old order no matter the collateral damage, putting his personal imprint not just on government and foreign affairs but on almost every aspect of national life, including business, culture, sports, academia, the legal world and the media.
Through sheer force of will and brazen assertions of presidential power, Mr. Trump has done more to change the trajectory of the country in three months than any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the notion of a first-100-days presidential yardstick. But where Roosevelt used his early weeks to build a new edifice, Mr. Trump has used his to tear it down. In effect, he is trying to repeal the liberal social compact and international system that Roosevelt constructed, “unwinding neoliberalism,” as one aide put it.
Nearly every day brings a fresh breach of what were once thought to be the rules, moves that have thrilled his insurgent supporters and petrified his nervous opponents. In his own telling, Mr. Trump is putting America on the path to the “golden age” that he promised in his inaugural address, while his adversaries fear that it is instead the path to a new dark age of autocracy, repression and upheaval.
