Don’t copy Donald Trump’s failed presidency

In the early months of Donald Trump’s second administration, many Democrats seemed awestruck by the apparent pace of activity. They felt that Trump and his team were running circles around the opposition and grew green with envy, eager to plot how Democrats could copy what was working so well for him. At the time, I was skeptical. Trump took office with a higher approval rating than he’d earned at any point during his first term, but his numbers started dropping almost immediately. I completely agree with the conventional wisdom that the counter-Trump messaging from Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries has been uninspired, and also with the conventional wisdom that they have an objectively difficult job of rallying the troops against Trump given the anti-establishment mood of their grassroots supporters. But that just meant that Trump’s falling numbers reflected poorly on his own choices. Now, heading into the second summer of his second term, his approval rating is lower than at any point between his first inauguration and Election Day 2020. Democrats have plenty of their own problems, but Trump has catastrophically bobbled a once-promising political situation. The fact that Democrats’ own dysfunctions may save the Senate for him is noteworthy, but it’s hardly a ringing endorsement of his approach. So I was interested to see Lina Khan recently quoted in CNN adhering to the conventional wisdom of 14 months ago that Trump’s term carries valuable lessons for Democrats. Closer to my own factional alignment, the notion that Trump is worthy of emulation also seems to be the premise of things like Project 2029. Despite my general skepticism of candidates releasing tons of plans, I am definitely in favor of planning. But why would you give your planning operation that specific name ahead of the election? The main way that Project 2025 played as a brand concept was as a fiasco that Trump spent most of the election disavowing. Of course those disavowals were largely bullshit, and Trump has used much of what was in the Project 2025 document as a blueprint for governance. But has it been a successful blueprint? Or has it been such a fiasco that it’s allowed Democrats to get up off the mattress while doing very little to address their own weaknesses? Why are we trying to copy failure?