Mark Halperin says Trump can bring more ‘radical change’ to Washington than past Republican presidents

President-elect Donald Trump has a better chance to massively reshape the federal government than past Republican presidents, journalist Mark Halperin said Tuesday.

As of Thursday morning, Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris by 2% in the popular vote, while Republicans have secured a Senate majority and are projected to maintain control of the House, according to Decision Desk HQ. Halperin, on “2WAY Tonight,” suggested that these factors — along with Trump’s four-year hiatus from office — set him up to accomplish more “radical change” than former Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush.

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“If you look at all the Republican presidents since Reagan, including Reagan — Bush I, Bush II were never going to be bulldozers of the establishment. They just weren’t. Bush 43 looked for some change, no doubt, but he was not a bulldozer against the establishment,” Halperin said. “Reagan talked that way, but he had a Democratic-controlled House and, some of the time, a Democratic-controlled Senate, and did not really follow through on this rhetoric of fundamental change.”

“Trump I did some things along those lines, but really, if you kind of tally it up — and of course COVID intervened — but if you tally it up, there wasn’t a ton of fundamental change. There was changes in the tax code, changes in energy policy, changes in regulation, but not a fundamental remaking of what people in MAGA-land would call ‘deep state,’ of the culture, of the liberal culture, moving vast numbers of federal employees out of Washington,” he continued. “For all of the talk of Project 2025 — which Donald Trump did not write or own, but the Democrats tried to make a big campaign issue of it — there is a desire to fundamentally change things.”

Halperin added that Trump’s time out of office and his substantial reelection victory could boost his ability to make comprehensive reforms.

“A normal two-term president in his second term is exhausted, and his staff is exhausted because they’re five years in. And they are wiser, but they don’t have the momentum of coming out of, typically, a more dominating reelection,” the journalist said. “Most incumbents — not all, but most reelected incumbents — have a smaller victory the second time. Why is this president different? Number one, he was out for four years and had four years to think about all this, to formulate policy, and to think about what he did wrong the first time from his point of view.”

“They’ve also rested because although some of them have been through a campaign, they haven’t governed for four years. And he won — you know, he won the popular vote this time; he didn’t last time. So, arguably, he’s got a greater mandate than he did the first time,” he continued. “All of those things, I think, open the possibility to some pretty radical change — and I’m using ‘radical’ in a neutral way — just fundamental about changing the nature of the federal government.”

Trump announced Tuesday that billionaire Elon Musk and former 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will together establish a new Department of Government Efficiency in his second administration.

The president-elect has appointed them to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies,” according to his statement. He added that the department will partner with the White House Office of Management and Budget “to drive large-scale structural reform.”

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