Ron Elving

This term has featured serious policy shifts like the Trump tariffs and the deportation drive and the military strikes without congressional approval.

We also see a lot of personal retribution against Trump's political enemies and provocative displays of will, such as the partial demolition of the White House and the Trump rebranding of the Kennedy Cultural Arts Center and the Institute of Peace.

In all of this, we see a willingness to test the boundaries, try the locks on the doors, see what's open, see what happens, and ultimately to see who will step up to enforce the law.

In the year to come, we can expect these confrontations to continue and quite possibly escalate.

If I were, Scott, maybe I could find my cell phone more easily.

You didn't need paranormal powers to see Trump's second term would be anything but normal.

Even by the standards of his first term when he got impeached twice and indicted on both state and federal charges.

Yet he came back.

And despite all that and...

There's little chance he's going to be cowed by threats of consequences this time around.

The balance between Trump's impulses and the restraints on his power was more conventional the first time around.

He was finding his way for a while, relying more on people who knew the Washington way or were well-established on their own in government or in the Republican Party.

This time around, we have a cabinet and White House staff dominated by dedicated enablers, willing to carry out orders the way Trump has always thought all his employees should.

The conventional wisdom says the closer we get to the midterms, the more we will see vulnerable Republicans distance themselves from Trump on health care,

on food prices, or various other issues.

That happens to any president who is down in the polls halfway through a term.

Of course, there could be events, as there were in other midterm years, such as 2002 or 1998.

Those reversed the usual dynamic.

But the elections coming in 26 are not the only source of stress.

in Trump's movement.