President Donald Trump is making a play for the history books. And for Republicans, that might be a problem.
The first year of the 79-year-old president’s second term has been consumed with assuring his immortality. He’s demolished the White House’s East Wing to make way for a new 90,000-square foot ballroom that threatens to dwarf the rest of the complex. Where Jacqueline Kennedy’s Rose Garden once bloomed, there is now a concrete patio decorated with yellow-striped umbrellas and white metal furniture, fashioned after Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. His name now hangs outside the Kennedy Center and the Institute of Peace, their signage changed without congressional approval. He’s charging ahead with plans for an Arc de Triomphe-style monument near Arlington National Cemetery, colloquially known as the Arc de Trump. He’s rechristened the Monroe Doctrine, the “Don-roe” Doctrine, and used it to suggest that the U.S. should obtain Greenland — a land grab that would be larger than Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase. There are proposals for new “Trump-class” battleships adorned with his image, TrumpRx drug sales, a Trump Gold Card for immigrants and even a new one-dollar coin honoring America’s 250th birthday — with Trump’s image on both sides.
One year after his return to power, Trump has sought to recaliberate the global world order and project absolute command over the nation’s capital. But his focus on his own legacy has left the Republican Party with few tangible wins on the cost of living — voters’ top priority, and the basis for his historic win in the 2024 campaign.
“We’re doing better than we’ve ever done,” Trump declared Friday, referring to the economy. Just 36 percent of Americans said they approved of Trump’s handling of the issue, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted last week.
The disconnect has frustrated Republicans and the campaigns hoping to maintain their majorities in Congress. The party faces an electorate that often views midterm elections as a referendum on the presidency, but acknowledgment of voters’ economic anxieties is rare from the president.
The White House has recently mounted a fresh push on policies focused on affordability after Democrats won big in a series of elections in November, including a plan to open retirement accounts for homebuying, a pledge to cap credit card rates for a year and a thinly detailed healthcare proposal. Trump and Vice President JD Vance also plan to travel the country promoting their economic record, including tax cuts and increased energy production.
“They’re starting to realize that they’re missing opportunities to talk to voters about what voters are very clear is important to them,” said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist. “He’s just not talking about those things and acting on those things in ways that help him politically, or help congressional Republicans.”
A president’s second term is often focused on legacy-defining projects. But Trump has gone to great lengths to leave his mark on Washington. His successor will only need to peer outside the windows of the Oval Office to see the concrete patio paved in the likeness of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s new ballroom, Trump’s presidential “Walk of Fame” featuring plaques filled with partisan invective that he is credited with writing.
“He’s always been fixed on his legacy,” said Michael Kazin, a political historian at Georgetown University, noting Trump’s decades as a real-estate developer and businessman. “Even though he didn’t always run [his properties], he wanted to make sure his name was plastered on them, and he wanted to be in the newspapers as much as possible in New York.”
“He’s been focused on this since way before he ran for office,” the historian added.
A Trumpian approach to legacy
Most presidents seek to be remembered for landmark legislation, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Social Security or Lyndon Johnson’s Medicare and Medicaid programs, or for political movements, as with Ronald Reagan’s paradigm-shifting championing of free-market capitalism internationally and conservatism at home.
Trump “wants to be seen by posterity as someone who did things that no president ever did before — [it’s] completely unique in the annals of American politics,” said Kazin.
Even routine government functions receive grandiose descriptions from the president. Discussing military aircraft sales to allies, Trump said, “I have sold more Boeings than any human being on Earth. They gave me an award: salesman of the year.” Promoting a rural health care fund last week, he called a regulatory policy linking Medicaid prescription drug prices to those in other developed countries “the biggest revolution in the history of medicine in this country.”
But perhaps the most significant policy shifts in the Trump 2.0 era have occurred in foreign affairs, as he tests longstanding international alliances with both military and economic pressure. He has mused about invading neighboring countries and proposed annexing Canada as the 51st state. He now seeks to acquire Greenland, either by force or negotiation. Denmark, a NATO ally that oversees the territory, says Greenland is not for sale.
A sweeping tariff campaign has had ripple effects, pressuring businesses large and small, and pushing some consumer prices higher. Trump describes the duties as necessary to undo decades of unfair trade practices by other countries. Wall Street saw his response — the highest tariff rates since the 1930s — as too extreme. A pending Supreme Court decision could strike down the levies.
“Nobody understood tariffs until I came along; nobody other than President McKinley,” Trump said Friday, referring to the former president who died in 1901. “I’m the tariff king.”
The approach reflects what White House officials call the “Donroe Doctrine,” a nod to former President James Monroe’s declaration that the Western Hemisphere was off limits to interference from European powers. After U.S. forces captured and deposed autocratic Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump asserted that “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”
“The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot — by a real lot,” Trump added. Trump frequently claims he has ended eight wars, a misleading statement, though he’s frequently repeated it while suggesting he should receive the Nobel Peace Prize. On Thursday, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, the recipient of the 2025 prize, gave Trump her medal. “She said, ‘You know, you’ve ended eight wars, and nobody deserves this prize more than — in history — than you do,’” Trump recalled to reporters. “I thought it was a very nice gesture.” By Trump’s own account, winning November’s elections is critical — less because of his policy agenda than because he fears Democrats with a House majority would pursue another impeachment proceeding against him. But he has shown limited interest in addressing complex domestic issues like rising health care costs, preferring that congressional Republicans fall in line with his wishes — or else face his wrath in a Truth Social post. “Trump’s not worried about the Republican Party after him,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian and professor at Rice University. “He wants it to be ‘win, win, win, win’ while he’s in the White House, and these other Republicans can be collateral damage.” Democrats are determined to run on affordability issues in the midterms, and healthcare is expected to sit at the top of their target list. Trump’s long-awaited healthcare proposal was released last week and focused largely on direct payments to Americans. It comes months after a bitter fight on Capitol Hill over the end of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that will cause more than 20 million Americans to see their premiums rise. Any comprehensive federal healthcare plan would need Democratic votes to pass, though none of the pain-staking work of compromise talks have started on an Affordable Care Act replacement that Trump has long advocated for. Trump looks for opportunities “where his leadership can look the best, and on the global front, that is where the action has taken place,” said Rina Shah, a geopolitical strategist. “He understands that globally is where he can win. Domestically, it is far tougher.” Responding to criticism from former Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., that he should be hyper-focused on domestic matters, Trump told reporters in November, “I have to view the presidency as a worldwide situation, not locally.” Labor market data continues to show difficulty for job seekers. A December inflation report showed prices excluding food and energy rising at the slowest rate since 2021. Still, public perceptions of the economy have yet to improve. “There is time to fix it, but you’ve got to start that work,” Heye said. “When you’re focused on Greenland or Venezuela or the Panama Canal or renaming things after yourself, or going to every major sporting event that you can, that doesn’t fix the problem.”
Akayla Gardner is a White House correspondent for MS NOW. Recommended
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