President Donald Trump is his own biggest cheerleader. He loves campaigning and he loves being a promoter — a promoter with multiple deals and multiple programs. He gave a lengthy, program-filled, blame-heavy, comeback-kid performance last Tuesday at the “Capitol Theater” in Washington, D.C.

It broke the record for the longest presidential speech to Congress. It was watched by about 36 million viewers. By contrast, MSNBC and CNN are lucky if they can get one million viewers for evening broadcasts.

Trump’s political base loved it. In many ways it was a MAGA (Make America Great Again) rally. It celebrated that the leader was back. It promised, in messianic terms, America was back, and America First and America Alone policies would triumph.

Trump has dazzled the nation with his executive orders and an exhaustive, activist presidential performance that has been impressive to many and chilling for his opponents.

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He claims his early term presidential leadership is second only to that of George Washington’s service. And he reminded Congress and the nation his near-death experience last July must mean God saved him precisely to Make America Great Again.

Whether you like President Trump or not, one must acknowledge the following:

• Donald Trump is an expert at political stagecraft.
• He is living up to his promise of increasing security at the nation’s borders with Mexico and Canada.
• He has bullied his way into the peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. Americans are far more pro-Ukrainian then they are anti-Russian and anti-Putin, but nearly everyone yearns for an end to that deadly war.
• He, with help from the controversial Elon Musk, is working to eliminate wasteful spending in the U.S. Government bureaucracy. Musk is the advisor novelist Ayn Rand and economist Milton Friedman yearned for.
• He has perfected former-president Ronald Reagan’s knack for celebrating American heroes, who have been invited to the U.S. House of Representatives gallery. His empathy for these heroes seems authentically all-American.
• Trump has public opinion on his side when he advocates against allowing transgendered men to play in women’s athletic contests.

Trump likes to put Democrats on the defensive. Democrats are leaderless. They did much better in the recent presidential election than Trump claims. They picked up additional seats in the House of Representatives, but not enough to claim a majority in the House.

But the Democrats are divided as to what Trump programs they should oppose, and Trump is energetic with new ideas, or at least new approaches.

Trump proudly boasts he is the Border Control Guy, the Peacemaker, the Anti-Regulation Guy, and the Anti-Woke Crusader. This has made him more popular than ever among his MAGA supporters. He is dominating center stage and loving it. And Democrats are awkwardly trying to regroup.

The Democrats can be an opposition party and even a “shadow government.” But they must become more than a pro-entitlement, pro-diversity, pro-NATO, and pro-climate control party. Yes, the Democrats can build on their issues, but they need additional fresh, more appealing, and unifying policy initiatives.

Trump, however, has also signaled several disquieting messages:

• His assertions Russia did not begin the war in Ukraine are just as bad as his inexcusable lies he won the 2020 presidential election.
• His verbal and policy assaults on and insults to Canada, Mexico and NATO countries do not make sense
• His anti-science personnel appointments and science research budget cuts are worrisome and wrongheaded.
• His tariff threats and confrontational trade policies have unsettled financial markets, upset investors, and muddled economic planning.
• His purges at the Department of Justice ,Department of Defense and the FBI, along with his pardoning of the Capitol Hill insurrectionists, are disturbing.
• His intensified hostility to the news media reinforces his earlier claims his electoral victory in 2024 will be a victory of retribution. That is not the Lincoln, Eisenhower, or Reagan way. And every time Trump launches epithets toward Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, he “looks small.”
• Trump got elected, at least in part, due to unusually high inflation. Inflation continues, and he did not adequately outline how things would improve – at least in the near term.

Elections have consequences. Elections such as in 1912, 1932 and 1980 brought about new leadership and new programs. New elections and new leadership prompt needed reexaminations of national priorities and national programs. That’s our system.

Trump’s first several weeks in his second term have witnessed an unprecedented reexamination of what the U.S. government is doing and what our priorities should be. He has enjoyed success in having almost all his nominations to appointed offices confirmed. And, in large part because he’s been there before, he has hit the ground running — perhaps even racing.

Much of what Trump is doing pleases many Americans. Our citizens want to be proud of their country. Americans want greater safety and less crime. American businesspeople yearn for less regulation. And many Americans welcome less preachiness about inclusion and diversity

Also, most Americans want a bigger Navy and are supportive of a bigger and better “Iron Dome” to prevent alien missiles of any kind landing in the United States. And most Americans support sending a manned mission to Mars.

Democrats need to come up with fresher ideas about economic growth and economic opportunities for all. Democrats also need to find a few convincing spokespersons. Democrats embarrassed themselves by disrespectful gestures at Trump’s speech.

It will be a long, slow uphill battle for the Democrats in the next couple of years.

Meanwhile, here are some hopes that many of us have:

• Let us pray for a constructive settlement in Ukraine.
• Let us pray there is an end to the Israeli-Hamas War, and that Arab nations can devise a long-term resolution to the hostility in the Middle East. The idea of a “Gaza-a-Lago” project was quickly rejected,, but some type of Marshall Plan for Gaza, led by Arab nations, makes sense.
• Let everyone help Syria gain stability and unity and develop a peaceful and prosperous nation.
• Let’s avoid mindless tariff wars that undermine “free trade” and prosperity.
• Let everyone stop exaggerating the faults of others and encourage bipartisan listening and healing. Trump lost in 2020. Democrats lost in 2024. Let’s get over it in both cases. Let’s start working together on doable projects and develop policies to lower inflation and create working-class jobs and opportunities.
• Let’s eliminate wasteful spending yet praise both civil servants and law enforcement officials engaging in enormously important public service.
• Let’s urge Congress and the court systems to be watchful of fake claims that, because an official is “saving the nation,” he can bend the law any way he wants. King George III and Richard Nixon tried that, and America responded appropriately in both cases.

President Trump is off to a bold beginning. He has excited his base while making the rest of the country nervous. He has plenty of programs, and a new idea every day. He is a master showman, but he is also abrasive, combative and too often a divider when what we need is a unifier.

Trump’s style of disparaging every rival diminishes him and his leadership capital. His administration is an experiment, just as the American government is an experiment. And an experiment can fail. Thank God for the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Bill of Rights, and for the history of debate, dissent and robust civic dialogue in our long history.

Tom Cronin and Bob Loevy are news columnists who write about Colorado and U.S. politics.