Longtime political strategist Mark McKinnon asserted on CNN on Christmas morning that Donald Trump will have to hit the ground running after being sworn in, with only a brief window before he faces insurmountable challenges.
Speaking with host Kasie Hunt, McKinnon, who has worked with both Democrats and Republicans, noted that the president-elect has slim majorities in both chambers of Congress, and that regardless of what Trump wants, GOP lawmakers will have to start thinking about their 2026 reelection prospects.
“I covered the entire first Trump administration from Capitol Hill and the defining word of that period of time was chaos, right, for four straight years,” Hunt told her guest during the interview.
“You’d think things would be going one way, and then there’d be a tweet or a statement that blew everything up, right? Is it the kind of emotion you expect to have when you return to Washington, or do you believe we will see a different manner of doing things?
“Well, I think that Trump and the Republican Party recognize how slim that majority is in the House, and therefore they’re going to move on that mandate like lightning in the first year, because that’s about all the time that they’ve got,” replies McKinnon.
“It’s almost certain that it’s going to swing back and Democrats will at least take the House back in two years.”
“I mean, voters are just cranky these days and basically what they want every two years is to change no matter who’s there,” according to him.
“So, I believe Trump and Republicans know this. I believe we will see, you know, a first, you know, 90 days, 100 days, and first year of this Republican administration really trying to get as much done as they can, because they know the window is going to close very fast.”