The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: How Donald Trump is Reshaping America in Just 7 Weeks

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

With so much information—and misinformation—circulating, it's time to take a step back and assess the bigger picture of Trump’s impact in his first 7 weeks in office.   On today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson breaks down Trump’s rapid push for fundamental, disruptive change—a counter-revolution reshaping America’s economic, energy, and foreign policy landscape.    “ Trump is in a race. He's in a race to enact fundamental, disruptive change, a counterrevolution, and it's going to be rough for a while, as he pointed out. But the things that he has already done are going to have, shortly or maybe even midterm, fundamental advantages for the United States”…   “if he's able to solve the Ukraine war, and if he is able to have a general peace in the Middle East, that will be the most substantial presidency—if he does nothing else—that we've seen in 50 years.”   Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How should we characterize the first seven weeks of the Trump administration because we get so much information and misinformation? So what are we going to make of all this? Trump is in a race. He's in a race to enact fundamental disruptive change, a counter-revolution. And it's going to be rough for a while, as he pointed out. But the things that he has already done are going to have fundamental advantages for the United States. The question is, can he fulfill this promise of... commitment by foreign entities of $4 trillion in investment to cut a trillion dollars within a year or two.

If he's able to solve the Ukraine war and if he is able to have a general peace in the Middle East, that will be the most substantial presidency if he does nothing else that we've seen in 50 years. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. How should we characterize the first seven weeks of the Trump administration because we get so much information and misinformation? Almost a day doesn't go by whether Wall Street Journal is predicting that we are headed for a recession, that our allies are furious at us, if the economy is on the brink. So what are we going to make of all this? I think it's time to take a deep breath and envision that first seven weeks is something like the following. Trump is in a race. He's in a race to enact fundamental disruptive change, a counter-revolution. And it's going to be rough for a while, as he pointed out. But the things that he has already done are going to have shortly, or maybe even midterm, fundamental advantages for the United States. The question is, can he message and can he explicate and explain what he's doing?

so people hang on because the eventual reward will be great. Now, what do I mean? We're talking about tariffs, tariffs, tariffs, but even the mere mention of tariffs for all of these countries that have not been reciprocal and have imposed tariffs on us in a way that we would never think of imposing on them, the idea that we might return to parity, it's had an enormous effect. Some $4 trillion of announced investment from the Europeans, from the Saudis, from the Chinese, from the Mexican government, from the Canadians even. That will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and that is in the process of working out. When Donald Trump entered office in 2017, we were only pumping about 9 million barrels. When he left, we were pumping 12 million. The Biden administration

immediately cut back, and then it decided before the midterms, hey, Americans like affordable oil, so then they continued the Trump plan and got up to 12, almost 13 million barrels. Already, in just seven weeks, we have increased the amount of oil produced per day in the United States by about a third of a million barrels. And we're on schedule to get up to about 14 million barrels by the beginning of the year. and that is coordinated with a increase in Middle East production as well. So we're going to see a moderation of energy prices, which may explain already why the inflation rate was not nearly as high as was predicted. At Desjardin, we speak business.

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We look at the border. It's amazing. We were told that the border problem was insolvable without comprehensive immigration reform. And there were 10,000 people swarming up per day. We don't even, nonchalantly, nobody talks about it anymore. But it's a revolutionary achievement. There's nobody going across the border illegally, or at least it's statistically insignificant. The big issue right now is the left is cherry-picking judges to prevent not the deportation of somebody who's working, who's never been arrested, who's been here for five or six years, but criminals and people who already have been ordered out of the country are pro-hamas, pro-terror supporters.

But the point I'm making is what we're doing now is phase two. The border is essentially solved as far as security in seven weeks. Now we're having a difficult task of trying to find out who these 12 million people were that Biden deliberately and with intent, malicious intent, allowed to come into the country. But the point I'm making is this is an incredible success. There's a final point that I want to make. We hear about Elon Musk is not authentically American. He's a NEPO baby.

And we hear Jasmine Crockett threatening his person, along with threatening Ted Cruz, all of this chaos and nihilism coming about Elon Musk and what he's doing. But what he's finding out almost every day in the Treasury, in the IRS, in the Department of Energy, in the intelligence communities, is a vast, unreported. siphoning off of hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, to favorable and mostly left-wing entities, both in abroad and here in the United States. And already he has cited areas where the cabinet officers can cut $200 billion. That's a fifth. Only after seven weeks, he's got a fifth of the way to go. He thinks he can cut a trillion dollars without touching entitlements.

I don't know if he can, but let me just sum up. If Donald Trump is able to fulfill this promise of commitment by foreign entities of $4 trillion in investment, $4 trillion, if he is able to cut a trillion dollars within a year or two, if he's able to solve the Ukraine war, and if he is able to have a general peace in the Middle East, that will be the most substantial presidency. if he does nothing else that we've seen in 50 years. So final word, everybody keep calm. There's events in process that if they are brought to fulfillment and fruition, this country will be a radically different and radically better place.

This is Victor Davis Hansen. Thank you from The Daily Signal. Thank you for watching today's podcast. And for more news like that, subscribe to the Daily Signal. Maybe you can check out my own website at victorhansson.com for podcast, lectures, ultra-series behind a paywall, but more importantly, just daily columns that are accessible and free to everyone. Thank you very much.