Chuck Todd: Trump is burning his political capital quickly

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

53% : This wasn't a decision voters made because they like Trump.
48% : The question is whether Trump and his GOP understand how they won.
43% : Does Trump understand it?
41% : There are a lot of potential land mines that Trump and the newly empowered GOP need to avoid.
41% : If the Republicans go from preaching against "DEI" to essentially imposing their own culture, forcing Bible study in public schools (see Oklahoma) or using gender stereotypes rather than pure merit to decide whether someone belongs on the front lines of combat, then they will be committing the same sin they accused coastal elites of committing, of "imposing their own culture" on a public that doesn't agree with their every belief.
40% : If the next six months at the Pentagon are more about which bathrooms folks can or can't use and who can or can't defend the country (and trust me, if you are watching Rep. Nancy Mace's latest spectacle about where one member of Congress goes to the bathroom, you can see how quickly Hegseth could try to start a culture war inside the Pentagon, as well, and all evidence indicates that's his mission), Trump is going to find himself taking more of the heat for his controversial pick of defense chief than his actual pick for the post.
34% : On some level, I accept the notion that one person's revenge is another person's "reform," so I'm sure Trump could argue he's appointing reformists.
32% : And make no mistake, after the tumult of Covid, the voters who decide elections simply wanted calm and stable -- not some massive ideological shift in philosophy, but a break from the instability that Trump was bringing.
31% : Right now, Trump's on the road to overreach, and he hasn't yet taken the oath.
30% : If the first thing out of the box in January is a mass deportation plan that looks as unstable and as erratic as the first round of appointments looks, not only will Trump not have a honeymoon, but he also might see his newly compliant, GOP-controlled Congress run for the hills -- if his approval rating bottoms out as badly as Biden's did before the end of his first year.
21% : Here's the political problem Trump is creating for himself:
19% : One thing Trump and the GOP are already misreading about his so-called mandate is that he was elected despite his personal unpopularity.
18% : And this is the very risk Trump has already invited by deciding to pick the most controversial firebrand one could find in some of these key positions.
17% : Either Trump is right and government was weaponized to stop him, or the government has been right, Trump is a unique threat, and he's trying to weaken the parts of government that could have the most credibility against him, namely the military and federal law enforcement.

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