Lainey Newman: Trump made sweeping promises to the American people. It’s time to see if he delivers.

Republicans have made their bed — now they have to sleep in it. The party has won a decisive victory this election cycle, taking control of the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court has a conservative supermajority made up of three justices appointed by Trump himself, and the federal appellate courts are largely conservative as well.

Trump will stack his administration with loyalists, not institutionalists, this time around. The institutionalists — like Vice President Mike Pence and four-star Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly — got in Trump’s way during his first term. Trump’s litmus test over the next two months will be whether candidates for the administration will pledge loyalty to him. At least until the 2026 midterm elections, Trump-aligned conservatives have complete control of all three branches of government. There are no holds barred.

Though liberals and Democrats may perceive this as a disaster, I’d like to present a different perspective.

Trump has promised to fix it all, save America and, of course, make the country great again. There is nothing in his way now. His transition team is getting ready to hit the ground running by “taking a blowtorch” to the regulatory state and preparing to deport millions of illegal immigrants. He has made sweeping, striking promises about improving the country with little to no specific plans. Time to see if he delivers.

Here are some of his promises, with the methods he or his team have put forward to accomplish them.

He promised to make America healthy again. Doing so may involve removing fluoride from water and giving vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. control of federal health agencies.

He promised to eliminate inflation and restore affordable prices. On the economy, he has proposed increasing corporate tax cuts, enacting mass tariffs and deporting illegal immigrants.

He promised to minimize the federal budget and reduce the debt. To do so, he has appointed Elon Musk head of the new Department of Government Efficiency and plans to slash as much federal regulation as possible. He promised to “cut your energy prices in half, 50%, within one year from Jan. 20.”

In actuality, tariffs, tax cuts and deportations will likely increase inflation dramatically. Eliminating vaccines and fluoride will not help children’s health. Upending the federal government and slashing government regulation will only hurt average Americans who depend on programs like Social Security and Medicare, not to mention those who rely on federal support when natural disasters strike. And if the Republicans repeal Obamacare, as they have wanted to do since it became law, millions will be left without insurance. The impact on people’s pocketbooks would be enormous.

In modern times, Republican presidents have been the beneficiaries of economies that Democrats have built or rebuilt. George W. Bush took over after Democrat Bill Clinton, whose presidency resulted in a surplus economy. Despite that, Bush’s tenure ended in the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. Trump’s first term followed the Obama administration’s efforts to rebuild the economy after the 2007-08 financial crisis and ended in the economic mess of the pandemic. Currently, the economy is on an upswing; unemployment is at record low levels and inflation (despite popular perception) has actually remained relatively muted. Jobs created by the CHIPS and Science Act and the Infrastructure Act are in the hundreds of thousands, especially in the South. Trump will inherit those benefits and claim credit for them. But if economists have any idea what they’re talking about, a strong economy will not withstand — or result from — Trump’s policies.

If Trump is able to accomplish his promises to “fix it all” and save America, the country will be better for it, and that would be great. But if he ultimately fails to, for instance, decrease prices of gas and groceries, generate good paying jobs, and create “absolutely immaculate” clean air and water, Democrats need to be ready to call him out for it.

Every single day that he doesn’t deliver on his promises, Democrats need to call attention to his failed leadership. That will be the hardest part of the next two years for Democrats, both because there is no clear leader of the party, and because Democrats are notoriously bad at communicating. It will fall on those up-and-coming leaders like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and current-Speaker Hakeem Jeffries to connect the negative effects of federal policy directly to Trump and the Republicans.

Why has Trump not solved rural broadband issues? Why has Trump not solved inflation? Why has Trump not solved rising costs of health care? Why did gas prices go up this month when Trump promised to decrease them? Why hasn’t my energy bill gone down? And so on — every single day.

The blessing and curse of the presidency is that all the country’s ills are attributed to the bully pulpit. Barely a single day went by these past four years that Trump did not comment about the failures of the Biden administration, despite, of course, its various successes. Well, Democrats should take a page out of his book. My prediction is there will be plenty of catastrophe to draw attention to.

The country has opted for the rogue option over what it knows. Kamala Harris was an institutionalist, a familiar political type; Americans have made clear that they are tired and done with that. The country wants to see if something else — other than stable, normal, boring, and sometimes frustrating politicians and systems of government — works better. Trump has full reign. It’s time to hold him accountable to what he has promised the American people.

Lainey Newman is the author of “Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party.” She is a lifelong resident of Pittsburgh.