On Washington Week with The Atlantic, the conversation took an unexpected turn when liberal reporters—on PBS, no less—acknowledged something they’ve spent years denying: Donald Trump’s second term is proving far more effective than his first.
The segment began with moderator Jeffrey Goldberg joking about the “president on the roof” incident and plans for a new White House ballroom. But ABC’s Jonathan Karl quickly shifted to the bigger picture, claiming Trump’s first term “kind of came and went” and was “rather ephemeral” in its effects—this from the same press corps that treated every week of that term like a five-alarm fire. Now, Karl admitted, Trump is “making more radical changes to the country and to the White House that’ll live well beyond his presidency.”
THIS happened on PBS: liberal reporters admitted Trump is “way more effective” in the second term after being out of office for a term. pic.twitter.com/LyjriGQbRt
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) August 11, 2025
Tyler Pager of The New York Times explained why: in Trump’s first term, he faced internal resistance from staffers who tried to block his agenda. Now, he’s surrounded by loyalists who share his vision and are actively advancing it.
With allies like former OMB director Russ Vought spending the four years out of office drafting detailed policy blueprints, the administration hit the ground running in 2025, unleashing what Pager described as an “onslaught of executive orders” to check off priorities at unprecedented speed.
The irony here is thick. The same journalists who once insisted Trump was an existential threat to democracy now concede that his current term is both organized and impactful—an admission that undercuts their own “ineffective chaos” narrative from 2017–2021.
It also glosses over the fact that his first term delivered tangible results before the pandemic, from a booming economy to sweeping deregulation, judicial appointments, and tax reform—hardly “ephemeral” achievements.
Goldberg wrapped up by musing that it might be politically advantageous to serve a term, spend four years plotting a comeback, then return with a precision plan. Pager agreed, noting the advantage Trump gained by using his exile to prepare in detail for a second act.
For PBS, this was about as close as it gets to a reluctant tip of the hat. And coming from Goldberg—who’s made a career out of running anonymously sourced, unverified hit pieces on Trump—it’s more than a little telling.
