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He gave all the people who made him what he is today precisely what they thought they wanted -- signing those tough executive orders: mass pardons for cop beaters, mass deportations and more. And Trump gave his faithful compelling made-for-TV moments they can long remember, of the day they saw him keeping his campaign promises, and answering reporters’ questions while he did his signing.

As presidential leadership theatrics go, Day One was boffo. And after Week One, it seemed President Trump 2.0 might be able to sell Americans anything he wants. At least until his "make America great again" faithful discover those campaign promises that sounded so fine may have ended up depriving their families of vital things they took for granted.

Which brings us to Week Two. Suddenly, things seemed much different. The president who had hit the ground running on Day One tried to reprise his performance. But his first powerful footstep landed firmly on an upturned rake. Bonk!

Trump’s Office of Management and Budget issued a two-page memo instructing federal departments and agencies to “temporarily pause� all financial assistance programs. It mentioned familiar chestnuts like foreign aid, but then it switched to Trump’s MAGA-garnish of raw politics: “DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.�

The memo was signed by OMB’s little-known acting director Matthew J. Vaeth. Official Washington’s instant reaction ran the gamut from agog to aghast. Trump’s departments and agencies didn’t understand what the mere two-page memo was telling them to do -- and not do. Freeze all aid? Well, not aid that is paid directly to ordinary people. So no freeze on Social Security and Medicare. But what about Medicaid, where money goes through the states to the people? Medicaid’s online portals stopped working. Money to states stopped. So 22 states instantly sued Trump’s government. Headlines called it “Bedlam … fear … confusion.�

OMB’s Vaeth rescinded his memo the next day. So what does that mean? White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt rushed to “end any confusion,� posting on X: “This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo … .� Huh?

Then came the tragic mid-air collision. An Army helicopter and an American Airlines plane plunged into the Potomac, reportedly killing all passengers. As divers were still retrieving victims, Trump came to the White House press room podium to lead the nation in grieving, as we saw his predecessors often do.

The president asked us all to pause for a moment of silence, out of respect to those who died and those who now grieve. “This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history,� our president said.

But we soon witnessed a presidential performance unlike anything history ever witnessed as Trump’s 46 predecessors led our nation through tragic times. Citing no substantiating evidence, Trump claimed the midair collision was due to decisions made by his two Democratic predecessors -- Joe Biden and Barack Obama -- and their Federal Aviation Agency that adopted their hiring policies of diversity, equity and inclusion. Never mind that investigators haven’t cited any wrongdoing by air traffic controllers.

Trump said he had changed Obama’s FAA hiring standards -- from “very mediocre� to “extraordinary." Then Trump said Biden’s FAA was “actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities and psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under diversity and inclusion hiring initiatives.�

A reporter asked how Trump could blame air traffic controllers before investigators cited a cause for the collision. “Because I have common sense,� Trump said. “For some jobs, we need the highest level of genius.�

Then, having led Americans through this day of grief, in the manner he thought best, Trump left the podium to get on with the rest of his job. And my press corps colleagues and I ended our second week of covering Trump’s second presidency, with a new sense of urgency about our jobs.

The presidency now seems destined to be far more challenging to cover than anything reporters have ever seen.