President Trump's return to the White House has seen several significant changes from his first term,

turning this into a consequential year for the presidency and for the country.

So to reflect on it all, we turn now to the analysis of Brooks and Atkins Store.

That's David Brooks of the New York Times and Kimberly Atkins store of the Boston Globe.

Jonathan Capehart is away. Welcome to you both. Thank you for being here.

David, one of the biggest questions at the starting of this year is what Trump 2.0 was going to

look like compared to the first version. And we have now seen a year of it, an incredibly

aggressive flexing of executive authority.

When you look back on this year, what really stands out to you?

Yeah, I tell two stories.

The first is that since 1945, the American establishment, if you want to put it that way,

has built a series of institutions, things like the Western Alliance, NATO, the Department of Justice, USAID,

and all of those things have been hollowed out over the last year. And so we've seen a great

decline in state capacity. You have to worry about if we're a nation in decline, because China is

investing in science, they're investing in technologies, they're kicking our butts.

And so you tell the decline, this has been a tragedy, an error of historic proportions.

The other story is that since 1945, the American establishment has lost touch with American workers.

And they've passed trade and immigration policies of immigration

workers didn't like. They've, frankly, in the cultural institutions, the media, the universities.

They've kicked working class and conservative voices out. And so a lot of people feel I'm

invisible to these people. And then... And ergo we get Trump. And so we get Trump. And so I think

both those stories are true. And so as much as we lament the horror of what's happened over the last year, it's much more horrible than I anticipated, for people like me, we have to ask stuff, what do we do to bring this about? And I think both those stories are true. What do you think? Yeah, two things really jumped out at me, and one is the erosion of the rule of law,

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