COMMENTARY: Trump’s promise and the chaos ahead

As I write this, the federal government is on the verge of a shutdown.

But it doesn’t really matter when you are reading this. The government will either shut down or not.

The lesson is what the future holds. Think of the actions of the last couple of days as a sneak peek trailer for a big summer blockbuster that will have a plot full of twists and turns, followed by a cliffhanger ending.

Trump 2.0 wants to accomplish a lot of great things. The Department of Government Efficiency has some promising goals that will have bipartisan support, while other goals are little more than red meat to the base.

Let’s hope it focuses on structural changes that will bring efficiency and effectiveness to government operations.

Perhaps a new procurement and acquisition culture will develop that not only fosters more competition, but also gives contracting officers and program managers the support they need to take risks and try new things.

But Trump 2.0 also comes with unpredictable elements that we’ve been witnessing in recent days.

Right after the November election, I spoke with a former official from the first Trump administration. She named a few things to keep in mind.

As clichéd as it is, we all need to expect the unexpected.

This former official said people working under Donald Trump in the White House and political appointees at the agencies need to be prepared for pet projects and initiatives that will need a quick turnaround.

Contractors need to be ready to act and react. That’s a given.

But as this battle over a continuing resolution illustrates, even the best laid plans can implode on a whim. We need to prepare for that too.

Trump himself tends to react in what can be described as a knee-jerk fashion. Bold declarations launched at 3 a.m. via his Truth Social platform are a regular order of business.

It can be entertaining and sometimes very effective. He likes to keep allies and opponents alike off balance.

Republican leaders hammered out a continuing that would extend spending into March. Hanging off this bill were a number of new spending measures including money for disaster aid.

That was the only way House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) could get enough votes to support the bill.

People were resting easy. Then Elon Musk, the co-chair of DOGE, raised objections and urged Republicans to vote against it. Then President Trump weighed in and poof, the bipartisan agreement was dead.

A second bill, which Trump and Musk supported, died after 38 Republicans voted against it.

Bill number three is in the works as of this article's publication.

It does not matter what’s in these bills, whether they suspend the debt limit or increase disaster aid.

What matters is that Trump and his close ally Musk will not hesitate to blow things up if they don’t like them.

Those actions are within his rights and power as president. But Trump seems to not have an appreciation that the incoming GOP majority is so tight that nothing will pass without some bipartisan support.

GOP leaders will have to negotiate and compromise with Democrats.

Trump’s embrace of a zero-sum game philosophy means that the only way for him to win is to make sure the other side loses. If the other side wins, that means he has lost.

With that mentality, we’ll see more of these last-minute objections and the proverbial monkey wrench thrown into the works.

Be prepared. This is just the beginning.