Expect more of the same from the 45th president

President Trump has been remarkably consistent in pursuing the agenda he laid out on the campaign trail: strong borders, good schools, great high- paying jobs, fair trade deals, rebuilding the depleted military, reining in bloated government, and repealing and replacing Obamacare.

His actions in office are directly related: instituting a federal hiring freeze, directing that two federal regulations be cut for every new one, approving the Dakota Access and Keystone pipelines and mandating that the pipe used in them be made in America, ordering construction of the border wall with Mexico, killing the Trans- Pacific Partnership deal, undermining Obamacare, restricting lobbying by former federal officials, and attempting to temporarily ban refugees from select conflict zones.

The Trump White House has faced its share of challenges in getting things up and running, such as the departure of national security adviser Michael Flynn and the Democratic- led slow- rolling of the confirmation process. But the news media are making much ado about what is just the rough and tumble of putting a new administration in place.

Eight years ago, the buzz was about former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson having to bow out from becoming President Obama’s Commerce secretary because of a federal pay- to- play investigation involving Richardson’s political action committee. Former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle de- clined a nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services due to tax problems. Taxes also cost Nancy Killefer her prospective job as White House chief performance officer. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and trade representative Ron Kirk were forced publicly to explain their tax irregularities, too, but were later confirmed. Obama’s first- month appointment foibles were so noteworthy that The Washington Post assembled a roundtable of eight respected political analysts to discuss what was going wrong.

Recall also that when President Clinton nominated Janet Reno for attorney general in 1993, she was his third choice — Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood had been knocked out by the Nannygate controversy.

Polls show divergent results on whether the public approves of the Trump administration’s course. The polls are not as important as the fact that Trump does not care what they say. If he fretted about polling, he never would have been elected in the first place. Trump is not the kind of needy, approval- driven president who even feels it necessary to consult public opinion when naming his dog, as Clinton did.

It is easy to predict what the Trump White House will do during the rest of its first 100 days. Simply look at what the president has promised. You can bet he will try to deliver. And this is what annoys his critics most.