Candidate Donald Trump promised changes while running for president for a second time. Now he's the person in charge, and keeping those promises.

Whether those changes will sit well with everyone is another story.

Professor Ken Manning, chair of the UMass Dartmouth Political Science Department, joined Townsquare Sunday to react to some of the news coming out of Washington.

"A lot of this is political theater. Executive orders are vaguely worded and sometimes have very little impact," Manning said. "But it's certainly sending a message that things are changing. Trump also likes to demonstrate that he's not bound by traditional checks and balances, so this is a way for Trump to throw his political weight around and delighting his base."

Manning said he was not surprised by Trump's decision to pardon all 1,600 people identified as taking part in the attempted insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

"Many people, including some Republicans, were appalled by the pardons," he said. "But the pardon power is one of the few powers that a president has that really is not constrained in a significant way, and there's no Republican at this point that's really going to cross this White House."

Manning called the pardons "a payoff to Trump's hard-right core of true believers, and that's all that Trump cares about."

Manning also predicted the appointments of Robert Kennedy Jr. as HHS Secretary and Kash Patel as head of the FBI will likely go through.

"It's very clear that among Republicans, there is no willingness to challenge President Trump," he said. "They will say terrible things about him off the record, but none of them are willing to cross Trump publicly. This is certainly a spinless Republican Party you are looking at in Washington today."

Manning also expects the Trump administration will be spending lots of time in courtrooms over the next few months and years, as organizations across the country challenge the president's executive orders.

If your organization would like to appear on Townsquare Sunday, please email the host at jim.phillips@townsquaremedia.com.

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