The guest was Yural Levin of the American Enterprise Institute, so it’s pretty wonky (duh it’s Ezra Klein) but kept me engaged even though I can lose patience with wonk. It was very interesting to hear how a conservative who is in favor of many of Trump’s policies views the activation of those policies. He points out that the first few weeks of a new presidential term are always surreal and unsettling, and then some equilibrium begins to establish itself. That said, he doesn’t see the creative wielding of executive power as a realistic path for accomplishing policy objectives and thinks Trump will ultimately be thwarted by the lack of legislative engagement and cooperation. They get into some interesting discussion about the merits of the constitutional order (separation of powers and the need for consensus building to achieve objectives). I found the whole conversation to be informative and even somewhat reassuring.