Do you feel like “sunlight is pouring over the entire world?”

It probably depends on whether you voted for the man who offered those sentiments about his own reascendance to the presidency this week. That, perhaps, or your personal pharmaceutical regime.

If the glow you’re feeling is an all-natural high, it may be because you believe, as President Trump does, that with his return, you have been freed from oppression: “For American citizens, Jan. 20, 2025, is Liberation Day,” the returning president has said.

If you didn’t vote for Trump, however, you are unlikely to be feeling sun-drenched liberation.

You may instead be feeling nostalgic for former President Biden, or you may feel oppressed yourself. You may be thinking of how you will endure four years of Trump 2.0.

The next four years will probably not entirely reflect the bright sunshine envisioned by Republicans or the dark-night-of-the-soul Democrats fear. With few exceptions, the problems and opportunities that greet every president are not the ones they or the country expected.

Former President George W. Bush was elected to be a caretaker president of modest domestic aspirations, not commander in chief in a global war.

Trump was elected the first time to juice the economy and secure the border with Mexico, not manage the response to the worst public health crisis in a century.

For presidents, history tends........

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