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Ground Game

Has Trump already made the biggest mistake of his presidency?

Donald Trump.NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

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For a moment there, weeks before he was sworn in, it appeared that Donald Trump was beginning to get something of a honeymoon. Capitol Hill lawmakers were following his lead, and so too were corporations.

At heart, political honeymoons do two things for leaders: Their political opponents briefly concede that voters selected the new person’s agenda and, with a fresh start, those new leaders are given a certain benefit of the doubt.

However, in the case of Trump, opposition groups and the popular election results themselves have called into question Trump’s mandate. And then, oddly, Trump himself thwarted his administration’s ability to get some benefit of the doubt when the new White House press secretary lied in his first press briefing Saturday night and then, hours later, one of his strategists suggested there was such a thing as “alternative facts.”

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The idea that the new administration may not be taken seriously could be a yuge problem politically.

Over the past two years Trump has rewritten a lot of the political rules. He has been able to do so because he has had the backing of a group of people from outside the system. As Trump works inside the system in Washington, he may not play the inside game -- as he promised. But removing his Trump card of being an authentic person might be the biggest mistake of his presidency. And we are only three days in.


James Pindell can be reached at james.pindell@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jamespindell, or subscribe to his Ground Game newsletter on politics: www.bostonglobe.com/groundgame.