GEOFF BENNETT: After a relentless pace of his first week in office, President Trump is kicking off week two by signing a new slew of executive orders.

Here to help us keep tabs on the president's rapid policy rollout and more, we're joined by our Politics Monday duo.

That's Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

It's good to see you both, as always.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Good to see you.

GEOFF BENNETT: So Donald Trump is rapidly remaking the federal government as we know it.

He's expected to sign two more executive orders today.

One would prohibit transgender Americans from serving in the military.

The other would eliminate diversity programs in the armed forces.

Tam, how does the Trump administration view these initial days?

And what does all of this suggest about how the next, let's say, two years will go going into the midterm?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Yes.

And those are definitely two different questions.

President Trump in his remarks today to House Republicans, it was very clear that he was taking a victory lap.

You might as well put up the mission accomplished banner already, because he is talking about what he's done in the last week like he has already succeeded at everything he set out to do.

One thing is very clear from all of these executive actions.

These are largely things that he talked about in the campaign.

These are largely things that he talked about in his campaign speeches, which were very long and sometimes seemed like sidetracks, but even the sidetracks are getting executive actions at this point.

So he is following through on what he promised to do.

All of this is being done through executive action.

Yes, there are legal challenges.

There will be more legal challenges.

There will be some friction to his ability to get things done.

However, executive action is much easier.

All you need is a sharpie, much easier than getting Congress to do the big things that he wants Congress to be able to do.

And that is a much more challenging lift.

That is -- whether they are able to do that with these very narrow margins is really the question of what the next two years are like and then, after those two years, well, there's a whole new presidential campaign happening.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Amy, what about that?

Is this the Trump that Americans voted for.

That's what the White House says, that people shouldn't be surprised.

He said he was going to do all of this.

AMY WALTER: They shouldn't be surprised, absolutely.

GEOFF BENNETT: But there's been some polling that suggests that while Americans support the ends, they may not necessarily support all of the means.

AMY WALTER: Yes, this is what's so interesting, especially in these past, I don't know, let's call it the last 10 years or so, that the first few weeks of a president - - new president's administration, they do these executive orders, which are basically just undoing the last president's executive orders.

In fact, when I lined up, what did President Biden do in his first, say, 40 days in office or first weeks in office compared to where Trump is, you could literally just say one is just negating the other on building the wall, on support for the WHO, on support for transgender Americans and diversity and equity.

So it is literally, when one side wins, they believe that they have a mandate to basically null and void the last four years.

What we also know, though, is that instead of saying, well, what America voted for was they thought this side went way too much over here, so we're going to just bring it back to the center, they tend to then go way off on the other side, which gives the party out of power an opportunity to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you took this one step too far.

And that's what's going to be fascinating to watch for these next two years.

Tam's right that so much needs to get done substantively through the legislative process, but on issues like tariffs and immigration, we have only seen the beginnings of this.

We have absolutely no idea how this is going to play out over the next week, nonetheless these next couple of years.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Tam, this sort of 12-hour trade war between the U.S. and Colombia over the weekend, it fits this well-worn pattern where Donald Trump effectively solves the problem he helped create.

In this instance, it was sending military planes to Colombia with the with the migrants on them.

Pick apart that strategy, that approach for us and what it shows us.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes, this is a classic Trump dominance strategy, where he comes out and he gets in a fight and the fight is not necessarily one that needed to happen.

In this case, landing rights for aircraft are the kind of thing that are negotiated at a pretty low level in -- by diplomats, but that's boring.

And doing things quietly and diplomatically is not the way that Trump leads, particularly on the world stage.

He likes to go big.

He likes to make a lot of noise.

He likes the fight.

He wants the fight and he wants that fight to send a signal.

Colombia isn't just any country.

It's actually a U.S. ally and had received many flights of deportees before these that set off this kerfuffle.

And so this is sending a signal that even U.S. allies or maybe especially U.S. allies, there's a new sheriff in town.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, meantime, Democrats are trying to find their footing in the minority.

How are they balancing opposition to Trump's policies while trying to find ways to, in many ways, collaborate with him on the issues where Democrats feel exposed, like immigration?

AMY WALTER: Right.

So -- and they have.

On immigration, you have already seen a significant number of Democrats support legislation that went through the House and through the Senate.

That is being tougher on folks who are here illegally.

You're not hearing a unified voice, a unified outcry among Democrats about what is happening right now in many of these major cities with deportations.

It's unclear if that's going to continue as these deportations start to ramp up or if they start to bring U.S. citizens into that net.

I think the most important thing for Democrats to realize, though, is they're in the minority.

When you're out of power, you are out of power.

And the reality is they now can really just simply react to what is happening based on what Republicans are doing.

And their strategy going forward in many ways is going to be a reaction to what the Republican Party did.

Four years from now or three years from now or a year from now when the presidential race really begins, that's when the Democratic messaging really begins.

Who do Democrats want to be?

What do they want their message to be?

We don't have an opposition party leader in this country like they do in so many other countries.

It's really the nominee of the party who becomes that messenger.

And that is going to be a long time from now.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes, there's this DNC chair election coming up.

Let's just say that is not going to solve all of this for Democrats.

They have a lot to figure out and they are very much not speaking with one voice in Congress even.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tamara Keith and Amy Walter, thanks to you both.

Appreciate it.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.