The first foreign tour had just shown the world a very different kind of American president. Trump had stood with Saudi leaders in Riyadh, visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem, met Pope Francis at the Vatican, and confronted NATO allies in Brussels. Whether people saw strength, disruption, or chaos depended on where they stood politically, but one thing was obvious. This was not going to be a normal presidency.

Back home, Washington was already in full combat mode. The Russia investigation was gaining momentum, the media cycle was relentless, and leaks were constant. Every speech, meeting, handshake, and facial expression seemed to become a national event.

While the public was focused on the political fight in front of them, the federal government updated Federal Continuity Directive 2.

This was not the same as Federal Continuity Directive 1, which laid out the broader continuity framework earlier that year. FCD 1 was the structure. FCD 2 was more specific. It dealt with the internal machinery of government and forced agencies to identify which functions absolutely had to continue if normal operations were interrupted.

Every federal agency does countless things, but not all of them are essential in a crisis. FCD 2 required agencies to sort through that and determine which functions could not stop, what those functions depended on, who had authority to carry them out, and how they would continue if the usual people, places, systems, or communications were unavailable.

In other words, this was not just a reminder to “be prepared.” It was a directive to define what survival looked like inside the federal government.

It’s really interesting when you think about it now.

In June 2017, the country was not living through anything that looked like a shutdown. Federal offices were open, daily life was moving along, and Americans were not yet arguing over essential workers, remote government, emergency declarations, closed buildings, or which parts of society had to keep moving while everything else stopped.

But the government was already asking those kinds of questions internally.

A few years later, those same questions would hit a lot harder.

That does not mean FCD 2 predicted COVID. But it does raise a more interesting question. Was the government simply doing responsible continuity planning, or was there a broader sense inside the system that disruption was no longer hypothetical?

Given the level of outrage after Trump’s election, the protests, the resistance language, and the nonstop warnings about what his presidency might mean, it would not have been unreasonable for people inside government to think disruption was possible.

While the country watched the daily political drama, the machinery underneath was being tightened.

And a few years later, when normal operations actually did break down, those questions suddenly looked a lot more relevant.

Next: October 2017 - Las Vegas

About the Author

Jennifer Bash didn’t set out to become a political commentator but once she started paying attention, she didn’t stop. After voting for the first time later in life, politics went from background noise to a full-time curiosity, and eventually, a calling. Today, she breaks down news and policy with clarity, skepticism, and zero patience for performative outrage. Her goal isn’t to tell you what to think, but to make sure you actually understand what’s happening.

Learn more about Reasonable Arguments

By May of 2017, the political temperature in the United …

Read more

The Capitol steps, the flags, the oath, and the familiar moment when one president leaves as another steps forward.

No matter how messy the election was, ina…

Read more

A new administration was preparing to take office. Confirmation hearings filled the news cycle. Protests were forming and the transfer of power was under a micr…

Read more

Donald Trump had won. The transition team was forming and Washington was adjusting to a result many hadn’t expected.

And during that transition period, Congress…

Read more

We all remember the escalator.

But before …

Read more

I want to walk through events in the order they actually happened.

Just the timeline.

Because when you slow down and look at structure instead of headlines, things start to look …

Read more