Except Trump was trying to remind federal employees who is the boss much more broadly than Reagan was as he stared down an illegal strike.

“We have informed the federal workforce that if they are working for the federal government, they must show up to the office on time and on schedule. … If they don’t agree by Feb. 6 to show up back to work in their office, they will be terminated,” Trump said, by way of ending liberal work-from-home policies that originated during the pandemic.

Coincidentally, Feb. 6 is Reagan’s birthday. And Trump’s statement was reminiscent of Reagan’s 1981 ultimatum to the striking air traffic controllers: “It is for this reason that I must tell those who failed to report for duty this morning they are in violation of the law and if they do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated. End of statement.”

Trump has made getting his arms around the federal bureaucracy as the executive branch’s duly elected leader a top priority of his second term. He has moved quickly and decisively since returning to office, trying to root out diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, progressive gender ideology, and federal grants to nongovernment organizations he deems hostile to his agenda.

But the bureaucracy is big enough to fight back. When the Air Force briefly removed a video about the Tuskegee Airmen from its training materials, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) and others blasted the move as “malicious compliance” with Trump’s anti-DEI orders — that is, attempts to undermine the president’s directives under the guise of obeying them.

When the Trump administration revoked a memo outlining its federal grant review, while leaving the underlying policy in place, Democratic lawmakers celebrated as if it were their first victory since losing last year’s presidential election. 

New White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed “dishonest media coverage” and a court injunction for creating “confusion on federal policy” related to the funds freeze.

But a military helicopter colliding with a commercial airliner at Ronald Reagan National Airport, sending both aircraft into the frigid Potomac River and killing everyone on board, highlighted the challenge for Trump. Both Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had just started their new jobs when the crash occurred.

The president has to show resolve in exercising his Article II constitutional powers over the executive branch while also effectively delivering federal services. That is not necessarily as easy as it may sound.

When Reagan followed through on his threat to fire the illegally striking federal air traffic controllers, it got the attention of public- and private-sector unions alike, as well as others who may have doubted him at home and abroad. But if he had buckled — or worse, been unable to safely keep planes in the sky — it would have been a political, and possibly human, catastrophe. 

Instead, Reagan was able to replace the striking workers with other qualified people and air traffic continued.

Trump already faced a similar challenge with his call for federal workers to return to the office or resign. The impact on staffing at various agencies would be unpredictable.

The Reagan Airport collision put additional pressure on Trump to deal with airway safety specifically. In both a White House press conference and a subsequent memorandum, Trump blamed “problematic and likely illegal decisions during the Obama and Biden Administrations that minimized merit and competence in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).”

Trump ordered officials “to take such corrective action as necessary to achieve uncompromised aviation safety, including the replacement of any individuals who do not meet qualification standards. This review shall include a systematic assessment of any deterioration in hiring standards and aviation safety standards and protocols during the Biden Administration.”

“All I’m talking about is competence,” he said in the Oval Office. “We have to have the most competent people in our country because we’re talking about lives.”

Democrats countered by pointing to unfilled federal vacancies related to air safety and Trump’s less-conventional nominees for some other positions.

Trump’s second inaugural address contained not just the promise to make the federal government less left-wing but also to make it work better. “That is why, each day, under our administration of American patriots, we will be working to meet every crisis with dignity and power and strength,” he said.

A little more than two weeks later, another crisis came.