Confident, organised, still freewheeling: Trump 2.0 has learned from past

On Saturday night, US President Donald Trump flew from Las Vegas to Miami, in his first cross-country whirlwind trip since returning to office. He spoke to a group of reporters gathered at the back of Air Force One. On the plane's television screens, Fox News replaced CNN, playing on a loop. The president, fresh off a week of upending the US government and tearing up immigration policy, appeared confident.

"The work we've done, and the amount of work that's been done, has been an A+," he said in response to a question from the BBC. "People are saying it's the most successful first week that any president can recall." In a 20-minute conversation with reporters, Trump confirmed he had purged several independent watchdogs from government agencies overnight. Additionally, the president said he thought the US would "acquire Greenland" as its own territory; he called on Egypt and Jordan to take more Palestinians; and he said he had a "very good relationship" with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, despite "him being very liberal."

It was a rare impromptu question-and-answer session, seldom seen during Joe Biden's tenure, and the latest sign of a seismic shift in Washington and US politics just six days after Trump's return to the presidency. In the Oval Office, the "Diet Coke button," which could be used to order the president a drink at any time, is back, installed in an ornate wooden box. Busts of British wartime leader Winston Churchill, a rug used by Ronald Reagan, and a portrait of seventh president Andrew Jackson are also back in their places. But the changes in Washington go far beyond these symbols of presidential power.

From signing a series of executive orders with a black Sharpie to holding informal meetings with the media in the Oval Office, Trump's return to the White House has, in a matter of days, all but erased the signature achievements of his predecessor, leaving many with the feeling that he had never left. The history of the 2021 Capitol riot is being rewritten, an event that once led to Trump's political isolation after leaving office: the president has pardoned more than 1,500 supporters charged in connection with the violence that day, one of his boldest moves this week. He has also renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, declared the US recognizes only two genders, pulled out of the Paris climate accord, frozen billions in US foreign aid programs, and threatened global business elites at Davos with billions of dollars in tariffs unless they manufacture their products in the US.

The stack of leather-bound executive orders piled high on the Resolute Desk illustrates a different political landscape in the era of Trump 2.0 than it did four years ago – one that has produced a more emboldened commander-in-chief. When Trump first met Barack Obama after winning the election in 2016, he seemed in awe of the office he was about to inherit. No longer a Washington outsider, and buoyed by a declarative election victory that saw him sweep every swing state and become the first Republican to win the popular vote in 20 years, Trump has made it clear in his early days back in the White House how he plans to wield executive power to reshape the country. The advisers who once cautioned the president to move slowly and respect political norms during his first term are long gone. The second Trump administration is filled with loyalists who never betrayed him, while the lower ranks are filled by younger aides who know no Republican party without Trump as its leader.

Moreover, his party has a firm grip on Congress, at least for the next two years. On his first day back in office, Trump signed a series of executive orders that made clear his desire to overhaul the status quo in Washington and erase the work of his predecessor. The number far exceeded that of any previous president: Biden signed nine in 2021, while Trump signed 26, nearly three times as many. "This was supposed to be a grace day for the country to heal from partisan divisions or a bitter election," said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley of Rice University. Instead, Trump's first day represented "the biggest punch he could give to his adversaries." The orders also offered a glimpse into the president's state of mind.

Mr. Brinkley compared Trump's move to rename the Gulf of Mexico to one by Franklin Roosevelt nearly 90 years ago: after defeating Herbert Hoover, Roosevelt named the newly constructed dam on the Colorado River the Boulder Dam instead of the Hoover Dam, as it had been previously known, to deny his rival the honor. "It takes a great deal of hubris and a sense of fearlessness," he said of both presidents. Mr. Brinkley said that Trump's confidence stems in part from his having vanquished his political opponents, escaped any punitive measures from his numerous legal battles, and even dodged an assassin's bullet. A second term also gives Trump, who was convicted last year in New York of felony crimes, an opportunity to reshape his legacy.

The president has cast himself as a victim of an overzealous judiciary and political enemies. On day one, he signed an order directing his attorney general to investigate the actions of federal agencies under the previous administration, including the Justice Department's prosecution of those involved in the Capitol riot. Mr. Brinkley said Trump wants his name to "shine forever" - "He's already achieved that," the historian continued. "He's a force of nature, he defies the laws of political gravity." Former administration officials said that the flurry of executive orders and actions in Trump's first week shows that his team is much better prepared than they were when they first took office in January 2017.

"It's more organized, it's more targeted, and it's more issue-driven," said Lawrence Muir, a former official at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Mr. Muir, who was responsible for hiring government personnel on the Trump transition team in 2016, told the BBC that he was "basically abandoned by the incoming White House" at the time. "They didn't have a good idea of what they should be producing, or how to produce it," he said. "[Trump] is much better this time at what he's producing, producing it efficiently, and knowing how to execute it through the agencies." Trump's first day in office in 2017 was overshadowed by a briefing in which then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer addressed reporters about the size of the crowd at the president's inauguration.

A week later, Trump controversially ordered a 90-day ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, and Libya – from entering the US, which caused chaos at airports. The order was blocked by federal courts and went through two versions before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. Trump allies say they believe the new administration appears to have learned from the public missteps of early 2017, as well as other legal battles the administration faced. "They've had four years in exile to prepare for a possible return," said Eric Ruark, director of research at NumbersUSA, an organization that advocates for stricter immigration controls. "Now they have a plan they can implement."

Mr. Muir said the Trump team is "moving quickly," particularly on its immigration agenda. On inauguration day alone, that included declaring a national emergency at the southern border, deploying troops, and swiftly arresting hundreds of undocumented immigrants with criminal histories. "Part of that is because [the new border czar] Tom Homan [was there in the first term], and knows what went wrong, what went right, and how to actually get things done now," he said. During Trump's first presidency, many of his attempts at reform failed to survive court challenges, often because of poor planning and execution by a politically novice team. This time, his team is more optimistic that they are laying the groundwork for more lasting change, and that they have a more friendly judiciary, filled with Trump-appointed judges.

But even if some of Trump's executive orders are eventually overturned, the president has already sent a signal to both his allies and his adversaries: the ubiquitous motto inside tech companies, "move fast and break things," now applies to the US government.