Emboldened Trump returns with new allies, clear goals ahead of his inauguration

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump’s swearing-in on Jan 20 marks just the second time in the United States’ history that a president lost the office and managed to return to power – a comeback cementing his place within the Republican Party as an enduring, transformational figure rather than a one-term aberration.

Trump

won his second term

by building a new coalition that includes white working-class voters, blacks and Hispanics, and young men of all races and ethnicities. He expanded the once-staid GOP into a more diverse group driven by economic populism and a strong distrust of institutions.

He will try to harness that support to make sweeping changes to the immigration system, tax code, federal workforce, trade and energy. He will mobilise a Republican majority in both chambers of Congress, as well as a conservative-leaning Supreme Court – presenting him the lightest checks and balances he has ever experienced in office, even if unity within the Trump-led GOP is not always a given.

“I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country,” Trump will say in his inaugural address, according to excerpts released by his transition team.

“My message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor, and the vitality of history’s greatest civilisation.”  

Aides and allies affirm that Trump is returning more sure of what he wants to accomplish and how to do so.

Trump is expected to enter the White House on Jan 20 with a clearer set of goals and a more professionalised, cohesive West Wing staff. Allies say he is less likely to get bogged down in petty fights, at least for now, given he’s not under attack.

In fact, he is enjoying some of his highest approval ratings, with 55 per cent of Americans saying they liked the way he handled the presidential transition and a similar share expecting him to have a good second term, according to a CNN poll.

He will sign

a raft of day-one executive orders

that could include opening up federal lands to drilling and energy exploration, closing down the US southern border and mandating federal workers to return to the office.

Trump riled up his supporters in a campaign-style rally in Washington on Jan 19 when he made specific promises to take actions to target undocumented migrants and suggested that he has plans to offer clemency to some involved with the Jan 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.

The honeymoon with voters, business leaders, lobbyists and lawmakers is unlikely to last four years.

For now, though, the desire to get in Trump’s good graces will be on prominent display at the inauguration when several top tech leaders and CEOs – including Mr Tim Cook, Mr Mark Zuckerberg, Mr Elon Musk and Mr Jeff Bezos – are expected to join him at the Capitol. Mr Chew Shou Zi, the Singaporean CEO of Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, is also set to attend.

TikTok, immersed in acute political peril after a US national security law forced it go dark for some users over the weekend of Jan 18 and 19, could be one of the first beneficiaries of Trump’s actions.

He pledged that within hours of taking the oath of office he

would delay the law going into effect

and vowed to cut a deal that would involve partial US ownership of the app, which would ensure its continued operation.

Trump’s swearing-in and address is just part of of the multiday inaugural celebration, which includes a visit to Arlington National Cemetery, a dinner for donors at the National Building Museum, tea at the White House and a black-tie ball on the evening of Jan 20 at Washington’s Union Station.

The Trump team opted to move the morning inauguration ceremony indoors into the Capitol, since the weather forecast for Washington is extreme cold. Trump will similarly hold a viewing party for the ceremony, as well inaugural parade at the Capital One Arena, where he has said he will visit after he is sworn into office. Mr Ronald Reagan also moved his inaugural ceremony inside in 1985 due to cold weather.

Underneath the glamorous festivities and the Trump team’s renewed optimism are internal problems that plagued his first term, as well as external challenges inherited from his predecessor.

His aides and allies have already

shown deep divisions on policy issues,

like whether to support H-1B visas for high-skilled workers, how high to tariff allies and adversaries, and the timing and sequencing of legislative priorities.

Trump’s expanded coalition also has meant a clash of big personalities, with onetime campaign chief Steve Bannon threatening Musk over the latter’s tech-friendly stances that have rankled the Maga (Make America Great Again) faithful. 

One fight that Trump has tried to mediate before entering office: whether to smash immigration, energy and tax policy into one massive Bill, regardless of the price tag, or to pursue separate bills.

The details matter, having already exposed fault lines among Republicans, with more to come. The party’s narrow majority in the House leaves them little room for error as they try to pass sweeping Bills before the midterm elections, when control of Congress could shift again. How the economy performs under Trump will be a key factor in how voters evaluate his tenure, just as it was critical to his election. 

Every presidency also experiences unforeseen crises, particularly beyond US borders.

Trump confronts an international agenda already stacked with geopolitical risk:

a fragile ceasefire

just forged in a still-boiling Middle East; a three-year-old war in Ukraine that he has promised to resolve; and an ongoing, complex showdown with China, the world’s No.2 economy, that he has pledged to navigate differently than Mr Joe Biden.

The Trump team, brimming with confidence, is riding off a banner year in which their boss trounced Republican primary rivals,

survived an assassination attempt,

shook off 34 felony convictions and won a race that featured two different Democratic challengers.

As the only convicted felon ever elected president, Trump returns to the Capitol, where his supporters violently and unsuccessfully tried to overturn his 2020 election loss, to enjoy the pomp and circumstance of another inauguration.

Few would have bet on that outcome when he left Washington during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic and with the Republican Party turned against him.

But Trump is back and much more interested in governing this time, allies and aides say, bolstered by a party he essentially owns. BLOOMBERG