Donald Trump 2.0 January 2025

Isolationist? Nationalist? No, Trump Is Something Else Entirely.
By Jennifer Mittelstadt, professor of U.S. history at Rutgers University, studies the state, the military and political movements
Historians tend to slot conservatives into three major, sometimes overlapping, groups: anti-communists, defense hawks and neoconservative nation builders. Those proved awkward fits for Mr. Trump in his first term, gesturing toward but not capturing his essence.
(NYT) …Hidden in plain sight in the dusty papers and collections of everyday right-wing Americans lies a whole new way of thinking about Mr. Trump’s foreign policy. He is a “sovereigntist.”
… In 1919, a group of senators known as the “irreconcilables” blocked the United States from joining the League of Nations. They were backed by a grass-roots movement of patriotic organizations, veterans’ groups and Protestant fundamentalists who argued that the League aimed to usurp American governance. In their words, it would replace the Constitution with world government, diminish America’s unique history and culture, and allow uncivilized, nonwhite and non-Christian states to exert power over its citizens.
Their movement aimed to preserve not only America’s formal sovereignty in international relations, but also the traditional forms of rule to which its white, native-born leaders were accustomed.
Trump isn’t a narcissist – he’s a solipsist. And it means a few simple things
John R MacArthur
The president delights in being attacked, since it keeps the focus on him. The press should handle him like parents with an ornery child
(The Guardian) A narcissist, while deeply self-infatuated, nevertheless seeks the approval of others and will occasionally attempt seduction to get what he wants (I think of the French president, Emmanuel Macron). For Trump the solipsist, the only point of reference is himself, so he makes no attempt even at faking interest in other people, since he can’t really see them from his self-centered position.

Trump embraces role of demagogue on divine mission to reshape America
Sworn in as the 47th US president at the US Capitol in Washington, Trump delivered an inaugural address that cast himself as a holy warrior and made his “American carnage” speech from 2017 seem almost innocent.
“My life was saved for a reason,” he said, recalling how he survived an assassination attempt by inches at a campaign rally on a Pennsylvania field last year. “I was saved by God to make America great again … For American citizens, January 20, 2025 is liberation day.”
Trump’s Official Inaugural Portrait Hailed as ‘Supervillain Pic of the Year’
(Daily Beast) Donald Trump’s official inaugural portrait has been dubbed the “supervillain pic of the year,” and the MAGAverse is loving that it nods to his infamous mugshot.

Trump makes laughingstock of America with repeated embarrassments in early days of new term
Rachel Maddow looks at the myriad ways Donald Trump has not only humiliated himself with foolish statements ill-considered ideas, but also embarrassed the United States of America for electing a fool for president -29 January

7 February
‘In a real sense, US democracy has died’: how Trump is emulating Hungary’s Orbán
Trump has moved to gut the federal government, fire critics and reward allies – a path similar to ‘would-be dictators’ like Orbán, experts say

3 February
The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s power grab: a coup veiled by chaos
The US president is testing the limits of executive authority, sidelining Congress and enriching allies while destabilising the global economy
(Editorial) … His plan took shape last weekend when Mr Trump removed a top-ranking Treasury official who had been blocking his billionaire crony, Elon Musk, from accessing the federal payment system – exposing the sensitive personal data of millions of Americans, as well as details of public contractors who compete directly with Mr Musk’s businesses. The system disburses over $5tn annually, and Mr Musk and his allies, wrote analyst Nathan Tankus, are “clearly aiming to redesign” it to serve the Trumpian agenda – opening the door for the US president to seek retribution against his political opponents. …
Michelle Goldberg: Trump Is Running America the Way America Ran Iraq
…JD Vance compared his ambitions for a conservative takeover of America to U.S. policy in postwar Iraq. “We need like a de-Baathification program, but a de-wokeification program in the United States,” he said, referring to the campaign to root out members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party. If and when Donald Trump returned to the White House, Vance argued, he should “fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.”
Vance’s words were prophetic, because the first days of the second Trump term have a distinct Coalition Provisional Authority vibe. …

30-31 January
Trump is in it only for himself
Dana Milbank
The president’s ugly hijacking of a plane crash adds to a pattern emerging from his administration.
(WaPo) “In moments like this,” Trump said in the White House briefing room on the morning after Wednesday night’s crash at Reagan National Airport, “the differences between Americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us.”
In the next breath, he used the tragedy to pursue his usual political vendettas — against Democrats, against civil servants and against diversity programs.
No one yet knows what caused the crash, but Trump didn’t hesitate to blame what he said were Joe Biden’s and Barack Obama’s “mediocre” and “lower” standards for air traffic controllers. He blamed Biden’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, for offering nothing but “a good line of bulls—” as he oversaw the Federal Aviation Administration. And Trump blamed the FAA itself for deciding that “the work force was too White” — and pursuing diversity in hiring rather than “people that are competent.”
Was he grave, sombre, the consoler-in-chief? Are you kidding – this is Trump
David Smith
Hours after the Washington plane crash, the president’s desire to politicise tragedy was breathtaking in its audacity
(The Guardian) With aggression creeping into his voice, Trump pivoted to an all-out attack on his Democratic predecessors and blame the accident on policies of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The norm-busting desire to politicise tragedy was breathtaking in its audacity.
Trump blames predecessors, diversity programs for fatal air collision
Without evidence, the president told the nation that his predecessors, Democrats and diversity were to blame for the crash between an Army helicopter and American Airlines passenger jet near Reagan National Airport.
(WaPo) On Thursday, Trump said he consciously decided against a more measured approach. He said the absence of information from the preliminary investigation would not stop him from sharing his views.
“We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas,” he said. “And I think we’ll probably state those opinions now, because over the years I’ve watched as things like this happen and they say, ‘Well, we’re always investigating.’”
At turns, he raised the possibility of errors by air traffic control, managed by the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Army pilot, who was flying a routine training mission.

29 January
Trump Retreats From Fund Freeze Attempt After Uproar
(Bloomberg) The Trump administration retreated from its attempt to freeze trillions of dollars allocated by Congress, including grants, loans and financial assistance, after triggering a national uproar and a rap on the knuckles from a federal judge who partially blocked the potentially unconstitutional edict before it could take effect.
Prior to that, lawmakers fielded calls from concerned constituents, Democrats decried what they saw as the latest illegal power grab of the new administration and even some of President Donald Trump’s GOP allies expressed unease with the scale and suddenness of the moves.
The abrupt reversal—only two days after the freeze was first announced—quickly drew parallels to the chaotic policy rollouts that regularly unfolded during Trump’s first administration, something his aides have said wouldn’t happen this time around.
Amid the Chaos, Trump Has a Simple Message: He’s in Charge
The new president has moved with lightning speed to purge officials he deems disloyal and rid agencies of policies he considers liberal.
(NYT) When he took office last week, President Trump said he would measure his success in part by “the wars we never get into.” But he has eagerly waged a full-fledged assault on his own government.
In his first eight days in office, Mr. Trump mounted a lightning blitz against the federal government that has the nation’s capital in an uproar. He has moved quickly and aggressively to eliminate pockets of resistance in what he calls “the deep state” and put his own stamp on far-flung corners of the bureaucracy.
It has been a campaign of breathtaking scope and relentless velocity, one unlike any new president has tried in modern times. It has been a blend of personal and political as he seeks revenge against those who investigated him or his allies, while simultaneously demolishing the foundations of the modern liberal state and asserting more control than he or any of his predecessors had in the past.
Mr. Trump has purged perceived enemies from a range of agencies; begun to rid the government of diversity, environmental, gender and other “woke” policies that he objects to; sought to punish those who acted against his interests in the past; and fired independent inspectors general charged with guarding against potential corruption and abuse by his administration. His directive to temporarily freeze trillions of dollars of federal spending touched off a firestorm and prompted a judge to block him, for now.
How Donald Trump and Project 2025 previewed the federal grant freeze
(AP) — A White House order to freeze federal grants reflects a theory of presidential power that Donald Trump clearly endorsed during his 2024 campaign. The approach was further outlined in the Project 2025 governing treatise that candidate Trump furiously denied was a blueprint for his second administration.
… Trump has declared himself the final arbiter of government spending
In some ways, the president and his campaign went farther than Project 2025 in asserting presidential power over federal purse strings. In his Agenda 47, Trump endorsed “impoundment.” That legal theory holds that when lawmakers pass appropriations to fulfill their duties laid out in Article I of the Constitution, they simply set a spending ceiling, but not a floor.
The president, the logic goes, can simply decide not to spend money on anything he deems unnecessary, because Article II of the Constitution gives the president the role of executing the laws that Congress passes.

24 January
There Is No Resistance
The response to the January 6 pardons shows that the president faces no effective constraints from within his party.
By Jonathan Chait
… The most revealing statement on the pardons came from House Speaker Mike Johnson. “The president’s made his decision,” he said. “I don’t second-guess those.” Here, Johnson was stating overtly what most of his colleagues had only revealed tacitly: that he does not believe that his job permits him to criticize, let alone oppose, Trump’s actions.
This admission has profound implications. It shows that Trump faces no effective constraints from within his party. Given the Republican trifecta, this means he faces no effective opposition from within the elected branches of the federal government. Even if his allies personally believe that a line exists that the president cannot or will not cross, what matters is that if he does cross it, nothing will happen to him. This realization ought to shake their confidence that the next imagined red line will hold. Instead, they have declined to revise any of their deeper beliefs about Trump.
21 January
Trump gave pardons to hundreds of violent Jan. 6 rioters. Here’s what they did
(NPR) Throughout his 2024 campaign for president, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to give pardons to his supporters who had been criminally charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. But up until the moment he reentered the Oval Office on Monday night, his exact plans remained vague. Even his Vice President, JD Vance, appeared to be unaware of the new president’s plan as recently as Jan. 12.
In the end, Trump granted clemency to every defendant accused of committing crimes that day, including those convicted of brutal assaults on police officers.
More than 1,500 people who had been charged in connection with the attack, received a “full, complete and unconditional pardon.”
14 people — all of whom were linked to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, extremist groups that planned elements of the attack — received commutations. While those defendants’ felony convictions will stand, Trump cleared the path for their imminent release from prison. Meanwhile, in federal court in Washington, D.C., Trump’s new appointee at the Justice Department began filing motions to dismiss ongoing cases related to Jan. 6.

22 January
Trump’s Second Term Might Have Already Peaked
As far as policy accomplishments are concerned, it could very well turn out to be as underwhelming as the first.
By Jonathan Chait
(The Atlantic) His nominees are sailing through their confirmation hearings, including some who are underqualified and ideologically extreme. Titans of business and media are throwing themselves at his feet as supplicants. He has obliterated long-standing norms, unashamedly soliciting payoffs from corporations with business before the government. (The Wall Street Journal reports that Paramount, whose parent company needs Trump’s approval for a merger, is mulling a settlement of one of his groundless lawsuits.) Steps that even his allies once dismissed as unthinkable, such as freeing the most violent, cop-beating January 6 insurrectionists, have again reset the bar of normalcy.
…when it comes to getting away with self-dealing and abuses of power, he has mastered the system. But a politician and a party that are built for propaganda and quashing dissent generally lack the tools for effective governance. As far as policy accomplishments are concerned, the second Trump term could very well turn out to be as underwhelming as the first.
After being sworn in on Monday, he signed a slew of executive orders in a move that has been termed “shock and awe.”
Some are genuinely dangerous—above all, the mass pardon of about 1,500 January 6 defendants, which unambiguously signals that lawbreaking in the service of subverting elections in Trump’s favor will be tolerated. Others, including withdrawing from the World Health Organization and freezing offshore wind energy, will be consequential but perhaps not enduring—that which can be done by executive order can be undone by it.
What’s really striking is how many fall into the category of symbolic culture-war measures or vague declarations of intent. Meanwhile, Trump has already scaled back many of his most grandiose day-one promises from the campaign. Broker an end to the Ukraine war before taking office? He has “made no known serious effort to resolve the war since his election,” The New York Times reports. Ask again in a few months. Bring down grocery prices? Never mind.

21 January
Trump Set to Meet With Top Republicans as First-Day Orders Reverberate
A first-day blitz of executive orders signed by President Trump has led to widespread uncertainty, trepidation and defiance in the industries and communities affected by them.
Chicago neighborhoods were fearful of an immigration crackdown, which was leaving many migrants across the southern border in a state of despair. Trade policy experts were straining to understand the scope of a new federal agency he has called for, the External Revenue Service. And automakers were facing an assault on electric vehicles programs, in which they had invested billions of dollars with the Biden administration’s support.
The orders were already receiving fierce legal pushback. Attorneys general from 18 states on Tuesday sued the Trump administration to block an order that refuses to recognize the U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants as citizens, as required by the Constitution.
On the first full day of the second Trump administration, the president is set to meet with top Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader, to discuss the early priorities of his term, including legislation that would extend expiring tax cuts that Mr. Trump signed into law in 2017.

Trump plans to announce an $100 billion A.I. initiative.
President Trump on Tuesday is expected to announce a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle to create at least $100 billion in computing infrastructure to power artificial intelligence, according to two people familiar with the announcement.
The venture, called Stargate, adds to tech companies’ significant investments in U.S. data centers, huge buildings full of servers that provide computing power. It could eventually total as much as $500 billion over four years, said the people. The three companies plan to contribute funds to the venture, which will be open to other investors and start with a first data center in Texas.

20 January
Trump’s Return to Power Shows Dueling Quests for a Legacy and Revenge
Trump’s aides and allies are broadly united around his vision, but have been sorting into factions that channel his different core instincts.
(Bloomberg) Moments after he was sworn in as the 47th US president, Donald Trump gave a staid inaugural address in the Capitol rotunda filled with policy pronouncements on inflation, immigration and energy, along with a call for common sense in politics.
Barely an hour later, he was in entirely different form. From Emancipation Hall in a lower level of the building, he delivered an animated rant in which he decried a “rigged” 2020 election, called former US Speaker Nancy Pelosi “guilty as hell” and railed against former congresswoman Liz Cheney. He said his advisers had told him not to talk in his first address about the pardons Joe Biden had issued or the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters.
If the defining clash of the first Trump administration was between establishment figures and MAGA loyalists, the dueling speeches offered a glimpse at the central push-and-pull of his second: The new president’s desire to score policy victories that offer the tantalizing possibility of a Ronald Reagan-esque legacy, versus his thirst for retribution and vindication.
The Gilded Age of Trump Begins Now
His second inaugural address promised a “golden age,” but the ideas in it evoked the late 1800s more than any recent presidency.
By David A. Graham
(The Atlantic) The speech was saturated with 19th-century imperialism. Trump announced that he would order the name of America’s highest peak to be changed from Denali back to its old name, Mount McKinley, and he extolled the 25th president’s use of tariffs. (Left unmentioned was the fact that William McKinley was beloved, and bankrolled, by the plutocrats of his era, and twice defeated the populist William Jennings Bryan.) Trump also said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico “the Gulf of America,” and he promised to “pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars,” invoking the controversial slogan of expansionism. Picking up an idea he had voiced in recent weeks, he also vowed to seize the Panama Canal from Panama.
Trump Says ‘America’s Decline Is Over’ as He Returns to Office
(NYT) “The golden age of America begins right now,” Mr. Trump declared as he began a 29-minute Inaugural Address, shortly after he and Vice President JD Vance took their oaths in the Capitol Rotunda. He added: “My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all these many betrayals that have taken place and give people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom. From this moment on, America’s decline is over.”
Transcript: Donald Trump’s Second Inaugural Speech
In the first remarks of his second term, President Trump painted a grim portrait of the country while declaring that “the golden age of America begins right now.”
Trump’s 2025 Inaugural: From American Carnage to Golden Age
Tasha Kheiriddin
(GZERO media) “Nothing will stand in our way. The future is ours and our golden age has just begun.”
With those words, President Donald J. Trump concluded his 2025 inaugural address, promising an American renaissance. Invoking the doctrine of American exceptionalism, he declared that “We are going to win like never before” and pledged to be a unifier and peacemaker who would nonetheless put America First.
A shift in tone. The speech was a stark contrast to Trump’s inaugural address of 2017, where he painted a gloomy picture of “American carnage”: a nation riddled with crime, poverty, and economic decline. This time, while he heavily criticized the previous administration for its decisions, Trump adopted a more optimistic and forward-looking tone, emphasizing unity and national restoration – and even territorial expansion. Trump invoked the concept of Manifest Destiny, promising to plant the American flag on Mars, as well as rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and retake the Panama Canal.
Factchecking Trump’s inauguration speech, from inflation to healthcare
Following up on key claims made by 47th US president during his day one address
Trump claims on the Panama Canal
The claim: Trump pledged to take back the Panama Canal, while repeating a number of false claims including that 38,000 Americans died during the building of the canal. He also claimed that “China is operating” the canal.
Trump claims inflation caused by ‘massive overspending’
The claim: Trump claimed that the US experienced “record inflation” that he said was caused by “massive overspending and escalating energy prices”.
The facts: US inflation peaked at a four-decade high in summer 2022, when it was 9.1%. But the highest inflation rate in the country was 23.7% in June 1920.
Trump claims the US can’t respond to climate emergencies
The facts: Trump has repeatedly spread incorrect claims about both of these events. He and other fellow Republicans boosted false claims about the recovery effort in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, including that the US government can influence the weather to theories that crucial aid was being withheld, prompting some government officials to warn of threats to federal emergency workers.
Trump, during the wildfires in California, called on the Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, to “release the water” from northern parts of the state, despite the state’s water experts saying water supply was not an issue, but rather generators to pump the water.
Election results don’t support Trump’s claims of a landslide and mandate
(WaPo) The president-elect’s popular-vote win was narrow, and his electoral victory was modest by historical standards
Trump inauguration: Zuckerberg, Bezos and Musk seated in front of cabinet picks
Stagecraft comes under fire from Trump critics as sign of oligarchy and the powerful influence they wield
(The Guardian) In comments over the weekend, Steve Bannon, the former Trump White House chief strategist, described the tech titans gathering at Monday’s inauguration as “supplicants” to Donald Trump making “an official surrender”, akin to the Japanese surrender to allied forces on the deck of the USS Missouri in September 1945.
The comments came as former president Biden warned that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy” and of “the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy people”.

17 January
Coldest inauguration forecast since Reagan’s in 1985 forces Trump’s indoors
Wind chills are expected to be in the single digits on Monday.
The Capitol grapples with Trump’s last-minute inauguration switch
Employees only have 72 hours to move the inauguration setup indoors — and lawmaker offices have to tell constituents they’ll no longer be able to attend.
Donald Trump won’t be crowing about crowd size at his second inauguration. Barely more than 2,000 people will pack into the Capitol Rotunda for a cold-weather inaugural ceremony backup plan not seen since Ronald Reagan.
Trump’s Inauguration schedule is out
The four days of activities include a MAGA rally, a fireworks display and three inaugural balls.

Trump Begins Selling New Crypto Token, Raising Ethical Concerns
The president-elect and his family have a direct and potentially lucrative stake in the sale of a cryptocurrency product that surged in value in the hours after going on sale, days before his inauguration.
He is calling the token $Trump, selling it with the slogan, “Join the Trump Community. This is History in the Making!”
The venture was organized by CIC Digital LLC, an affiliate of the Trump Organization, which already has been selling an array of other kinds of merchandise like Trump-branded sneakers, fragrances and even digital trading cards.

Trump’s planning a flood of immigration executive orders on Day 1
The president-elect will aggressively crack down on the border, with a slow start to his mass deportations agenda.

For Those Deemed Trump’s Enemies, a Time of Anxiety and Fear
Donald Trump is returning to the White House vowing to seek retribution. Those in his sights are worried both about him — and his supporters.
As Donald J. Trump returns to office, the critics, prosecutors and perceived enemies who sought to hold him accountable and banish him from American political life are now facing, with considerable trepidation, a president who is assuming power having vowed to exact vengeance.
Mr. Trump has promised to investigate and punish adversaries, especially those involved in his four prosecutions and the congressional investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Marco solo: Trump could end Day 1 with a one-man Cabinet
Only Rubio appears to be on track for a Jan. 20 confirmation.

15 January
Why Greenland? And Canada, Mexico, Panama…
Timothy Snyder
“America First” has nothing to do with the interests of Americans facing a challenging world, and no one has even pretended very hard that it does. What “America First” means, in the 2020s as in the 1940s, is that America should be the first democracy to imitate leading foreign dictators. Trump has admired dictators and will admire dictators. This might be in his interest: again, in the basic sense that he needs to learn how to stay in power and die in bed. But it has nothing to do with the interests of Americans.