NEW YORK (AP) — The marathon Q&A sessions are back, along with the cream Oval Office rug and the Diet Coke button on the Resolute Desk. So, too, are the late-night social media posts that ricochet across the globe, the barrage of executive orders and press conferences filled with falsehoods.
But in 10 days, Donald Trump has also frozen federal spending and hiring, offered buyouts to more than two million government workers, and ended federal diversity and transgender-rights efforts. He’s fired nearly two dozen independent inspectors general, rewritten American maps, pardoned Jan. 6 protesters who assaulted police, announced plans to detain migrants at Guantánamo Bay, and undone years of his predecessors' actions with the stroke of his Sharpie pen.
Trump 2.0 looks and sounds a lot like he did during his first go-around. But this time, the president is far more experienced and surrounded by a team that's spent years planning for its White House return, unleashing a fusillade of action that is testing the bounds of presidential power, sowing confusion and drawing fury from Democrats unsure how to stop him.
“He seems much more comfortable, almost relaxed in how he’s doing the job,” according to Sean Spicer, Trump’s first White House press secretary, who said Trump is showing a new “level of confidence," having spent four years in office.
“I think he has the people, the policies and the process down. He knows who can get his agenda done, who he wants to surround himself with, the policies he wants to advance, and the process to get that enacted," said Spicer, who now hosts a show on YouTube.
Trump no longer needs to worry about reelection. The Constitution bars a third term. He faces little resistance from a unified Republican Congress. The Supreme Court, a third of which he nominated, has ruled that he and future presidents have expansive immunity from legal consequences.
But beyond that, Trump has lived through a stunning four years, surviving a pair of assassination attempts, including one in which a would-be assassin's bullet grazed his ear. He was indicted four times, became the first former president to be convicted of a crime — and nonetheless was returned to the highest office in the land after being written off in the wake of his 2020 loss. The conviction resulted in no jail time, and the other cases are dismissed or on hold.
That has left Trump more emboldened than ever — and with a long to-do list. His frequent appearances — and the nonstop headlines they create — have been a dramatic departure from his predecessor, Joe Biden, who often faded from public view by his own staff's design. White House stenographers are even struggling to keep up.
Trump's first presidential trip, for instance, began with him surveying hurricane damage in North Carolina, where he threatened to get rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and said he wanted concessions from Democrat-led states in exchange for disaster assistance.
He later toured fire-ravaged Los Angeles, where he clashed with local officials on live television, making false assertions about water policies and minimizing concerns about hazardous waste — all while wearing a black version of his signature “MAGA” campaign hat.
“Trump 2.0 is amazing. He gives zero f—-, drops truth bombs, and it’s glorious to watch,” quipped Matt Rooney, a pro-Trump writer and radio host, marveling at one back-and-forth with a Democratic congressman.
The next day, Trump was in Las Vegas. After touting his plan to end taxes on tips, he made a surprise visit to the floor of the Circa Resort & Casino, where he was welcomed with loud cheers and a “USA!” chant. One man approaching a nearby roulette table bellowed, “Give me $47 on No. 47!”
Though his team said he was there to thank waiters and dealers, Trump appeared more interested in the gamblers. He gathered with the crowd around a craps table, where a game was already underway.
“Throw the dice,” he told the player, Alex Winnik, as he watched the action.
Aides to Trump's third campaign — many of whom now occupy the White House — had tried to cultivate such moments, hoping they might go viral on social media like his stop to make fries at a McDonald’s. Those moments helped Trump reach Americans who don’t typically watch the news or engage with traditional media sources.
The next day, Trump was playing host to lawmakers at the House Republicans’ annual policy retreat, held at his golf club in Doral, Florida.
Much of Trump's first term was consumed by backbiting and leaks from rival factions trying to push their own causes. Courts repeatedly halted his efforts, notably in his first days, when he tried to ban travelers from several majority-Muslim countries.
This time, his team, helmed by chief of staff Susie Wiles, appears in public as united and drama-free.
Trump aides and outside allies, including The Heritage Foundation and the America First Policy Institute, spent years crafting their own blueprints for a Trump return, drafting hundreds of executive orders and other actions in a bid to avoid the early failures of his first term, when chaos rained and slipshod orders were routinely blocked by the courts. Trump has plucked staff from those organizations to fill his Cabinet and White House.
“These guys are much more coordinated, organized and know how to execute,” said Spicer, who lasted six months as Trump’s first press secretary. “It’s a much more focused and disciplined team.”
Trump's team has so far backtracked on one major move, a memo pausing all federal grant funding for an ideological review. The White House rescinded the memo less than two days after it caused widespread confusion among organizations that rely on that funding.
Yet, as much as Trump has learned since his first term about how to wield power, he still struggles with tragedy.
As the nation reeled Thursday over the deadliest aviation disaster in a generation, Trump made his first appearance in the White House briefing room. He began with a moment of silence and a prayer for the victims in what he called “an hour of anguish for our nation.”
But his response quickly devolved as he tried to cast blame, claiming -- without evidence -- that diversity hiring had contributed to the midair collision, and pointing the finger at the helicopter’s pilot, air traffic control, Biden, and other Democrats, as he injected politics into tragedy.
“We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas," he said.
The episode was reminiscent of Trump’s widely criticized response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including his frequent appearances in the briefing room, which turned off voters ahead of the 2020 election, which he went on to lose.
Trump still has scores to settle.
After spending the last four years first in political exile and then in fight mode on the campaign trail, Trump is now making good on his promises and enacting the revenge he spent years seeking.
Within hours of being sworn in, he pardoned more than 1,500 people who were convicted or charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including many who attacked police as they tried to stop the certification of his 2020 election loss to Biden.
He has also moved to punish critics, revoking the security clearances of dozens of high-level former government officials. He stripped protective security details from his former national security adviser John Bolton and others who had a role in planning the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
That drew a rare rebuttal from some Republican allies who warned that credible security threats from Iran remain, potentially putting their lives in danger.
And in an effort to minimize resistance, Trump has worked to exile Biden holdovers and others not fully bought into his agenda.
It's a long way from eight years ago, when Trump's victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton caught almost everyone — including him — by surprise.
“He's learned so much about how to govern and how not to govern in the first term — plus he’s had another four years to stew about it and think about what he wants to accomplish — that it's obviously a far more active and aggressive administration than the first time around,” veteran Republican pollster Whit Ayres said. “It’s just been a breathtaking barrage of initiatives and executive orders, of comments that have captured the world’s attention. It’s been quite the whirlwind.”
Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters as he signs an executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Jan. 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
