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Donald Trump will start his second term in a far more dominant position than his first: The Democratic resistance is largely silenced, the legacy media is eroded and the Republican Party is reshaped in his image.
Now the president-elect may need some new adversaries. After all, he thrives on battles.
During Trump’s Tuesday press conference, he bashed the Biden administration’s last-minute move to bar lands from drilling, entertained using military force or economic coercion to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal and vowed “all hell will break out in the Middle East” unless Israeli hostages are freed before he takes office.
For more than an hour, he leaned into the fresh challenges that his team sees, laying bare his need for an enemy.
“There are plenty of battles in front of us,” one Trump adviser told Semafor. “Internal fights are gone, and the external fights are focused. Between those two things, the fighting spirit of Donald Trump and the men and women around him will have plenty of places to go.”
Even if his White House is done with internal fights, his party may not be. Trump’s sway over the GOP is headed for an immediate test on Wednesday when he meets with Senate Republicans about how to implement his Hill agenda, which is stalled for the moment as lawmakers debate whether to tackle tax and border policy in one or two bills.
He’s certainly facing nowhere near the pushback from Democrats or the GOP establishment that he did eight years ago. And the conspicuous lack of an anti-Trump movement feels a bit like the “upside down” to his early first-term allies.
Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., for example, recalled being dogged by liberal activists as soon as he was elected to the House alongside Trump in 2016. Lately, he said, the progressive movement’s been “rocked back so much, you can feel it.” So have Trump skeptics within the GOP, whose ranks eight years ago included then-leaders Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell.
“The attitude of House and Senate leadership toward President Trump is night-and-day different,” Banks told Semafor. “This time, he has leadership that’s in line, that’s determined to work with them, and last time we had leadership that worked against him.”
In addition to clawing back Biden’s lame-duck oil and gas ban — a fight that could be difficult to win — Trump aides anticipate a brawl over tax cuts, albeit one that is unlikely to involve Democrats in any meaningful way.
Perhaps their most promising second-term battle is with the depleted legacy media: The incoming Trump administration is quietly working to revamp the White House briefing room in a bid for coverage that better reflects how most voters consume news. In other words: Podcasters welcome.
“He’s not on the verge of winning energy, and he’s not on the verge of winning tax cuts. But he is closer to victory against the legacy media than any other battle,” the Trump adviser noted.
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Many people close to Trump say he’ll govern largely the same as he did during his first term. But some Republicans who work with him today say that 2025 Trump — bolstered by a changed party, fresh off a decisive victory, with four years of governing under his belt — will operate very differently in Washington than 2017 Trump.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., argued Trump is “not the same guy, for the better.”
“You’re going to see Trump 47 be so much more seasoned,” she told Semafor. “And that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t understand principle. He just understands process so much more. And he does seem just a little softer around the edges … even with Democrats.”
For now, Trump is being deferential to congressional Republicans as they wrangle over tactics to achieve what would be his marquee legislative achievement this year.
But he’s still clearly in search of a proverbial cage to rattle, even if it’s in his own ranks. He unexpectedly derailed a Republican-backed spending bill via tweet alongside Vice President-elect JD Vance just weeks ago and plans to pardon Capitol rioters, in addition to coveting more US territory.
He might even have a new chance to pick an internal fight later this week, during Mar-a-Lago meetings with House members.
Shelby and Burgess’ View
Trump clearly relishes having a foil. While he’s entering his second administration with less resistance from Democrats and members of his own party, he and his team have already mapped out areas where they anticipate big fights.
But the changed landscape also reflects a new reality for a politician known as a disruptor: Trump, after nearly a decade of centrality in US politics, is now the status quo.
His unusual governing style and aggressive posture in the bully pulpit has made the entire nation more desensitized to controversy. During his first term, for example, Trump’s refusal to rule out military action to acquire the Danish territory of Greenland would have prompted days of coverage.
On Tuesday, it landed for many seasoned Trump watchers as a momentary rhetorical flourish.
Room for Disagreement
For some Republicans, Trump’s most unconventionally combative moves have always been distractions from the real work, rather than a core part of his political identity.
“The press — some of y’all, not all of you — like to take it literally, because it’s a lot more fun and gets a lot more clicks,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
Historically, he added, “very few of the things that spun around and trended for 24 hours or a week actually came to pass” after Trump floated them. “Except for some good policies.”
Notable
- Trump also has new figures around him that could influence his style in ways we haven’t seen before: Elon Musk, for example, is often seen at Trump’s side these days, with critics dubbing him the “shadow president,” per the Washington Post.
- Incoming Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is cutting down the number of staffers with direct access to the president, NBC reports, a bid to keep the palace intrigue to a minimum.