UPDATE:Trump asserts control in 2nd term in departure from first-term chaos…….Read more 

 

 

Months into his first term as president, Donald Trump was furious with the snowballing Russia investigation and ordered White House Counsel Don McGahn to make sure that special counsel Robert Mueller got fired.

Mueller has to go, McGahn recalled Trump saying. Call me back when you do it.

But McGahn didn’t do it, and Trump didn’t even bring it up the next time they saw each other. Such incidents were common during Trump’s initial experience in the White House, where officials would soften or ignore his most outrageous decisions and the president seemed unwilling to enforce his will.

It’s hard to imagine the same thing happening during Trump’s second term. Instead of repeating his laissez-faire attitude toward his own administration, the Republican president is asserting control at every opportunity, backed up by loyalists at all levels of government. Despite occasional disorganization and confusion, there’s a headstrong determination to push through any obstacles.

Trump doesn’t just want to change course from Joe Biden’s presidency, his team is holding back congressionally authorised funding championed by his predecessor.

Not only did Trump officials tell the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop working, his team set up a tip line so people could report unauthorized actions taken by staff at the agency.

Trump wasn’t satisfied with simply firing all the board members at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He made himself chairman.

This time, Trump seems to be saying, his orders will not be ignored. This time, there will be follow through.

The White House summarises Trump’s approach with the mantra promises made, promises kept. Administration officials also dismiss concerns that the president is exercising too much control. They say Trump is entitled to impose his vision on the government that he was elected to lead.