Trump relishes wielding power without responsibility

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

(CNN) — Donald Trump is having the time of his life.

“In this term, everybody wants to be my friend,” the president-elect said at his Mar-a-Lago resort Monday, relishing the outpouring of deference from foreign leaders, CEOs and Republican powerbrokers as he readies his second term.

Since winning last month’s election, Trump has been far more visible than Joe Biden, and it would be easy to mistake him for the sitting president. He’s seized control over future foreign policy, towered over world leaders during a Paris trip and has tech titans flocking to pay homage.

He already has the power. All that’s missing is the actual constitutional authority conferred by the oath of office that he will take on January 20.

“In the first term, everybody was fighting me,” Trump said at his news conference. “The biggest difference is that people want to get along with me this time.”

The question is how long the good times will last when Trump exits his post-victory bubble and reengages with a divided nation beset with problems and a dangerous world, where he’s not widely liked, that teems with threats.

But for now, Trump can dream.

“This will be the most exciting and successful period of reform and renewal in all of American history, maybe of global history. The Golden Age of America, I call it. It’s begun,” he said.

Trump never looked quite as at ease or cheerful when he was saddled with the cares of the presidency. And it’s a good bet that once he’s back behind the Oval Office desk, the burdens of the office will weigh a lot heavier than they do now.

He’s living in the best of all worlds, basking in the thrill of victory and a feeling of vindication over avenging what he sees as a fraudulent election loss in 2020. He didn’t win four years ago, but there’s genuine justification for the president-elect’s belief this year that he has a mandate to implement his hardline program since he won the popular vote and the Electoral College.

So far, it seems most Americans approve. A CNN/SSRS poll released last week found that 54% of respondents expect Trump to do a good job in his White House return, and 55% approve of how he’s handling his transition so far. That’s heady territory for the most polarizing politician of modern times.

Trump’s unique chance

Trump is experiencing a chance that only one president in history — Grover Cleveland — has known: to start his second term from scratch. As only the second president to win a non-consecutive term, he can learn from the lessons of his first presidency and start again with an entire new team and slate. One reason why most second terms are tough is that sitting presidents can never really escape the consequences of the decisions, dramas and scandals of their first.

Trump, however, has had four years out of power to identify a team that will indulge his wild impulses more than the generals, Washington insiders and establishment Republicans who tried to constrain him the first go around.

Apart from the early loss of Matt Gaetz, the president-elect’s first pick for attorney general, things could hardly have gone better so far. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is his new pal. Most of his provocative Cabinet picks look likely to be confirmed by pliant Republican senators. Tech industry leaders, meanwhile, are rushing to court him at Mar-a-Lago and to fill the coffers of his inaugural account. This is one of many signs that although Trump will be a term-limited lame duck, his power at the beginning of his presidency will be expansive and potentially unchecked with the GOP holding a monopoly in Congress and following a Supreme Court ruling that granted presidents substantial immunity for official acts in office. (There was only one fly in the ointment Monday, when the Manhattan judge who presided over Trump’s hush money conviction ruled that he wasn’t entitled to presidential immunity in the case. Prosecutors have conceded he won’t be sentenced while in office, however.)

Trump’s current sense of lightness may also be explained by the comparison with his first term. In early 2017, he was already fixated on claims his win was tainted by Russian election meddling. But Trump did not just win the presidency in November — his recapturing of presidential power gives him the authority to expunge a series of active legal cases against him that threatened his political career and his liberty.

Tough decisions loom

Yet Trump’s holiday from reality won’t last forever.

Once he takes office, every decision that he makes will have a counter-reaction that risks draining his political capital and reigniting public skepticism about a president who has historically been a highly divisive figure.

If Trump fails to effectively honor his campaign trail promises — to bring down prices in supermarkets, to create historic prosperity and to get control of the border, he may soon find his approval ratings tanking to his normal levels.

There are already troubling signs for Trump fans. He told Time Magazine in an interview published last week that while he’d like to bring the cost of groceries down, “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”

And on Monday, Trump warned that after pledging to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours if elected, reality could be a lot harder. He said: “I think the Middle East will be in a good place. I think actually more difficult is going to be the Russia-Ukraine situation.” Trump’s comment doesn’t just reflect an almost comical underplaying of the dangers lurking in the Middle East. It may reflect a lack of leverage over his friend President Vladimir Putin as the battlefield tilts toward Russia.

And while failing to honor his promises may hurt Trump, he could be even more damaged if he actually goes through with pledges to shake up Washington, the country and the world, since the consequent waves of disruption could cause societal and economic blowback.

For instance, Trump’s planned mass deportation operation could easily prove unpopular if Americans witness scenes of human misery, if migrant families are torn apart, or if enforcement slows agricultural production that means shoppers can’t get their favorite fruits and vegetables. Trump’s tariff threats against Canada, Mexico and other nations might show him standing up to foreigners and demanding a better deal for workers. But if trade wars spike inflation and the price of basic goods shoots up, they could quickly backfire on the president-elect. Trump’s promise to quickly pardon supporters jailed over the January 6, 2021, mob attack on the US Capitol could also prove to be deeply unpopular.

And all of this doesn’t take into account the factional warfare inside Trump’s team and his own temperamental eruptions that marred his first term and limited his effectiveness as commander in chief. It seems unlikely, as the president-elect speculated in his freewheeling news conference in Florida, that “my personality changed or something.”

Such turmoil is unlikely to erode the rock-solid loyalty of Trump’s political base. His outlandish antics play into the sense that he’s an anti-establishment insurgent whose desire to burn the government down is rooted in the disdain in which it is held by the MAGA movement. And polls showing an improvement in economic sentiment may reflect the trend of partisans viewing their prospects with a rosier hue when their favored candidate is in power.

But Trump also needs to bring the country with him at times of crisis. If moderate voters begin to perceive he’s bent on punishing political enemies or pursuing a personal agenda, the limited crossover appeal that helped him win the election could disappear.

Even during Trump’s sunny news conference on Monday, the crises and grave decisions that lay at the end of his victory lap began to materialize.

One reporter raised Iran’s accelerating uranium enrichment. That could, at some future moment, present a president who is determined to avoid new wars with a decision to take military action or be the commander in chief who allowed the Islamic Republic to get a nuclear bomb. “It’s a wonderful question. Why would I say that?” Trump answered.

The president-elect several times repeated his warning that the Ukraine war must end. But he showed no sign he had any ideas as he bemoaned the horrific damage wrought on Ukrainian cities, as well as the unrest in the Middle East set off by the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. “What a shame. It should have never happened. It would have never happened. If I were president, that war would have never happened, nor would Israel have happened,” Trump said. His evoking of a fantastical vision of his own omnipotence won’t help much after January 20, when he will inherit responsibility for such problems.

A more sinister side of Trump, which will fuel fears among opponents that he will attempt to crush democracy and political freedoms, was also on display. The president-elect’s long news conference was as full of falsehoods, conspiracy theories and blatantly false facts as ever.

And Trump said he planned to sue the Des Moines Register newspaper over its final poll of Iowa voters that showed him no longer leading Vice President Kamala Harris, which he claimed was a case of election interference. He said he’d also take action against CBS’ “60 Minutes” because of his unhappiness over the way an interview with Harris was presented. If a president can dictate to a media organization about polling results or its editorial choices, basic rights long taken for granted will be under assault in a second term.

Still, for now, Trump is mostly fixated on his victory and the adulation it’s stirring. He said over 100 world leaders had “called to congratulate … not only the election but the size of the election, the extent of the victory, and they were great.”

“I spoke to over 100 countries. You wouldn’t believe how many countries there are.”

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