The President-elect Trump who will take the oath of office Monday is a radically different figure than the one who shook up Washington eight years ago.
This Trump knows more about how Washington works. Trump 1.0 wanted to change Washington, but Trump 2.0 is set up better to succeed, and the president-elect is equipped with a highly capable chief of staff in Susie Wiles, who has infused more discipline into his operation.
“When it comes to the three big things — the people, the process and the priorities — these guys are in a totally different league than we were in 2016,” said Sean Spicer, who served as Trump’s press secretary upon taking office in 2017.
“It’s not just lessons learned. It has to do with the environment,” Spicer added, noting Trump this time has the full backing of the Republican Party and is entering with the mandate of a popular vote victory.
Trump’s team retains its outsider appeal, and the frenzy that was a defining element of Trump’s first term is unlikely to disappear. But it’s also a team with more insiders who can reach into the halls of American power; one of Trump’s top allies now is tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, the richest person in the world.
Other tech and business titans, including Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, are signaling they want to work with Trump, underscoring how the next four years won’t be like the president-elect’s first four in office.
Two other important factors also make this Trump different.
Over the past four years, he survived the legal wringer, returning to power when many of his opponents thought a political comeback was an impossibility, given his courtroom challenges.
Separately, he enters the White House as a lame duck, knowing there will be no reelection effort in four years.
Those are key differences that could factor into decisions Trump makes, from going after political enemies to taking risks he won’t have to worry about on a 2028 campaign trail.
Trump was sworn into office in 2017 as a political newcomer and a brash outsider who had upended Washington norms. But he was also largely unfamiliar with how governing worked in Washington, and his first few weeks in office reflected that.
