Inside Trump's Second-Term Torrent Of Chaos

Week 2 of Trump’s tenure showed the president Americans grew to distrust in his first term — erratic, conspiratorial, and divisive — had not really gone anywhere.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s first week in office was a blitz of executive orders and memos — some important, others little more than press releases on fancy letterhead — designed to overwhelm Washington into submission.

Week Two showed Trump’s maximalist second-term instincts were more than just an opening bid. It revealed how the president many Americans grew to distrust in his first term — erratic, chaotic, and unwilling or unable to focus on uniting the country rather than dividing it — has not really gone anywhere.

The result, for many Trump critics in Washington, is a mixture of fear and hope: worries about purges of the civil service and unconstitutional power grabs by Trump, mixed with a revival of hopes that Democrats can fight a president who’s proven more effective at blustering than taking real action.

Trump, who has largely shed the illusion he is not attempting to implement large chunks of the Project 2025 agenda, is unlikely to let up. And unlike in early 2017, Trump and his core allies are more familiar with the federal government and how to bend it to their will.

“It’s vastly different. There’s a level of preparedness and focus that frankly we didn’t have last time,” said Sean Spicer, Trump’s first White House press secretary. “The four years out of office have really allowed the president to think about the people he wants to surround himself with, the people he wants to stay away from, the policies he wants to pursue and the process by which he can get those things done.”