Don’t blink.
President Donald Trump, the sequel, has moved in his opening days with a velocity faster than any modern-day president, testing the boundaries of his power and challenging the checks and balances that have marked America’s democracy from its founding.
He has even pitched plans to redraw the map of the world, from Greenland to Gaza.
To remind: It’s only Day 17.
Laws stymied, notably the bill passed with bipartisan support banning TikTok. Appropriated funds withheld, although a second federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the administration’s sweeping freeze on federal grants and loans. Government agencies dismantled, starting with USAID; the Education Department may be next. A constitutional amendment guaranteeing birthright citizenship redefined by executive order. Tariffs threatened, imposed and paused on foreign countries, rattling the markets and allies.
Plus the “Fork in the Road” deadline − that was the subject line of the first email they received − looms Thursday for about 2 million federal workers to decide whether to take an unprecedented offer of buyouts. Even the CIA on Tuesday offered buyouts to almost all of its workforce.
The idea of a 100-day action plan, the milestone set by Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in the midst of the Great Depression, now seems almost quaint, like snail mail. Helped by a compliant Congress, Trump 2.0 is moving at fiber-optic speed, with more discipline and bigger ambitions than during his first term.
His efforts to reshape the government, dismantle what he calls the “deep state,” and assert U.S. global interests with the threat of a hammer will almost certainly be challenged in courts by opponents who say he has exceeded his authority. But Trump and his compatriots calculate that will take time and a coordinated opposition that is still struggling to find its footing amid the barrage of his actions.
Here are five things we’ve learned.
Anyone who hasn’t taken seriously Trump’s talk about buying Greenland or making Canada the 51st state should take notice of his proposal Tuesday evening that the United States take a “long-term ownership position” of the war-torn Gaza Strip and transform it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Territorial expansion wasn’t a core campaign promise for Trump, but the idea of extending the “Made in America” stamp around the world has emerged as a more central presidential interest than it has been since the 19th century.
He has renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Panama to discuss reasserting U.S. control over the crucial Panama Canal, and dispatched his son Donald Trump Jr. to Greenland to test the waters in the Danish territory.
Buying Greenland “is not a joke,” Rubio said in an interview on Sirius XM, noting Trump hasn’t ruled out using military coercion to get it done. “This is in our national interest, and it needs to be solved.”
To be sure, the challenges ahead are glaring, starting with a poll that found an overwhelming 85% of Greenlanders opposed the idea.
Then there’s Gaza. The people there have given no signs they are interested in leaving their homeland, and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan have rejected the idea of taking in large numbers of Palestinian refugees. Trump’s suggestion that he might deploy U.S. troops as part of the takeover would collide with his “America First” vision of eschewing nation-building and foreign wars.
It seems more akin to his first occupation: a New York real estate developer eager to expand his brand.
Two of Trump’s most controversial Cabinet nominations − Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services − now seem to be on a fast track to confirmation.
With a dozen members of Trump’s Cabinet confirmed and no others considered in serious peril, there has been no need for Trump to follow up on his early threat to demand that Congress recess so he could install his team without Senate approval.
Even Republican senators who have defied Trump in the past have fallen in line in the face of White House lobbying and reelection threats.
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial four years ago, joined a party-line vote Tuesday in the Finance Committee to approve RFK Jr.’s nomination despite his public anguish over Kennedy’s refusal to state that vaccines don’t cause autism.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who had signaled he planned to vote against the nomination of Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, voted for him after a two-hour phone call from Trump himself. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a military veteran who expressed early concerns about Hegseth’s opposition to women in combat, ended up voting for him, too.
One thing that Cassidy, Ernst and Tillis share: All are up for reelection in 2026 and are presumably aware that Trump and his MAGA supporters have backed primary challenges to Republican incumbents seen as insufficiently loyal.
First friend Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance have emerged as power players, trusted lieutenants who can speak for Trump, amplify his message and enforce his agenda.
That’s a resource Trump didn’t have during his first term. Then, Vice President Mike Pence was never in Trump’s inner circle − even before he resisted the president’s demands to try to overthrow the 2020 election − and the early White House chiefs of staff were more interested in restraining Trump’s most provocative instincts than empowering them.
Now Musk has led efforts to gain access to two of the government’s largest and most fundamental computer systems, one with government employees and the other with the Treasury Department’s payment system. Designated a “special government employee” for the new Department of Government Efficiency, Musk has a goal of dramatically shrinking the size of the federal workforce and its spending.
Vance has been central to the Senate confirmation debate, using relationships he gained during two years as Ohio senator. He spoke privately with Cassidy about RFK Jr. and Indiana Sen. Todd Young about Gabbard and helped shape the White House lobbying approach.
When Trump followed up with Young, one of the few Republican officials who hadn’t endorsed him in 2024, the president used a light touch. Trump told him to “vote your conscience,” Todd told CNN.
He was the final Republican to announce he would support her.
During the campaign, Trump made no secret that retribution was on his mind. What has surprised some is the priority it has taken on his agenda from the start.
The president promised to pardon some of those convicted and indicted on criminal charges for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol− then on his first day in office pardoned nearly all of them, including those found guilty of assaulting police officers.
Even his nominee to head the FBI, Kash Patel, said he disagreed with that.
The Justice Department has fired more than a dozen prosecutors who had worked on the special counsel’s investigation into Trump. The administration has forced out the five highest career positions at the FBI, and thousands of FBI employees were asked last weekend to fill out a questionnaire about whether they were involved in the Jan. 6 investigations.
That has prompted two lawsuits, filed Tuesday, on behalf of FBI agents who remained anonymous.
How many executive orders has Trump signed so far?
Fifty-three, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara, a list that is two days old and perhaps already out of date. He signed 20 of them on Inauguration Day alone.
With his distinctive slashing signature, delivered by black Sharpie, Trump has banned diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from the U.S. military and the federal government. Ordered the creation of an American Iron Dome, a missile defense shield. Left the World Health Organization and withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement. Declared a national energy emergency and a national border emergency.
And more.