In Trump’s Second Presidency, An Unfettered Leader Takes Hold

Some aides to President Trump warned him that building a ballroom at the White House would force part of the East Wing to be torn down and disrupt daily operations and tours, according to people familiar with the discussions. 

Trump said he would build it anyway, and the contract was given to builders chosen by the White House. In his first term, administration officials regularly curbed Trump’s impulses, including on tariffs, immigration and controlling the Federal Reserve. 

In his second, Trump has been surrounded by fewer people who try to dissuade him, according to White House officials, Trump allies and observers of the presidency. “I think he’s learned there is not much that can really stop him from what he wants,” said Marc Short, who was Trump’s director of legislative affairs in his first term. In recent days, Trump renewed a call to end mail-in voting, announced a new policy of coercing local governments into abandoning cashless- bail policies, and threatened to send the military to Baltimore and said he’d like to send them to New York and Chicago as well, all of which pushes the bounds of his authority. 

In one of the most aggressive steps yet in that direction, he tried to remove Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook from her post on Monday, setting up a conflict with the Supreme Court, which has recently suggested that the central bank is protected from direct political manipulation. Some of his new directives are encouraged by advisers, while  others appear to come from Trump himself. Seven months into his second term, Trump, a Republican, has also taken to riffing more frequently about authoritarianism, after positing during the campaign he would be a dictator only on “Day 1” of his presidency. The comment drew outrage from Democrats, who built their losing campaign around Trump as a threat to democracy.