Why Trump’s second coming is different this time for him and America

It was a primal scream from a nation in collective shock. No sooner had Donald Trump been sworn into office after his election victory in 2016, than hundreds of thousands of Americans raced to the streets to display their rage.

Women showed up wearing knitted pink “pussy” hats, in a nod to Trump’s now infamous remarks about grabbing women by the genitals.

Men and children came out in force too, chanting slogans and carrying signs: “My Sister Deserves My Rights”; “Love Trumps Hate”: “Her body, her choice.”

And Democrats and progressives geared up for one of their biggest political fights yet, determined to do what they could to counter the new administration’s policies and rhetoric.

But eight years later, as Trump prepares for his second inauguration, the mood in Washington, where almost 93 per cent of people voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, feels less like resistance and more like resignation.

“I’m sure we’ll see some agitation in the streets, but there’s nothing like the shock and emotional visceral reaction that we saw when he was elected the first time,” says Heath Mayo, the founder of Principles First, a grassroots conservative group that serves as an alternative to the MAGA movement.

In downtown DC, union officials recently urged staff to scrub their online footprint of anything that could be used against them by the new administration, including gender pronouns on their email signatures.

Around the country, national news outlets are boosting their reliance on encrypted communications to help shield themselves and their sources from potential probes and subpoenas.

Meanwhile, critics who once opposed the incendiary Republican are now offering olive branches. Everyone from departing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg have flown to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida hoping to get in his good graces.

Last week, Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman, a Democrat whom Trump once baselessly claimed was a drug taker, became the first person from his party to visit the president-elect on his home turf, finding common ground over Israel’s war in Gaza, and locally made steel.

“If you’re rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation,” the straight-shooting, hoodie-wearing Fetterman told America’s ABC News ahead of the Mar-a-Lago meeting.

“Country first. I know that’s become maybe like a cliche, but it happens to be true.”

Trump, meanwhile, enters inauguration week more emboldened and powerful than ever. Polls are showing more favourable approval ratings than the last time he entered the White House.

He has wasted no time filling his cabinet with loyalists to carry out his second-term agenda, from a mass deportation program to get rid of undocumented immigrants to overhauling what he sees as a “weaponised” justice system.

He has vowed to seek retribution on political enemies, to get rid of career bureaucrats and to expand tariffs on Canada and Mexico, two of America’s top trading partners, if they don’t do more to tackle illegal immigration on their shared borders with the US.

And despite coming to office lamenting “endless wars”, he has now suggested he would be willing to use military force to seize Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, or to reclaim the Panama Canal, a major conduit for maritime trade between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Then there’s the inauguration event itself. Four years ago, with the world still reeling from the global pandemic, Joe Biden’s first day in power was a muted affair. Trump’s return, however, is promising to be much like the man himself: big and brash.

Festivities begin Saturday (Sunday AEDT) with a reception and fireworks display at Trump’s Sterling golf club in Virginia, followed by a “victory rally” in downtown DC on Sunday and a candlelight dinner for the president later that night.

The swearing-in ceremony will take place at noon on Monday (4am Tuesday AEDT), along with a presidential parade on Pennsylvania Avenue, a signing ceremony in the Oval Office and three gala balls: The Commander in Chief Ball, focused on military service members; the Liberty Inaugural Ball, in which the Village People will perform for Trump’s supporters; and the Starlight Ball, which is geared towards high-dollar donors.

Trump’s inaugural committee has reportedly raised more than $US170 million for his inauguration, which is so sought after that some mega-donors have been placed on wait lists or may not get VIP entry to all the events because they are at capacity.

Front and centre as Trump takes the oath, however, will be billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, who are expected to be seated prominently alongside Trump’s family, his cabinet nominees and elected officials.

Former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush will also attend. Laura Bush and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton will join their husbands in the sub-zero temperatures to watch history unfold.

Two notable absences, however, will be Michelle Obama (who has made no secret of her disdain for Trump given the racist lies he spread about her family) or former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (whose husband was bludgeoned by a Trump supporter fuelled by conspiracy theories).

Local and federal law authorities say they are preparing for about a quarter of a million people to gather in the nation’s capital as the Republican is sworn in to office for the second time.

On Saturday (Washington time), tens of thousands of activists are also expected to take part in an anti-Trump rally, The People’s March, which organisers say is part of a long-term resistance strategy to the incoming administration.

Among those leading the protest are groups such as Planned Parenthood, the Women’s March and the National Women’s Law Centre.

“We’ve all been here before, so we’ve got to actually make a plan on how we’re going to be ready to activate and support community over the next few years,” says Tiffany Flowers, the campaign director of The Frontline, a coalition that works to protect voter rights.

“I think it’s important that people are able to see other individuals who are united, who are determined, and who are ready to stand together.”

While authorities say there are no signs of serious threats, the inauguration nonetheless comes in the wake of the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans, the Cybertruck explosion at Trump Tower in Las Vegas, and two assassination attempts against Trump.

About 25,000 law enforcement and military personnel will be in DC to provide security, along with 7800 National Guard troops, 4000 officers from around the country, and the entire DC police force.

“That threat of the lone actor remains the biggest justification for us being at this heightened state of alert throughout the next week,” says US Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger.

The inauguration will also mark the end of an era for Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden.

Fifty-three years after entering national politics as a 30-year-old senator for Delaware, Biden leaves the White House after only one term as president, pushed out after his disastrous debate performance last July exposed the extent of his cognitive decline.

In a farewell speech at the Oval Office on Wednesday night, the departing Democrat wished the new administration well, but he also warned the country of the challenges ahead.

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights, freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said, in a nod to Trump, Musk and the other billionaires in his successor’s orbit.

But while Biden deserves credit for what he achieved in a single term – such as 17 million new jobs, landmark climate and infrastructure reforms, lower prescription drug prices – he also leaves office with many of his policy successes undermined by the stubbornness with which he clung to power.

Had the 82-year-old stepped aside earlier, angry Democrats now say, they could have held a proper primary process to find the best candidate to take on Trump, or at least given Harris more time to make her case to voters.

Instead, Trump won the popular vote, picked up all seven battleground states, and helped his party win control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, making it easier to pass his legislative agenda.

According to a new SRRS opinion poll conducted for CNN, 55 per cent of Americans also approve of Trump’s handling of the transition so far, and 56 per cent expect him to do a good job in his second term.

Gary Nordlinger, a public policy expert from George Washington University, said the challenge now for Democrats and people who didn’t vote for Trump “is not just to criticise the man, but to understand what makes him so special to so many”.

Mayo agrees. Next month, on the same weekend as the MAGA conference known as CPAC, his group will be hosting an alternative summit for centre-right voters who have concerns about the country’s direction in the era of Trump.

Among the speakers are former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, who was part of the January 6 select committee that investigated the Capitol riots; former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, who was one of Trump’s early rivals for the presidential nomination; and former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan, who was part of the “Republicans for Harris” movement.

While Mayo believes the GOP he once knew and loved is gone for good, “we’ve got to figure out something that compels Americans to take a different tack”.

“Everyone from the Nikki Haley voters to the suburban Democratic voters now has to go back to the drawing board to figure out: ‘what vision can we propose to bring us back from the ledge here’ because clearly, there’s something about Trumpism that has gripped the electorate in a way that a lot of us find very concerning and dangerous,” he says.

“But it can’t just be a regurgitation of the last three or four cycles. You’re going to have to come up with an affirmative agenda for the country that is different, that is new, and that activates voters in a way that the Harris campaign obviously wasn’t able to. The mistake in 2024 was just sort of hoping that the ‘Not Trump’ message would be enough.”

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