Donald Trump has shaken up America and the world in an extraordinary first week back in the White House that saw him remake the US political universe in his own image.

On his first day, Trump signed more executive orders than any president in history, consolidating his power over every lever of the US government.

Since then, he has seemingly been everywhere, doing everything all at once to further impose his will — and his conservative, nationalist version of a “golden age” — on the country.

The theme has been “promises made, promises kept”: starting with his mass pardons for the 2021 US Capitol rioters and a slew of executive orders from immigration to gender.

From Trump and his supporters, the theme has been one of regal, even divine, power.

The 78-year-old claimed he was “saved by God” from an assassination attempt to make America great again — and danced with a sword at an inaugural ball. His ally Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, simply hailed the “return of the king.”

Trump’s influence on the world stage is outsized too, as he flaunts mass tariffs and threats of American territorial expansion.

“Early in his new term, emboldened by his astonishing resurrection, Trump appears to be Godzilla domestically and abroad,” Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told AFP.

‘We are so back’

If Trump’s supporters — and critics — had any doubts about what his second coming would bring, they were dispelled with a few squeaky strokes of a black marker in the Oval Office on Monday.

Hours after his inauguration at the US Capitol, Trump signed a pardon of 1,500 rioters who had stormed the same building four years earlier to try to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.

But it was just the start of an avalanche of dizzying changes.

The Republican’s orders launched a long-promised immigration crackdown, eliminated birthright citizenship, and said the US government would only recognize two genders.

He purged the government of diversity efforts and employees — and then got rid of the internal watchdogs who might challenge his rulings.

He yanked the United States out of the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization.

“We are so back,” was the repeated refrain heard in the corridors of the White House.

His spokeswoman insisted Trump had delivered “more in 100 hours than any president in 100 days.”

And the contrast with Trump’s own first term could not have been greater.

Instead of chaos and fights, the first days of Trump 2.0 have been marked by what appears to be careful planning, steely discipline and intense messaging.

Internationally, Trump appeared at the Davos forum on a huge screen where he towered over the gathered global elite.

Trump has told other countries to either make products in America or face tariffs.

All week, he has repeated his territorial threats against Greenland and Panama — calling their sovereignty into question even as he asserted America’s.

“Trump is saying: I’m in control,” said Peter Loge, the director of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs.

‘Imperial presidency’

But the return of the Trump show has also brought back some old habits — and challenges.

Trump still can’t resist rehashing grievances against opponents — including a bishop at his inaugural service who urged him to show “mercy” — and continues to deploy falsehoods and exaggerations.

Nor can the former reality TV star resist a microphone, holding a series of freewheeling encounters with the press since his return. At one point Trump asked reporters: “Does Biden ever do news conferences like this?”

Key promises remain unfulfilled: US grocery prices remain high despite Trump’s pledge that they would come down, and the war in Ukraine that he vowed to end within 24 hours of his return grinds on.

But as billionaire Trump promises a golden age, his critics fear it will come with a dark side.

For instance, the freed leader of one far-right militia toured the Capitol two days after the January 6 pardons.

And a neo-Nazi group paraded at an anti-abortion march in Washington that Trump himself addressed by video message.

Trump’s message praised “every child as a beautiful gift from the hand of our Creator” — the same God from whom Trump had claimed a divine mandate in his inaugural address on Monday.

“Trump would love to restore the so-called imperial presidency” that existed from Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s until Richard Nixon’s fall in 1974, said Sabato.

However, Sabato added that “era was long gone and Trump lacks the strong public support necessary to sustain the tough image he’s projecting.”

While Democrats and the anti-Trump “resistance” that opposed his 2016 victory have largely fallen silent for now, there is already legal action against key parts of his agenda.

“We all know Trump. He can’t change and won’t change, so over time much of the public will tire of his antics, just as they did in his first term,” said Sabato.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington DC:

The American Dream has come crashing down for millions and millions of people who line up to get a chance to settle in the United States. Donald Trump has, with one signature, shut the door for them permanently – a door which Joe Biden’s administration is accused of exploiting in order to allow illegal immigrants and asylum seekers to get legal entry to the United States.

CBP One, a mobile app launched by the US Customs and Border Protection, through which over a million illegal immigrants and asylum seekers got legal status, was shut down by Donald Trump within hours of him taking oath as President for a second term.

When the CBP One app was launched in October 2020, its use was only to help commercial trucking companies schedule cargo inspections at border crossings. But in January 2023, the Biden administration expanded its utility to include unauthorised and illegal migrants seeking asylum or protection in the US from violence, poverty, or persecution in their home countries.

Within three months, it was further expanded by the Biden administration in order to make it the only path to seek asylum on the US-Mexico border. It became the sole method for asylum appointments. This soon gained widespread popularity, with as many as one million people successful in getting appointments using the app – which roughly translates to around 1,450 appointments per day.

Under the scheme, illegal and unauthorised immigrants could apply for an appointment in advance on the CBP One App. Every day the App would select applications on what is widely described as a “lottery system” and 1,450 applicants would get an appointment. Once approved, the illegal immigrant would get legal entry into the United States from one of the eight border crossings in the South. They would be given a legal status to live and work in America. Such applicants would be eligible to seek “parole” into the United States – a presidential privilege that Joe Biden has used more than any other US President since its creation in 1952.

The pace and scale of this soon came under heavy criticism from Donald Trump and his allies, who cried foul and targeted the Biden administration for giving legal status to illegal immigrants by the help of this mobile app.

This went on for one-and-a-half years till the US election in 2024 saw Donald Trump win a historic second term to the White House. He had vehemently opposed illegal immigration and had made electoral promises to bring sweeping changes to the US’ immigration policy. He had even threatened to “deport millions and millions of illegal aliens”.

On January 20, when he took oath of office as President, his first move was to sign a record number of executive orders – one of which was on massive curbs and changes to the immigration system. In this, he put an immediate ban on the CBP One app. With the stroke of his pen, the app got suspended and all existing and future appointments went into a deep freeze indefinitely, bringing an end to the only channel asylum seekers could explore.

A notice on the US Customs and Border Protection website and App read: “Effective January 20, 2025, the functionalities of CBP One App that previously allowed undocumented aliens to submit advance information and schedule appointments at eight southwest border ports of entry is no longer available, and existing appointments have been cancelled.”

Donald Trump didn’t stop there. His day-one executive order on immigration curbs included declaring a “national emergency along the southern border” with Mexico. He even declared that troops will be deployed within days to put all illegal entry into the United States to a grinding halt. In addition to this, Donald Trump also declared that his administration will begin imposing a massive 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada because they’re allowing vast numbers of people to cross the border illegally.

“We’re thinking in terms of 25% on Mexico and Canada, because they’re allowing vast numbers of people” across the border, Trump said in response to questions from reporters in the Oval Office on Monday night. “I think we’ll do it starting February 1.”

By taking these measures, Donald Trump has delivered on his election promise – that he would act on illegal immigration on Day 1 of his presidency. It is yet to be seen if he will be able to “deport millions” as he had assured US citizens. Donald Trump’s executive orders are certain to be challenged in court. NGO organisations like Amnesty International are likely to challenge them.