“Promises made, promises kept”: A look at Trump’s first week in office

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

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

Since then, he has been seemingly everywhere, doing everything at once to promote his conservative, and his conservative, nationalist version of the “Golden Age” in the country.

The theme has been “Promises Made, Promises Left”: a raft of executive orders ranging from the 2021 US Capitol rioters to their mass pardons and immigration.

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 colleague Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, simply welcomed “the return of the king”.

Trump’s influence on the world stage has also been heightened, as he raises threats of massive tariffs and US territorial expansion.

“At the beginning of his new term, because of his astonishing resurgence, Trump appears to be Godzilla domestically and abroad,” Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told AFP.

‘We are far behind’

If Trump’s supporters — and critics — had any doubts about what his second coming would be, 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 stormed the same building four years ago to try to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.

But this was just the beginning of an avalanche of changes in the affair.

The Republican orders triggered a long-delayed immigration crackdown, ended birthright citizenship, and mandated that the U.S. government recognize only two genders.

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

He pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization.

“We are too far behind,” was heard repeatedly in the corridors of the White House.

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

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

Instead of chaos and infighting, what has marked the first days of Trump 2.0 is careful planning, steely discipline and intense messaging.

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

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

All week, he has repeated his territorial threats against Greenland and Panama – putting their sovereignty into question even as he claimed the US.

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

‘Imperial Presidency’

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

Trump still can’t reevaluate the complaints against opponents — including a bishop at his inauguration service who urged him to show “mercy” — and continues to deploy lies and exaggeration.

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.

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

For example, the freed leader of a far-right militia visited the Capitol two days after the January 6 pardon.

And a neo-Nazi group paraded in an anti-abortion march in Washington, which 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 claimed a divine mandate in his inaugural address on Monday.

“Trump would love to restore what existed from Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s, until the fall of Richard Nixon in 1974.

However, Sabato said that “the era was long gone and Trump lacks the strong public support needed to maintain the tough image he is projecting.”

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

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