Trump on the cusp: Aggressive transition period signals disruptive second term

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

70% : "Everyone wants to be my friend," Trump said last month of the attention from business leaders, some of whom viewed his first presidency warily.
61% : Governing by social media was back, and so was Donald Trump.
60% : It's exactly what Trump promised during the campaign and what many voters want from the next four years.
60% : Painter said he hopes Trump will advance his agenda by "playing by the rules.
52% : The Mar-a-Lago guest list has encompassed people from across the political and ideological spectrum.
51% : "Trump 2.0 was already looking a lot like Trump 1.0 - unpredictable and tumultuous, with plenty of Republican infighting.
51% : "I think that's what he's doing, he understands that, as opposed to last time," said the person, who noted Trump is very "hands on" with his Cabinet picks and studied "each one.
50% : A person who spoke with Trump early in the transition said the president-elect asked what the person thought of appointing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a decision he had yet to make.
49% : And while Republican allies describe a formal process to interview and select people for administration jobs, there are informal channels as well, namely "anyone with a direct line to Trump," said a source close to the transition who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
48% : John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser turned critic, said the president-elect is picking "yes men and yes women" for jobs, and some of them are "very worrying.""Because I think it underlines that Trump's retribution agenda ... is a serious proposition," said Bolton, a longtime GOP foreign policy adviser and George W. Bush-era U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
47% : Now Trump also owns Truth Social, a social media company, and a cryptocurrency business, which ethics experts want could both present big financial conflicts.
43% : Yet while those around Trump say the transition has been smoother than the first operation, its results have also been contentious, with a number of personnel moves that have sparked bipartisan concern.
42% : "President Trump has said repeatedly that success will be his retribution, and he has chosen brilliant and highly respected outsiders to serve in his administration because the American people are tired of the status quo," Anna Kelly said.
39% : Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a conservative aligned with Trump, visited the South Florida club and upon returning to Rome said she got an invitation to return to Washington for the Republican president's inauguration.
39% : On Capitol Hill that late December day, confusion quickly turned to recrimination as Democrats slammed Republicans and Republicans slammed Republicans.
38% : A CNN survey Dec. 5-8 found that 55% of Americans approve of how Trump had been handling his transition, but he risks losing his "political capital" if he goes too far, Painter said.
37% : It's also where Trump strategized over his picks for key administration roles, making decisions that signal an American leader who plans to move fast and break things, according to interviews with nearly three dozen Trump insiders, allies and opponents.
37% : "Trump's series of controversial Cabinet announcements began with his choice of attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, a former congressman who faced a federal sex trafficking investigation but never was charged, and continued with former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense, longtime ally Kash Patel to lead the FBI and former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to head intelligence agencies.
36% : There are many potential pitfalls, including a narrow GOP House majority that could make it difficult for Trump to get his agenda through Congress, despite Republican control of both chambers.
36% : But Trump also exposed himself and Republicans to questions about whether the unified GOP control of government they're all about to enjoy can deliver on a raft of campaign promises.
35% : He wasn't even president yet, but Trump was flexing his authority over the legislative process and demonstrating his appetite for conflict.
35% : According to Forbes, Trump has appointed at least nine billionaires or people married to billionaires.
35% : By blowing up the stopgap funding bill, Trump demonstrated the power he has over a narrowly divided Washington.
34% : During his first White House term, Trump regularly faced ethics questions about using the federal government he led for his own personal gain, including using his properties for both official and unofficial events.
34% : Congressional Republicans had been trying to set the agenda during the closing weeks of the lame-duck Biden administration when Trump demolished it, harking back to the turmoil of his first White House, when lawmakers and the nation constantly were on edge waiting for a tweet that could appear any time of day or night and turn the vast machinery of the federal government on its head.
33% : Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Trump selected people "who are willing to fight, and that's what he needs.
32% : Choosing Kennedy signaled to the person who spoke with Trump about the pick that the president-elect is looking for forceful people who will bring big changes.
31% : Trump hosted liberal Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau to discuss tariffs and has been taunting him since, suggesting Canada should be a U.S. state.
31% : Retribution concernsIn an NBC interview at Trump Tower in Manhattan that aired Dec. 8, Trump said members of the House committee that investigated his role in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, "should go to jail."
28% : Republicans and Democrats alike say the team Trump has assembled says a lot about how he'll govern, although they view what's ahead very differently.
26% : "The Republicans can't even afford somebody to have a cold," said a GOP consultant aligned with Trump who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
18% : In this instance, Trump forced lawmakers to recalibrate and pass a revised spending bill, but only after the legislation the former and future president wanted failed, thanks to opposition from 38 Republicans.
17% : The interview and some of Trump's appointees again are raising the question of whether Trump will seek retribution against political opponents.
16% : Though some Trump allies have dismissed the president-elect's threats as idle talk and Trump himself told NBC that "retribution will be through success," Thompson said Trump's words and appointees raise serious concerns.
16% : He added that he had told Trump the same thing in a phone call in which he argued that Mike Johnson shouldn't be speaker anymore.
15% : "Even as Bolton said he worries about what Trump may be planning with his picks, he argued they also reflect a transition that is not very well organized, careful or deliberative despite Republican assertions to the contrary.

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