The Real Challenge of Trump 2.0

Foreign Affairs: “Trump hasn’t changed his views much since he left office, but his environment, at home and abroad, has—and so, too, perhaps, has Trump’s understanding of how to wield executive power. Washington’s situation is considerably more dangerous than it was during the years of his administration, with multiple wars on its plate, intensifying great-power rivalry, and a fraying liberal order.”

“Moreover, while out of power, Trump’s team has done the transition work it did not do the first time around; they will be empowered by a transformed Republican Party and come equipped with a very detailed list of friends and foes—and thus be better positioned to bend bureaucratic politics to their will. The states that would be poised to thrive under a second Trump term are U.S. rivals and adversaries such as China and Russia; those that would most likely suffer are traditional friends of the United States such as European countries, Japan, and partners in the Western Hemisphere.”