Trump 2.0: Confident, organized and still free-wheeling

Former administration officials say Trump’s flurry of executive orders and actions in his first week show his team has returned far more prepared than when they first arrived in January 2017.

“It was much more disciplined, precise and problem-oriented,” said Lawrence Muir, a former official at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Mr Muir, who was tasked with recruiting administration staff as part of Trump’s transition team in 2016, told the BBC he was “basically dumped” by the then-incoming White House.

“They didn’t have a good idea of ​​what to produce or how to produce it,” he said. “(Trump) is doing a better job this time in terms of what he’s got, getting it out efficiently and knowing how to get it done through the agencies.”

Trump’s first day in office in 2017 was overshadowed by a briefing in which then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer lectured reporters about the size of the crowd at the president’s inauguration.

A week later, Trump controversially ordered a 90-day ban on citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya — from entering the United States, sparking chaos at airports. The order was blocked by a federal court and went through two more versions before being upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.

Trump allies say the new administration appears to have learned from its first public defeat in 2017, as well as other legal battles the administration has faced.

“They had to live in exile for four years to prepare for a potential return,” said Eric Ruark, director of research at NumbersUSA, a group that advocates for tougher immigration controls. “And now they have a plan they can implement.”