Trump 2017 vs 2025: ‘There is exhaustion. Donald Trump has worn America down’

Read time: 3 minutes

In brief:

• Donald Trump’s presidency this time round has noticeable differences from his first term - most notably, team Trump knows what they’re doing, and his opponents are putting up less of a fight.
• Trump also has significant political advantages compared to this first term: winning the popular vote, controlling the Senate and Supreme Court, and facing minimal resistance from "exhausted" opponents .
• In 2025, there’s also been a cultural shift where tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are now supportive of Trump, giving him increased legitimacy and power.

What’s the story?

We’re only days into Donald Trump’s second term as president, and while his policies and rhetoric are largely unchanged, there’s a few noticeable differences to what a Trump presidency looks like today compared to what it looked like eight years ago.

As one commentator told Jon Sopel, "the velociraptors have learned how to open the doors."

In 2017, simply put, the Trump team didn’t know what they were doing. Whilst the president had ideas, he had an administration filled with people who lacked the experience to execute them.

“There would be announcements, they'd be badly drafted, they'd face legal challenges, and they would disappear,” Jon remembers. “No one knew how to make anything work.”

But 2025 is a new world - and it belongs to Donald Trump.

Not only does the 78-year-old have a more experienced team around him this time but he also won the popular vote, he has the Senate and he has a majority in the Supreme court.

This means he also has “the space to utterly redefine what executive authority means in the United States of America,” Jon says.

And that he is.

Just days into the Donald Trump presidency, America’s new leader has wasted no time in implementing some of his most controversial campaign promises. He’s pardoned those convicted of storming the Capitol in January 2021, along with many other convicted criminals, he’s signed an order for the US to pull out of the World Health Organisation and he’s ordered the dismantling of government diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, to name a few.

While team Trump has pushed on, it seems his opponents have backed off. When Trump was sworn in back in 2017, there were waves of resistance, including massive women's marches and other public protests on the streets of DC and around America.

But today, outrage at Trump’s vision of America has dwindled.

“In the immediate days after he had just been elected in 2017 there was such energy and fire and fury on the Democrat side,” says Lewis Goodall.

“The difference with 2017 is so marked, in 2017 there was a moment of resistance. America right now is a moment of acquiescence.”

This is perhaps most notable in the media response to Trump’s pardoning of the insurrectionists, something that four years ago, or even one year ago, would have sparked outrage.

But whilst flicking through the TV networks as the “J6 hostages”, to use Trump’s term were being released, Lewis saw a lack of coverage.

“It got a mention here and there, but it was barely making a ripple”, he recalls.

“Back in the first Trump presidency everyone would say, ‘this isn't normal’, and absolutely none of this remains normal, but it has been absolutely normalised.

“It spoke to that acquiescence, that exhaustion, which now exists.”

Why is this happening?

If you watched Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, you’d likely have noticed another big change compared to the ceremony eight years ago. Standing behind the new president in the rotunda were some of the world’s biggest tech titans and richest men.

Elon Musk revealed himself early in the campaign to be a Trump fan and ally - he’s now even an advisor. But also attending and in prime position were Amazon owner Jeff Bezos - who, against tradition, instructed The Washington Post (which he also owns) to opt out of endorsing a candidate in the lead up to voting day. Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg was also there, who, after Trump’s win, shifted Facebook and other platforms he owns policies to be far more aligned with Trump’s values.

“Everyone, politically, culturally, economically, has given in to Donald Trump,” Lewis says.

“Suddenly, it is no longer simply a sign of the dispossessed and the disaffected to be MAGA. It's now the rich as well. That's the big cultural shift that has taken place that was just not there in 2017. It does give Trump legitimacy. It gives him power. There's clearly been a huge cultural turn in his direction.”

Trump’s team being more ready for the job this time round, his control of the senate and the supreme court, the lack of resistance from opponents, the legitimacy he receives from key public figures, work in tandem to the benefit of the new president.

“I think the difference with Trump is that when you go down the list of executive orders, what you see again and again – and this is what I think is worrying and disturbing – is the extent to which he is pushing his presidential authority very often beyond the limit.”

And not only is he pushing those limits, but “the impediments to his action are so much fewer.”

With so much control, and so much power, have Democrats, traditional Republicans and as a result, the American public, lost the will to put up a fight?

“There is nothing. There is just exhaustion. A lot of people are simply trying to tune out of it. Donald Trump has worn America down”.

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.