trump imposes his vision on america in departure from firstterm stumbles

Trump Imposes His Vision On America In Departure From First-term Stumbles

Months into his first term as president, Donald Trump was furious with the snowballing Russia investigation and ordered White House Counsel Don McGahn to make sure that special counsel Robert Mueller got fired.

"Mueller has to go," McGahn recalled Trump saying. "Call me back when you do it."

But McGahn didn't do it, and Trump didn't even bring it up the next time they saw each other. Such incidents were common during Trump's initial experience in the White House, where officials would soften or ignore his most outrageous decisions and the president seemed unwilling to enforce his will.

It's hard to imagine the same thing happening during Trump's second term. Instead of repeating his laissez-faire attitude toward his own administration, the Republican president is asserting control at every opportunity, backed up by loyalists at all levels of government. Despite occasional disorganization and confusion , there's a headstrong determination to push through any obstacles.

Trump doesn't just want to change course from Joe Biden's presidency, his team is holding back congressionally authorized funding championed by his predecessor.