Trump is Back with a Bang

One of four commentaries from the 29 January 2025 event in the Panel Discussion Series: American Election 2024, from The Finsbury Institute, City International Policy Studies, and the Research Group on Global (Dis)Order.

It is an overused but appropriate turn of phrase to say that we are at an inflection point. In 2024, a post-pandemic hangover swept the globe in a year of elections, bringing vast anti-incumbent sentiment. From South Korea to United Kingdom and then the US on November 5, incumbents were not safe from populations who were still reeling from the pandemic aftershocks.

Time and time again in these elections, centrism was cast aside for left-right wing politics.

Even amid these trendlines, President Joe Biden clung to the idea he would be reelected because the US economy was recovering at a rate that was the envy of everyone else. He also thought that Americans saw Donald Trump in the same way he did as a challenge to US democracy. When Biden dropped out the race, Vice President Kamala Harris platooned in and ran a campaign with similar messaging, adding in strong narrative around freedom. She too was convinced that the Democrat’s idea of what was right for the US democracy would prevail.

Except Trump had his finger on the pulse of US voters. He asked them a simple question – “Are you better off today than you were four years ago.” Roughly 77 million American voters did not think so. For the 2024 election, the most salient question turned out to be the one Trump was asking about American’s felt experience. Despite the headlines about inflation their grocery bills were still high and pocketbooks still light.

Along the campaign trail, Trump made many promises to secure these 77 million voters. And now, Americans will be expecting to cash those checks. Trump knows this. He intends to keep these commitments.

His executive orders, presidential actions and political maneuverings make clear: Trump is back with a bang.

Taking a close look at what has already been put on paper – Trump and his team have issued several pillar documents governing economic and trade policy, immigration policy, foreign policy and national security that offers a blueprint for what lies ahead.

What lies ahead is a Trump 2.0 that is ambitious. The businessman-president will continue to trade in grievances. He will still look for the points of disparity and deploys tools like tariffs and sanctions to bring his perceived “adversaries” closer to his preferred position. Alongside the transactional tactics, is a Trump foreign policy agenda that’s radically different from Trump 1.0. Then “America First” focused on immigration, bringing jobs and manufacturing home.

In 2025, Making America Great Again looks less like an isolationist story and more like an expansionist one. As Trump scans the horizon looking for the angles, he has put his neighborhood, Europe, and the world on notice that no stone will go unturned.