Author: Eric Cortellessa, Time Magazine; Compiled by: Whitewater, Golden Finance

Three days before Thanksgiving, Mar-a-Lago was quiet. Later that morning, Donald Trump's Moorish palace seemed deserted, with a junior staff member or silent aide now and then milling around the vast living room of his seaside estate. Traces of Trump are everywhere. A framed magazine with him on the cover hangs by the front door. On the table near the fireplace sits a cast bronze eagle given to him by singer Lee Greenwood. In the men's room, a photo of him and Arnold Palmer hangs near the urinal. A painting titled "The Visionary" hangs on the wall of the library bar, depicting Trump in a tennis sweater, neat and youthful. The empty room feels less like a millionaire's membership club and more like a museum.

By mid-afternoon, the president-elect was about to arrive, and carefully arranged speakers offered selections from Trump's personally curated playlist of 2,000 songs. A handful of transitional leaders and soon-to-be officials arrived at Mar-a-Lago, huddled in corners on overstuffed couches. Incoming chief of staff Suzy Wells spoke with Trump's designated security adviser Mike Walz. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance strode in with a group of staff. An aide stood near a window overlooking the courtyard and set down Trump's personal cellphone, which occasionally lit up with calls and text messages from favored media figures and Cabinet picks. You could feel Trump before you saw him, as a small group of senior aides rose to their feet in anticipation.

The most powerful man in the world entered with an air of unhurried affability. Wearing his signature navy suit and red tie, Trump, 78, looked older than when he last met with Time seven months ago — softer, less verbose, and equally speech pattern, but with the volume turned down. Before the 65-minute interview, he sat under bright lights for 30 minutes for photos and was asked to explain the bruise on his right hand. "That's the result of shaking hands with thousands of people," he said.

Trump’s rebirth is unparalleled in American history. His first term ended in disgrace with his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, culminating in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. In late 2022, amid multiple criminal investigations, he announced his candidacy but was shunned by most party officials. More than a year later, Trump swept the Republican field, winning one of the most competitive presidential primaries in history. The fact that he spent six weeks in New York City courts during the election campaign, becoming the first former president to be convicted of a crime, did little to dent his approval ratings. In July, an assassin's bullet missed his skull at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Over the next four months, he defeated not one but two Democratic opponents,Sweeping all seven swing states and becoming the first Republican to win the popular vote in 20 years. He realigned America, reshaped the Republican Party, and made Democrats think hard about what went wrong.

Trump already has a ready explanation for his seemingly impossible return to office. “I call it 72 Days of Fury,” he said at the beginning of the interview. "We touched a nerve in this country. The whole country is angry." It's not just the MAGA faithful. Trump has tapped into the nation's deep dissatisfaction over economic, immigration and cultural issues. His grievances resonate with suburban moms and retirees, Latino and black men, young voters and tech teens. While Democrats estimate that most of the country wants a president who can uphold liberal democratic norms, Trump instead sees a president ready to shatter those norms, tapping into growing feelings that the system is rigged.

If America longs for change, look at how much change Trump can bring about. Embracing a strongman vision, he has proposed deporting millions of immigrants, dismantling parts of the federal government, retaliating against opponents and dismantling institutions that millions view as fussy and corrupt. “He understands the cultural zeitgeist,” said Kellyanne Conway, his 2016 campaign manager who remains a close adviser. "Donald Trump is a complex man with simple ideas, while too many politicians are just the opposite." Trump also vowed to attack those he blames for causing the United States The downturn's overseas roots: economic interdependence, transnational crime, traditional allies he sees as free riders, and America's longstanding global benevolence. He believes he has the tools to fight back: punitive tariffs, naked negotiations and the threat of U.S. withdrawal. Military, humanitarian and economic support. He was willing to upend America's postwar role as a bulwark against authoritarianism and promised a diplomacy rooted in "America First" transactionalism.

There are still many obstacles in his path. Republicans hold slim majorities in the House and Senate. The conservative Supreme Court may not support all of his boundary-pushing efforts. Persistent institutional resistance within the federal bureaucracy could thwart his plans. The public remains a powerful check on any president. Trump has now proven twice that he can rise to power on the back of anti-incumbency sentiment, a cult of personality and divisive rhetoric, including racist and xenophobic attacks. He has yet to prove he can deliver on the radical vision he campaigned on. Those closest to the president-elect say he will surprise people by delivering on his promise. "Most politicians don't," Wiles said, "but he does."

Whether Trump can truly address the root causes of Americans' anger is another question. He will now have to contend with the same forces he faced when he entered the White House — a globalized economy, mass immigration, etc. — that beset predecessors in both parties and drove out incumbents around the world. He will alsoSee how far you are willing to let him go. If he succeeds, he can reinvent this. Along the way, he risks destroying the constitutional norms and institutions of America’s great democratic experiment of 2.5 centuries.

On April 2, Trump picked up a document that Wiles placed on top of a pile of documents in the private cabin of the plane flying to Grand Rapids, Michigan for a campaign rally. document. The headline wasn't subtle: "How a national abortion ban would cost Trump the election." Trump raised his eyebrows. "That title is kind of disgusting, isn't it?" he asked.

The incident was a turning point on a central issue in the campaign: whether Trump can stand on abortion after playing a key role in the defeat of Roe v. Trump Find a position that would limit his defeat in the women's suffrage. That, in turn, is part of Trump's larger challenge: how to deliver change to everyone who wants it, including voters put off by his positions or actions. “There are not enough MAGA people to actually win an election,” a Trump campaign official told TIME. "So who do you go to? How do you expand that?"

Prior to considering the memo, Trump had been prepared to support a 16-week federal abortion ban. Conway showed him a poll showing that banning surgery after 16 weeks of pregnancy was more popular than banning surgery after 24 weeks of pregnancy. But Vince Haley, Trump’s speechwriter and adviser, objected to the moderator on a conference call in late March: “He knew a 16-week ban would More stringent than the current laws in many states?" There was a pause. "Probably not," said Trump director James Blair, who prepared a slideshow arguing that such a ban would hurt Trump's interests in key states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, all of which States offer women the opportunity to undergo surgery until they are at least 20 weeks pregnant.

After flipping through Blair's speech on the plane, Trump looked up and said, "So we leave this to the states, right?" Advisers agreed. "Awesome," Trump said. "We're going to make a video." Within minutes, he was dictating his speech to Haley. Days later, Trump posted the video on his social media platforms. Throughout the rest of the campaign, a homemaker who once claimed "there has to be some kind of punishment" for women who have abortions maintained her stance on treating it as a states' rights issue.

That same month, Trump made another momentous decision: ending his campaign against mail-in voting and early voting. For more than a year, senior advisers have been urging him to embrace what Trump baselessly accuses since the 2020 election of being rife with fraud. Several of his top deputies, including Wiles and Blair, are Florida agents trained in the science of early voting storagetraining. Wiles wrote a memo to Trump that showed data on the cost to Republicans of rejecting mail-in ballots in a series of narrow 2022 races. Wiles and Trump's daughter-in-law, Laura, believe that opposing this approach would be self-defeating.

Trump listened, but it wasn’t until Rob Gleason, the former chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, visited that he framed the matter in terms he agreed with. "Sir, your people are very excited to vote for you and they want to vote as soon as possible," Gleeson told him during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in April, according to two Trump officials familiar with the matter. "They don't want to." Wait. But you have to tell them it's OK. You have to give them permission." Trump has since promoted absentee voting and early voting and directed the Republican National Committee to launch a mobilization campaign targeting mail-in voters.

By the summer, Trump had the confidence to hold history in his hands. In late June, Joe Biden's weak performance at the debates sparked an open revolt from panicked Democrats. Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13, sparking widespread support and sympathy. For many Americans, his defiance after the shooting - standing up bloody, raising his fists and chanting "Fight!" - made him an inspirational figure for the first time. “A lot of people changed in that moment,” Trump told Time magazine over a Diet Coke at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump's growing standing prompted Biden to withdraw from the race and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. Within days, Harris had solidified support, raised hundreds of millions of dollars and galvanized the moribund Democratic base. After the success of the Democratic National Convention, Trump's inner circle began to feel that he might fail. Vance said this was the "most worrying moment." "There's a sense that the honeymoon with Kamala Harris is going to last until the election?" he said.

Trump is a big fan of Don Draper’s maxim: If you don’t like what someone is saying, change the conversation. So does his team. He has long developed a rapport with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running for president independently in 2024 and has enjoyed impressive approval ratings, especially among disillusioned young people. Don Jr., worried that Kennedy's candidacy might steal key votes, began conducting secret negotiations as the negotiations progressed. Trump Jr. began coordinating with Kennedy's campaign manager, his daughter-in-law Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, to remove him from the ballot in swing states and support Trump. As Vance put it, the pitch was simple: "You're not going to win. You're not going to have any impact on this campaign other than taking votes away from Donald Trump. So why don't you actually join the team , put aside our differences and focus on the big things we care about?”

Once Kennedy accepted the plan, Wiles suggested waiting until after the Democratic National Convention to announce it because he believed it would hinder Harris' momentum. For Wiles, the endorsement was one of the key moments of the campaign. It removed the threat that Kennedy would deprive Trump of votes. But more importantly, "he allowed us to grow the party's base," she said. "He's a key way to make that happen."

Other new voters are followers of Elon Musk, who backed Trump after the Butler attack . Musk ultimately poured more than $250 million into his support, turning . Now, Musk will be one of the billionaires with direct access to the Oval Office, creating a web of competing interests.

To heighten the contrast, the campaign subtly portrayed Harris as too left-wing. It drew attention to a questionnaire Harris filled out for the American Civil Liberties Union during her last presidential campaign in 2019, in which she supported taxpayer-funded sex reassignment surgeries for detained undocumented immigrants. Trump adviser Taylor Budowich and ad producer Pat McCarthy trumpeted the line that defined his most powerful campaign ad: “Kamala is for them/them "President Trump has your back." The Trump campaign spent nearly $20 million to air the ad about 55,000 times in the first half of October.

Strategists from both parties are skeptical about whether the Trump team’s blueprint will work in a close race, or whether Harris’ headwinds — from pandemic-induced inflation to widespread concerns about Biden’s age — is divided over whether a brief campaign against Trump will be too much to overcome. "We are faced with a dangerous irony of liberalism," Jen O'Malley Dillon, head of Harris' campaign, told a Harvard College conference. The vice president is unwilling to distance herself from her unpopular boss Distance, which probably had as much of an impact as anything Trump did right. "This is a huge, looming negative factor that has been hanging over us," said Quentin Fulks, Harris' deputy campaign manager. Trump's campaign staff set up a war room in Trump's Mar-a-Lago office, poring over the upcoming fight as Trump chatted with Musk and UFC president Dana White in the club's ballroom. Coming election results. After entering his column in North Carolina and Georgia, Trump took a peek. "Anything about you?" he asked.

"No,"the assistant replied. "It feels good."

"It feels good," Trump said. When he returned to the ballroom, the jubilant crowd was dancing to Village People's "YMCA" — a staple at Trump rallies that has become a cultural touchpoint for everyone from professional athletes to TikTok enthusiasts Mimic his signature moves. Trump stood for a moment, thinking it all over, then turned to an aide and asked when they should head to a nearby convention center where he would deliver a victory speech.

This election provided Trump with the capital to address the root causes of dissatisfaction in the United States and abroad. The question now is how he plans to spend the money. By his own account, Trump would push the limits of presidential power and law.

Trump told Time magazine that one of his first official actions as president would be to pardon most of the rioters accused or convicted of storming the Capitol to prevent the certification of Biden's victory. "It will start within the first hour," he said. "Maybe the first nine minutes." Trump also plans to take early action to reverse many of Biden's executive orders and expand oil drilling on federal lands.

On January 6, 2021, pro-Trump rioters gathered on the Inauguration Day stage, waving flags, Chanting slogans

Trump’s most aggressive initiative will be immigration enforcement. He has vowed to tighten the U.S. Through a series of executive orders and aides, he will end the catch-and-release program on the U.S.-Mexico border and resume construction of a border wall. At the same time, he said he would give orders to the United States. Law enforcement agencies — and possibly the military — began a mass deportation operation aimed at removing more than 11 million undocumented immigrants. Although the Local Police Act prohibits the deployment of the military against civilians, Trump has said he is willing to call in the military to round up and deport immigrants. "If this was an invasion of us, it would not stop the military," he said. Asked how he would respond if the military refused to carry out the orders, Trump said: "I will not only do what the law allows, but I will do it to the highest level allowed by the law."

Trump told TIME he doesn’t plan to reinstate separating children from their families to stop border crossings, but he doesn’t rule it out because we’re sending whole families. Come back," he said. "I'd rather banish them all together. Tom Homan, Trump's incoming border czar, said, "There was no deliberate effort to separate families." But he also left open the possibility that children could again be taken away from their parents. "You can't say zero, that's not going to happen," Homan said.

For a massive operation of this magnitude As a result of the deportations, Trump's advisers are planning to build more detention centers to hold immigrants until they can be deported back to their ancestral homes.This process can take weeks, months or even years of negotiations with the receiving country. It's unclear whether everyone is willing to take back the migrants. Trump has said he will use access to U.S. access markets as leverage to force foreign cooperation. Trump said: "I will let them into every country, otherwise we will not do business with these countries."

The cost of this plan is high. The nonprofit American Immigration Council estimates that Trump's mass deportation plan could total more than $300 billion. Trump may seek funding from Congress, according to aides. "It's going to be expensive," Homan said.

American taxpayers may bear the brunt in other ways. Economists say evicting many of the low-wage workers who underpin many industries could lead to higher prices. “If you take away the jobs of the people who build homes, the people who do accounting, supervision, personnel and run companies, those jobs are also going to go away,” said Douglas Rivlin of America’s Voice. “This is A self-inflicted disaster." This doesn't take into account the social and psychological costs of friends and neighbors being rounded up and kicked out of their communities. Hiroshi Motomura, an immigration scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, added: "When you watch the evening news and Joe's Pizza was raided, it all becomes very real."

Trump's radicalism The extent depends in part on support from the Justice Department, which will be led by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, one of Trump's defense attorneys in his first impeachment. Trump vowed retaliation against his enemies, saying Biden, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, special counsel Jack Smith and others would face investigations and possible prosecutions . In an interview with Time magazine, Trump was vague about whether the Justice Department would target his opponents, saying only that the decision would be made by Bondi if he was confirmed. "It's up to her," he said. Regardless, his victory means the end of a federal indictment charging him with crimes including election subversion and knowingly withholding classified documents. (Trump has denied these accusations.)

On May 30, New York, Trump was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court. Team in his criminal hush money trial

In an effort to dismantle the federal bureaucracy, Trump invited Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a committee called DOGE aimed at reducing its size. Musk and Ramaswamy have vowed to massively lay off the federal workforce, especially civil servants, and cut regulations on everything from the water we drink to the air we breathe. They have pledged to complete the work in time for the 250th anniversary of U.S. Independence on July 4,

Administration experts say the commission may reduce the operating capacity of . New York"This will undermine the ability to carry out the tasks that Congress has mandated under the law," such as administering Social Security and Medicare, said Peter Shane, a university law professor. If the Musk-Ramaswamy Commission lays off large numbers of civil servants, it may have to rely on private companies. "There's no guarantee a contractor will be cheaper or more capable," Sean said.

On the campaign trail, Trump said he would not order the Justice Department to enforce the Comstock Act, which is a 19th-century law that prohibits the mailing of abortion pills. When Trump gave an interview to Time magazine before Thanksgiving, his stance on women's reproductive rights changed within a few sentences. First, he left open the possibility that the Food and Drug Administration might revoke approval of medical abortion, then said it was "extremely unlikely," before declaring that "we will consider all of them." Asked to clarify whether he was committed to preventing the FDA from taking away access to abortion pills, Trump responded: "That's always been my commitment."

Former first lady Melania Trump (center right) and Elon Musk at the Trump campaign event at Madison Square Garden in New York on October 27

Although Trump's Republican Party will hold majorities in the House and Senate, he has signaled that he will take some major legislative initiatives in addition to extending his first-term tax cuts and funding immigration crackdowns. Trump said he supports keeping the filibuster, which would allow the Senate minority to block legislation. He said he would take executive action if this prevented the bill from passing Congress. "If I'm even a little bit in trouble," he said, "I'm going to file for an executive order because I can get it done."

When Trump encounters inevitable obstacles, that leaves him with We saw how Trump’s broader views on executive power will impact his second term. “The idea of ​​an imperial presidency was not new, but he went further than anyone else,” said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University. “He didn’t care that Richard Nixon was still under None of this matters to him, so presidential power has the potential to be used extraordinarily aggressively.”

While all the focus is on Trump’s agenda, Time magazine. Much of the activity when visiting Mar-a-Lago is related to foreign affairs. Incoming security adviser Walz rushed through the meeting to talk to Vance and incoming Middle East envoy Steve Witkopf. A source who attended the security meeting said the goal was to ensure that U.S. adversaries and allies would not try to take advantage of the transfer of power between the two countries.

Many of Trump’s solutions to problems, including his immigration and trade proposals, rely on successful diplomacy. "America First" may be both a campaign slogan and a governing North Star, but it will forever end wars and advance America.

Trump’s plan could affect all importersimpose sweeping tariffs on goods, upending relationships with allies and traditional trading partners. He has already imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, a move that most economists predict will lead to higher prices. He also plans to increase tariffs on imported products, aiming to force manufacturers to produce products in the United States.

On the campaign trail, Trump liked to brag about brokering a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours. He himself admits it's trickier than he lets on. "The Middle East is easier to deal with than Russia and Ukraine," he said. "The number of young soldiers dying in the fields everywhere is staggering. It's crazy what's happening." Trump criticized Kiev for firing U.S.-made missiles into Russian territory last month. "I strongly object to launching missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why would we do that? We're just escalating this war and making things worse." Asked whether he would abandon Ukraine, Trump said he would use U.S. support for Ukraine as leverage against Russia in talks to end the war. "I want to make a deal," he said, "and the only way to make a deal is do not give up. ”

Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call during the campaign to end the Gaza war before his inauguration, but that timeline now appears highly unlikely to be met. In Many in Israel and the United States suspect Netanyahu is prolonging the fight to prevent an early election that could lead to his ouster. "He knows I want this to be over," Trump told Time magazine when asked if he believed it. As Netanyahu entered his second term, Trump hesitated before replying: “I don’t trust anybody. ”

Trump also wants to expand the Abraham Accords he brokered between Israel and several Arab states to include Saudi Arabia. But he has expressed concern about the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians. During his first term, he proposed the most comprehensive two-state solution since President Bill Clinton and blocked Netanyahu from extending Israeli sovereignty to about 30% of the West Bank. area. But on November 12, he was nominated as the incoming U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, an ardent supporter of the settlement movement and an advocate for Israel's annexation of the West Bank. p>

On December 12, Assad’s rule in Syria suddenly collapsed. It brought the once-al Qaeda-affiliated rebel group to power, but also marked another setback for the already weakened Iranian regime in Lebanon and Gaza. Some analysts fear the losses could make Iran more likely to push for a nuclear weapon since Trump. Since Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, Tehran has been getting closer to acquiring a nuclear weapon. As of April, the International Atomic Energy Agency estimated that Tehran had enough weapons-grade uranium to build a bomb within weeks. It launched a multi-front war against Israel and targeted the United States.district assets. The Iranians conspired to assassinate Trump during the presidential campaign, according to federal charges filed by the Justice Department in November. While the president-elect prides himself on not being involved in any new wars during his first term, he also leaves open the possibility that war may be necessary during his second term. Asked about the possibility of war with Iran, Trump paused before replying: "Anything could happen."

As dinner time approached, the crowd surged The gorgeous reception area of ​​Ruhai Lake Manor turns it into a lively king's palace. Job seekers camped out on couches, waiting for Howard Lutnick, the Wall Street executive who served as his transition co-chairman. Lutnick was also a Commerce Secretary appointed by Trump, who was tasked with vetting Cabinet appointees for the trait Trump values ​​most: loyalty.

Sam Kerr Illustration for Time magazine; Image credit: Getty Images: Trump: Saul Loeb - AFP; Bundy, Musk, Vance: Andrew Harnick; Lutnick: Christopher Goodney—Bloomberg; Walter: Stephanie Reynolds—Bloomberg; Homan: Bill Clark—CQ-Roll Call; Blondie: Chip Somodevilla; Wall Credit: John Nathan; Miller: Tom Williams - CQ-Roll Call; Wiles: Jabin Botsford - The Washington Post; Twitter: Blair, Budovich< /p>

Trump has chosen unconventional nominees who have shown loyalty to him and his agenda: former Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary; Tulsi Gabbard Tulsi Gabbard as Director of Intelligence; Kash Patel as FBI Director. He rewarded Kennedy by nominating him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and selected a pro-union labor secretary in a nod to working-class voters, while also appointing billionaires to top positions to appease those who favored Trump's cuts. Taxes and deregulation of donors. The formation of the Cabinet reflects the fractured coalition that propelled him to victory, with Trump die-hards mixed in with mainstream choices like Senator Marco Rubio and Treasury financier Scott Bessant.

As Trump prepares to wage war on Washington, Washington’s institutions are cautiously fighting back. Republican senators pressured Trump to abandon his top pick to run the Justice Department, far-right former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, over criticism of his bombastic style and sex with a 17-year-old girl disgusted by the accusation. (Gates has denied this.) When it became clear that there were no votes, Trump told Gates, "Matt, I don't think it's worth fighting," he told Time magazine. a few hours later, he announced that another loyalist, Bundy, would succeed him. Senators expressed alarm at Hegseth's lack of experience and accusations of sexual assault and alcohol abuse, which he denies. Some are also concerned about having Gabbard at the helm. She became a member of the intelligence community given her previous stance in support of Russia and Assad in Syria.

Trump said he would respect the Senate's role in confirming or rejecting his appointments, but would not rule out using recess appointments or appointing acting agency heads to circumvent Senate approval. “I really don’t care how they get approved,” he told TIME, “as long as they get approved.” Is recess reservation out of the question? "No," one of Trump's top advisers said. "He won't accept being bullied."

Trump at an election vigil party in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump said he would not require members to sign a formal loyalty pledge. "I think I'm going to be able to pretty much decide who's loyal," he said, and anyone who conflicts with him will quickly disappear. This includes not only firing his own cabinet secretaries and appointees, but also civil servants working in the executive branch. "If they don't abide by mine," he said, "absolutely."

Trump's aggressive use of presidential power will test the judiciary, the last line of defense against behavior that threatens constitutional norms . His critics worry that even if the high court overturns the president's actions, his Justice Department may not enforce those rulings. Trump and his aides are bracing for a barrage of lawsuits from groups challenging everything from his immigration measures to attacks on the federal bureaucracy to his attempts to withhold funding from Congress. A Trump official said: "We are limited in some ways by reality and process, but he will try to do some big things."

With unified control in Washington, Trump will face There is greater pressure to deliver on his campaign promises to lower the cost of living, revive manufacturing, reverse the U.S. trade deficit with China and achieve peace abroad. Donald Keitel, an administration expert and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Health, believes Americans are not ready for the level of disruption a second Trump term in the White House will bring, from potential changes to the education system to a fresh look at Routine childhood vaccines, Kennedy falsely linked vaccines to autism despite scientific evidence to the contrary. "The scale of the changes we're going to see is unprecedented, and the impact on the economy is huge," he said. Kettl added that voters see waste and can't be trusted, but if Trump follows through on his promise to cut massive programs, " You could get backlash very quickly that affects the lives of many, many ordinary Americans.” By the end of Trump’s first term, voters were tired of the chaos and tired of his antics. action and treat him like never beforeFrustrated by the handling of the global health crisis. He left office with low approval ratings. Trump’s victory in November may have been partly the result of short memory. Trump, for his part, is confident in his negotiating abilities. "We could use the same words," he said, "but maybe it's your eyes that matter." However, the president-elect has begun to backtrack on some of his promises, such as lowering the price of groceries. "Once things go up, it's hard to go back down," Trump said. "You know, it's very hard."

If his approach doesn't work, Trump feels like he's in trouble, criticizing Some fear that he will become more extreme. To his closest aides, the president-elect's unpredictable style will give him an edge over his U.S. rivals. "People are really worried that if they don't listen to him, something bad will happen and that there will be consequences for ignoring him," Vance said. Faced with the challenge of governing, Trump seems almost eager for his final campaign It's past. "It's sad in a way," he said of his election victory as shadows began to fall on the manicured lawn surrounding his mansion. "This will never happen again."

But a lot can happen in four years under President Donald J. Trump.