EDITORIAL: Unpredictability the only certainty for Donald Trump

If you thought you had a fair idea of what a second Donald Trump presidency would look like from his first time around, think again.

The incoming president has given every indication that he will shift to another gear when he reclaims the Oval Office in January.

The only safe prediction is unpredictability.

In one frenetic evening just a week into his transition to power, Trump announced a host of appointees to key positions in his administration. And they send a strong message about the type of president he intends to be in his second term.

Most notably, tech billionaire and the world’s richest man Elon Musk will head the cheekily named Department of Government Efficiency, the acronym for which, DOGE, refers to an internet meme of a Shiba Inu dog wearing a perturbed expression, as well as a cryptocurrency promoted by Musk. We told you it was getting weird.

Working alongside Musk will be biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Together the pair will be responsible for conducting slash-and-burn cuts across the American public service, with the goal of reducing Federal bureaucracy by a third.

Writing on his site X, Musk said DOGE would have “a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars,” adding: “This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining.”

Once a darling of the Left for taking electric vehicles mainstream through the success of his Tesla car manufacturer, Musk’s political conversion now makes him reviled by progressives.

But regardless of your opinion on Musk’s politics, personality or penchant for provocation, you can’t deny he is a remarkable, creative and adaptable businessman who knows how to get stuff done.

And he’s certainly got runs on the board in terms of slashing and burning. The workforce of X has been cut by 80 per cent since his 2022 takeover of the site, then known as Twitter.

Other notable recent Trump appointments include Fox News host and army veteran Pete Hegseth as defence secretary, former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency and pro-Israel former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as ambassador to the country.

The appointment of Hegseth in particular has raised eyebrows given his lack of senior military and national security experience.

But this is second term Donald Trump. Thanks to America’s two-term maximum, he feels liberated to do as he fancies without giving thought to how it may affect his re-election chances.

It’s a whole different ball game.

There are plenty of Americans who welcome this new approach. For his supporters — and the election result showed decisively that they are in the majority — Trump’s return has revived confidence and optimism.

For those who do not support him, it’s a different story.

How things play out from here is anybody’s guess.

Volatility is the new normal.

And he isn’t even in the White House yet.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore