EDITORIAL: Can President Trump maintain newfound focus?

As Donald Trump spent 45 minutes fielding questions from reporters while he signed a burst of executive orders with his bold, black felt-tipped pen, one thing became clear.

This was a different President Donald Trump than the Donald Trump who took office in 2017.

The bluster, the hyperbole and creative interpretation of the facts is still there. So is the frenetic energy. But this time, it feels more focused.

This guy was across his brief. He answered questions from the press pack about the content of the orders calmly. Sanely, even.

The flurry of activity — signing into effect orders on a host of disparate topics including sweeping pardons for those convicted after the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, a federal government hiring freeze, the ending of federal funding for gender affirmative care, the designation of cartels and migrant gangs as “terrorist” organisations and the withdrawal of the US from the Paris climate agreement — was designed to send the message that this was a President who would get stuff done.

The 45th President’s administration was paralysed by Republican in-fighting and what Mr Trump refers to as “deep-state” opposition to his agenda.

Here was a piece of political theatre that signalled that the 47th President had learnt from those experiences. He knows now how the system works and how to bend it to his will.

Can Mr Trump, who at 78 and seven months is yet again the oldest person to take the presidential oath, sustain this new-found focus and discipline through all four years of a gruelling second term?

That remains to be seen.

Certainly he has laid out a wide-ranging and divisive agenda.

He’s vowed to seize control of the Panama Canal (which he incorrectly asserts is controlled by China).

He wants to “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens”.

Rename the Gulf of Mexico, eradicate all public service diversity and inclusion initiatives, end Americans’ constitutionally-protected birthright citizenship.

Yet even as he pledged in his inauguration speech to pursue policy which would “expand” US territory, he said his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be, a peacemaker and a unifier.”

There was no mention in his speech of Ukraine, or his previous pledge to broker peace between that nation and Russia within 24 hours. Mr Trump’s new special envoy for the Ukraine war now says Mr Trump plans to end the conflict within 100 days of taking office.

His return to the White House has undoubtedly already shaken up the world order, illustrated by Israel and Hamas’ agreement, at long last to a ceasefire. Mr Trump’s threats succeeded where Joe Biden’s diplomacy for months failed.

Not every fight will be won so easily. Sooner rather than later, it’s likely he will encounter a world leader determined to test his mettle.

But for now, the world is changing, and it’s Donald Trump who is leading that change.