Donald Trump is heading into his second term in a stronger position than he was first time around, with fewer routes to challenge his authority.
In his victory speech, he vowed his mantra for his second term will be "promises made, promises kept," and there were many made during this presidential election campaign, from keeping abortion restricted to firing special counsel Jack Smith and reducing taxes.
Here are just some of the reasons he is now in a stronger position going into the White House than he was in 2016:
He Has A Firmly Conservative Supreme Court
Trump went into the White House in 2016 with few options to put his own stamp on the Supreme Court. Then, in four years, he was able to nominate Supreme Court judges three times.
Conservative justice Antonin Scalia died and Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to replace him.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's moderate swing voter, resigned in 2018, allowing Trump to nominate the conservative Brett Kavanaugh.
With two Republican nominees replacing two Republican nominees, that still left Trump with a narrow 5-4 majority.
Then, in the last months of his presidency, liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg died aged 87, allowing a fundamental shift in the Supreme Court makeup.
Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett, but never got to see the full effect while he was in office. Roe v. Wade, for example, was overturned half way through the Biden administration.
This time, Trump enters the White House with a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court and will be able to claim credit for any conservative decision they make, as he appointed half the conservatives to the court.
Lara Trump Is Cochair Of The RNC
Such is the power of Donald Trump within the Republican Party that he was able to hand pick his daughter-in-law for cochair.
Lara Trump, wife of his son, Eric, gave a rousing speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention and gave a clenched first salute to mirror Donald Trump's stance just earlier, when he was shot and grazed in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
With the Trump family in tighter control of the Republican Party, Trump is in a stronger position to assert his power, with less chance of internal opposition.
This is all in marked contrast to evidence that emerged in Trump's alleged election fraud case in Washington, D.C. in October.
The dossier of evidence shows Trump apparently trying to persuade RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel of his bogus election fraud claims in mid-December 2020. He said that he wanted her to promote a report into what he claimed were rigged voting machines in Michigan.
She retorted that a senior Republican figure in Michigan had assessed that the report was "f**king nuts" and made it clear to Trump that she would not promote or endorse it. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case, and said that he was the victim of a political witch hunt. The judge overseeing the case is also reflecting on how far Trump is shielded by immunity.
Newsweek sought email comment from the Trump campaign and the RNC on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court Has Given Him Broad Immunity
Trump has far more legal cover than he had in his first term. That's thanks to a July 1 Supreme Court ruling that gave him broad immunity from prosecution.
He has total immunity for presidential acts, which even include talking to a vice president about potentially illegal activity, and presumptive immunity if the vice president is acting in his role as Senate president.
In addition, no evidence gathered from Trump's official presidential roles can be used as evidence to convict him for purely private acts.
That created a crisis among federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., who indicted Trump for alleged election fraud.
They had to write a new indictment, nine pages shorter than the original, and leaving out some of the key evidence. The new indictment then had to be approved by a grand jury before being presented to trial judge, Tanya Chutkan.
Now going into his second term with such a strong legal shield, Trump will be able to carry out his agenda with much less concern about potential prosecution.
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