| President Donald Trump returned to power promising a flurry of executive orders and vowing to remake the American cultural landscape in a burst of activity his allies hailed with a term borrowed from a previous era of conflict: “shock and awe.” They would do well to remember how quickly the shock and the awe can dissipate in Washington. Trump is only the second president to return for a non-consecutive second term, but like every president in the modern era, his first and most implacable opponent will be time.  Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office to Trump. Photographer: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo Trump pledged he would aggressively use executive authority to, among other things, seal off the US border with Mexico, begin deporting undocumented immigrants already in the US and open more land to energy exploration. But some of his biggest priorities — those that involve taxes, spending and actual changes to immigration law — will need action by Congress, an institution that moves at a glacial pace, even on a good day. (There haven’t been many of those recently.) That’s where time is of the essence. Trump’s second swearing-in started the countdown to the 2026 midterm congressional elections. And historically, that’s when a president’s party loses ground and control of one or both chambers of Congress can flip. The good news for Trump is that for roughly the next two years he’ll have fairly compliant Republican majorities in the House and Senate. The bad news is that while the party is united in fealty to Trump, it also is in many ways a rolling identity crisis. The party of business has been courting trade unions, while seating billionaire moguls in front of Trump’s own cabinet nominees for the inauguration. It’s dedicated to cracking down on immigration, but immediately at odds the moment policy details come into play. Witness, for instance, the schoolyard shouting match between Trump’s onetime strategist Steve Bannon and his current patron, Elon Musk, over the question of H-1B visas for high-skilled workers. And that doesn’t even get to the procedural question of moving legislation through the House. Speaker Mike Johnson serves essentially at the pleasure of Trump, but with a slender majority that makes him subject to the whim of the tiniest rump of Republican members. On top of that, House and Senate Republicans haven’t yet been able to agree on how to proceed on legislation encompassing major pieces of Trump’s agenda. It’s no wonder Trump is focusing on executive actions, some more tethered to reality and legality than others. The president vowed to rename the Gulf of Mexico and to restore President William McKinley’s name to Denali, the Alaskan mountain that is the tallest in North America. He also promised to end birthright citizenship – something that would likely require the Supreme Court to overturn an interpretation of the 14th Amendment dating back to the 19th century. Other orders are sure to draw legal challenges. It’s one thing for Trump to rename a mountain or claim he’s going to take back the Panama Canal. It’s another to deliver some of the more sweeping pledges he made during the campaign – those on remaking the economy, undoing the legacy of his predecessor, Joe Biden, and invigorating the areas of the country where his political support is strongest. Trump’s second term is only a few hours old, but the clock is ticking on his presidency. — Ted Mann Key Reading: | 
