Nine reasons why Trump means business this time

Since Franklin D. Roosevelt, every new US administration has been judged on its first hundred days, but it is in the first 24 hours, with a flurry of executive orders and memorandums, that a president sets the tone for the coming four years. The first 24 hours hint at nine themes that will define Donald Trump’s second administration.

Theme one: Trump II will see ‘America First’ placed at the heart of White House policy even more so than during Trump I.

Among the memorandums issued from the Oval Office after noon on Monday was one outlining an ‘America First trade policy’, a revival of Trump I positions linking trade and national security, emphasising the interests of American workers and manufacturers, and interrogating Chinese trade practices and infringement of US intellectual property. Similarly, there was a memorandum revoking US participation in the OECD’s global tax deal, which Trump’s people regard as an infringement on US sovereignty and economically harmful to American enterprise.