Donald Trump will be in a more powerful position in the second term. Here’s why

Donald Trump is entering his second term in a stronger position than he was the first time, with fewer avenues to challenge his authority.

In his victory speech, he promised that his mantra for his second term will be “promises made, promises kept,” and many were made during this presidential campaign, from keeping abortion restricted to firing special counsel Jack Smith and reducing the treasure.

Here are just some of the reasons why he is now in a stronger position entering the White House than he was in 2016:

He has a firm conservative Supreme Court

Trump entered the White House in 2016 with few opportunities to make his own mark on the Supreme Court. Then, in four years, he was able to appoint 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 pick, resigned in 2018, allowing Trump to nominate conservative Brett Kavanaugh.

With two Republican nominees replacing two Republican nominees, that still left Trump with a narrow 5-4 majority.

Then, in the final months of his presidency, liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at age 87, allowing a fundamental shift in the Supreme Court’s makeup.

Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett, but never got to see the full effect while in office. Roe v. Wadefor example, was toppled midway 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 since he appointed half of the conservatives to the court.

Lara Trump is the chair of the RNC

Donald Trump’s power in the Republican Party is so great that he was able to elect his daughter-in-law as cochair.

Lara Trump, wife of his son, Eric, gave a rousing speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention and gave a 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 stark contrast to evidence that emerged in Trump’s alleged election fraud case in Washington, DC in October.

The evidence shows that Trump is apparently trying to persuade RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel about his false allegations of election fraud in mid-December 2020. He said he wanted her to promote a report on what he claimed were rigged voting machines in Michigan.

She responded that a senior Republican figure in Michigan had deemed the report “f**king nuts” and made it clear to Trump that she would not promote or support it. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case, saying he was the victim of a political witch hunt. The judge overseeing the case is also reflecting on how far Trump is protected by immunity.

Newsweek sought email comment from the Trump campaign and the RNC on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court has granted 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 granted him broad immunity from prosecution.

He has total immunity for the actions of the president, which even includes talking to a vice president about potentially illegal activity and presumptive immunity if the vice president is acting in his role as president of the Senate.

Additionally, no evidence gathered from Trump’s official presidential roles can be used as evidence to convict him of purely private actions.

That created a crisis among federal prosecutors in Washington, DC, who indicted Trump for alleged election fraud.

They had to write a new indictment, nine pages shorter than the original and omitting some of the most important evidence. The new indictment then had to be approved by a grand jury before being presented to the trial judge, Tanya Chutkan.

Now entering his second term with such a strong legal shield, Trump will be able to implement his agenda with much less concern about potential prosecution.