The Trump show has come to Washington and American politics will never be the same again

Donald Trump will arrive in the nation’s capital with a strut, already emboldened by his key role in securing the likely ceasefire in Gaza and carrying with him an unprecedented agenda to shake up the status quo.

Donald Trump returns to the White House next week for a second term, showing no sign of changing the bombastic style that shook the US and the world from 2017 to 2021. Picture: AFP

The stage is set for the greatest showman in America to raise his hand and reclaim the presidency, capping off a political comeback for the ages and ushering in a new political era brimming with promise and fear.

In Washington – the Democrat “swamp” where just 7 per cent of people voted for Donald Trump – the Trump circus has come to town, exuding the fearless chutzpah of outsiders determined to bend American politics to the will of their new president.

Trump will arrive in the nation’s capital with a strut, already emboldened by his key role in securing the likely ceasefire in Gaza and carrying with him an unprecedented agenda to shake up the status quo.

On Tuesday morning (AEDT) he will swear the presidential oath at the same Capitol building that his supporters ransacked four years ago, triggering the now collapsed criminal charges that served only to energise his supporters to re-elect him.

America and the world will watch this show with excitement and trepidation as the most unpredictable president in memory re-assumes the leadership of the free world.

They know that Trump Mark II promises to be a much more forceful leader the second time around. He is wiser and more ­experienced in the ways of Washington and has nominated a team of loyal disrupters, from fellow billionaire Elon Musk to the scorned scion of the Kennedy clan, RFK junior, to shake up the establishment and enact his ambitious agenda.

Watching on from the presidential podium will be the winners and losers of this political revolution.

Outgoing president Joe Biden will be there, still living with the delusion that he could have defeated Trump if his party had not deposed him for his encroaching senility.

Next to him will be Kamala Harris, Trump’s vanquished ­opponent whose defeat has cast the Democrats into the dark ­realisation that their party must reinvent itself to win back working Americans for whom the bread and butter of life will always matter more than identity politics.

Also watching in Washington will be foreign minister Penny Wong and ambassador Kevin Rudd, formerly virulent critics of Trump, who will be anxiously awaiting a signal from the new president about his views on our most important alliance.

They will be keenly aware that no alliance, no matter how strong or how historical, can be taken for granted with the transactional Trump.

Trump’s brutal first phone call with then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017 over a refugee deal shows his willingness to push the boundaries of any relationship, including that with Australia.

Donald Trump pins are displayed for sale at I Love DC Gifts ahead of the inauguration. Picture: Getty

Although Trump ended his first term as a firm friend of the then prime minister Scott Morrison, the Albanese government is a different political beast to Trump on a raft of issues from climate change to Israel to Ukraine.

Albanese, Wong and Rudd are not of Trump’s political stripe and they will need dexterity and some luck to ensure they win the president’s favour on critical issues such as support for the AUKUS submarine deal and the securing of exemptions for Trump’s across the board tariff plan for imports into the US.

They will be encouraged by the comments last week by Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state and a China hawk, who predicted there would be “strong support” for AUKUS in the new administration.

But the true test for Trump’s support for AUKUS is likely to come later in his term – if Republicans start to argue that the US cannot afford to sell Virginia-class submarines to Australia at a time when US shipyards cannot keep up with submarine production targets for the US navy.

Watching Trump’s inauguration will be the four other surviving presidents – Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – following the death last month of 100-year-old Jimmy Carter. Each holds a disdain ­towards Trump who has been a frequent critic of them all. In a sign of the stark partisan political divide in Washington, the US flags on the Capitol building – which are at half mast for Carter’s memorial period – will be raised for inauguration day because Republicans control that decision, while at Biden’s Democrat White House, they will remain at half-mast for Trump’s big day. Each of the former first ladies will also attend except for Michelle Obama, Trump’s fiercest critic on the campaign trail, who it seems would rather not watch his reincarnation.

Trump’s new best friend in the tech world, Musk, will be there as will Mark Zuckerberg and even TikTok chief executive Shou Chew, whose app is on the brink of being banned in the US.

These are part of the group who Biden derided in his farewell speech this week as the “tech industrial complex” that he claimed would “pose real danger” to the ­future of democracy.

Inauguration day will be a blur of balls and galas across the capital of which Trump, along with his wife Melania, is expected to attend at least three: the Commander-in-Chief Ball, the Liberty Inaugural Ball and the Starlight Ball.

Country singer and former American Idol winner Carrie ­Underwood is due to perform America the Beautiful during the inauguration ceremony while the Village People will perform Trump’s signature campaign themes YMCA and Macho Man at his victory rally and at one of the inaugural balls.

A dress rehearsal is performed ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, in Washington, DC. Picture: AFP

This inauguration also comes amid unprecedented high-security after the New Year’s Day truck terrorist attack in New Orleans and a Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas. Trump survived two ­assassination attempts in the past year but is still expected to take at least part of the traditional post-inauguration walk down Pennsylvania Ave to the White House.

There will also be protests in other parts of the capital, although authorities say they will be smaller than those in 2017 when shopfronts were attacked in street riots after the inauguration.

The real intrigue after the ceremony is what Trump will do on day one – the 24 hours in which he once joked he would behave like a “dictator”.

He has promised to sign up to 100 executive orders on the day – enough to “make heads spin” – to set in train his vision of a transformed America. Trump says these orders will include tackling illegal immigration by closing the US-Mexico border and launching “the largest mass deportation ­operation” in US history.

He has vowed to sign immediate orders to reverse many of Biden’s climate-related policies, including ending the so-called “electric vehicle mandate” and scrapping the Biden administration’s climate subsidies.

Trump is also expected to issue immediate pardons for many of the more than 1500 people, whom he calls “patriots”, who were convicted of crimes related to their involvement in storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

He has also vowed to take immediate action to protect “women’s rights” by banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports, saying that “With the stroke of my pen, on Day One, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy”.

Whatever Trump signs on day one will kick off a raft of planned reforms across the spectrum of American politics. With a majority of both houses of congress and one term already under his belt, the new president will be able to enact his agency with unparalleled freedom. It’s a deep-breath moment for the 48 per cent of Americans who did not vote for Trump and also for America’s enemies and rivals, in particular Iran, Russia and China. But for the 50 per cent of Americans who voted for their new president, this inauguration represents the ultimate political redemption and the dawn of a new style of leadership that they have been yearning for.