Why Donald Trump's second term is already shaping up to be much worse than his first

Donald Trump hopes to have a very different cast of characters around him in his second term as US President (Picture: Chip Somodevilla) | Getty Images

There were hopes that Donald Trump’s looming second term as US President would not be as bad as all that. The world survived his first term, after all.

However, back then there were some heavyweight figures around him. People like his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who reportedly called him a “f***ing moron”. Or James Mattis, Trump’s Secretary of Defence, who condemned his ex-boss for deliberately trying to divide Americans. Or his chief of staff, John Kelly, who came to view Trump as a “fascist”.

However, the team Trump is currently assembling contains people who appear to share one particular trait: staunch loyalty to him. His first appointment, Susie Wiles, as White House chief of staff, was a welcome surprise, given she worked for Ronald Reagan, but she may be an exception.

Donald Trump hopes to have a very different cast of characters around him in his second term as US President (Picture: Chip Somodevilla) | Getty Images

Robert Kennedy Jr has idiotically opined “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” and persisted with thoroughly debunked claims that vaccines cause autism. Trump wants him to be Health Secretary.

Matt Gaetz was once the subject of a US Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls, which ended with no federal charges against him. Now Trump wants to put him in charge of the Justice Department as US attorney general.

Tulsi Gabbard is Trump’s pick to be the next director of national intelligence. A Democrat until recently, she claimed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could have been avoided if the West had recognised the Kremlin's "legitimate security concerns" about Kyiv’s attempts to join Nato. This and other remarks prompted Republican senator Mitt Romney to accuse her of embracing "actual Russian propaganda".

The list goes on, and fights loom in Congress over confirmation of some appointments, which may perhaps be designed by Trump to flush out Republicans who still dare to oppose him. Former US Congressman ‪Adam Kinzinger, an unabashed Republican critic of Trump, wrote on social media platform Bluesky that the Trump administration was “shaping up to be the biggest dumpster fire in history”.

The heat from such a fire would be felt worldwide. Best of luck, America, you’re going to need it. But so are we all.