Donald Trump reportedly did not expect to win the presidency in 2016, which isn't surprising considering how ill-prepared he and his team were to take control of the country.
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He appointed established conservatives to key positions before learning some had personal principles that extended beyond indulging the president's ego. Trump wreaked havoc on the United States for four years, but the damage might have been even greater if he was n't battling career public servants who tried to check his impulses, or if he was n't such a political neophyte.
Trump will not be the dog that caught the car heading into his second term. He'll be ready and waiting to take the wheel and hit the gas.
The former president has now had nearly a decade to burnish his understanding of how Washington, D.C., works, and to assemble a political machine laser-focused on exploiting a federal government full of loopholes to give him the power to enact an authoritarian agenda that could spell disaster for the economy, the environment, human rights, and democracy.