The best argument you can make about Trump’s first term is that there was a constructive tension between his disinhibition and the constraints of the staff and the bureaucracy and the institutions that surrounded him. Yes, some of his ideas were bad, dangerous and unconstitutional. But those mostly didn’t happen: They were stopped by his aides, by the so-called deep state, by the courts, by civil society.

But now the people around Trump have spent four years plotting to dismantle everything that stopped Trump the first time. That’s what Project 2025, and the nearly 20,000 résumés it reportedly vetted, is really all about. That’s what Trump’s inner circle is spending its time and energy doing. Don Jr. told The Wall Street Journal, “We want people who are actually going to follow the president, the duly elected president, not act as sort of unelected officials that know better, because they don’t know better.”

From this overly long Ezra Klein essay.

We’ve seen how it plays out, but isn’t there a pretty solid argument to make that this time’s different? That the GOP inhibitors are replaced with Yes Men this time around? Because the cabinet picks sure seem to me to be that way. Donald “let’s get the army to shoot protestors” Trump doesn’t seem to have people who will stop him at his worst anymore. Donald “I like the oil industry because they gave me money” sure seems to pave the way for special interests to screw everyone else over.

I don’t think it’ll get to mass deportations, but I highly doubt Trump will be able to resist his inhibitions to ruin the country in favor of golf this time around - because it won’t be as frustrating for him as the last time.