Donald Trump’s second term in the White House is shaping up to face significant challenges just 10 days before his inauguration.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s transition team for comment via email.
Sentencing Before Inauguration
Trump was sentenced on Friday in his hush money case.
It comes after he was convicted last year on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a scheme to disguise reimbursements for a $130,000 hush money payment to former adult film actor Stormy Daniels as legal expenses in 2016.
Trump denied the charges, but a jury found him guilty in May. He is now the first convicted felon to serve as president
Since then, Trump has sought to delay his sentencing. This week, he urged the Supreme Court to consider whether he was entitled to an automatic stay of his sentencing, but the justices rejected the application by 5-4.
On Friday, he was sentenced to an “unconditional discharge,” meaning he will not face jail time. Todd Blanche, an attorney for Trump, said before the sentencing that the legal team intends to appeal the verdict.
“A lot of what the government just said presupposes that this case is legally appropriate,” Blanche said following prosecutor Joshua Steinglass’s comments in court. Blanche noted that Trump’s lawyers intend to appeal the verdict.
“A majority of the American people also agree that this case should not have been brought,” Blanche added.
Appearing remotely before the judge in court today, Trump maintained his innocence.
“It was done to damage my reputation so I would lose the election,” he said.
“This has been a political witch hunt. I am totally innocent. I did nothing wrong.”
Concluding his statement, he said, “I was treated very unfairly, and I thank you very much.”
Flags At Half-Staff
Flags will be flying at half-staff when Trump takes office later this month in honor of former President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29 at age 100.
President Joe Biden‘s proclamation about Carter’s death directed that flags be flown at half-staff “as an expression of public sorrow” for 30 days, meaning it will cover Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Trump criticized the decision, falsely stating that it would be the first time this has occurred at an inauguration.
“In any event, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half mast,” he wrote. “Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out.”
Flags were flown at half-staff during President Richard Nixon’s second inauguration on January 20, 1973, as they had been lowered earlier after the death of former President Harry S. Truman on December 26, 1972.
During a briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was questioned about whether the White House might reconsider its decision to fly flags at half-staff following Trump’s concerns regarding his inauguration. Jean-Pierre firmly responded, “No.”
After his inauguration, Trump could technically overturn Biden’s proclamation and order the flags raised, a precedent set by Nixon in 1973 when he briefly raised the flags for a day to honor the release of American prisoners of war in Vietnam.
Ukraine Peace Hopes Fading
Trump previously claimed that he would end the Russia-Ukraine war “within 24 hours” of taking office. But those hopes now look to be fading after the president-elect reportedly pushed back the timeline to several months, according to the Financial Times.
“The whole [Trump] team is obsessed with strength and looking strong, so they’re recalibrating the Ukraine approach,” a European official told the outlet.
Earlier in the week, Trump suggested that “six months” was a more realistic target to end the war. On Wednesday, Keith Kellogg, Trump’s appointed special envoy for Ukraine, told Fox News that the aim was to stop the conflict in “100 days.”
Late Tuesday, Trump said at a news briefing at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida that a meeting is being arranged with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He did not say when the meeting would take place.
“President Putin wants to meet” and “we are setting it up,” Trump said. “We have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess.”
Two days later, Putin’s spokesman said Moscow had received no requests to set up a meeting, according to the Russian news outlet Interfax. However, the Kremlin said Putin would “welcome” any approach from Trump and was prepared for “dialogue” with the United States.
For nearly a year, Trump has said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would not have happened if he were still president. He has cited his apparent agreements with Putin and the Russian president’s lack of respect and fear for Biden.
Jack Smith’s Report
The Department of Justice is seeking to have special counsel Jack Smith‘s report into Donald Trump‘s federal indictments released before the president-elect takes office.
Under DOJ rules, all prosecutors must issue a report on any attempted prosecution, successful or not. But if the report is not released before Trump takes office in 10 days, it will likely never be published.
Smith’s report on the two federal cases against Trump could offer valuable insights into the evidence against him in the classified documents case and the case related to his efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election.
On January 7, Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, ruled that the report should be blocked.
However, on Thursday, a federal appeals court ruled on a point of law that the DOJ could, in theory, release the report but held that Cannon’s decision would have to be appealed before it could actually be shared publicly. Three hours later, the DOJ launched an appeal against Cannon’s ruling, seeking to overturn it as soon as possible and have the report released before January 20.
If granted, the DOJ will send a copy of Smith’s report to Congress and, possibly, release the election interference part to the public.
The DOJ has indicated that in any case, it will only release the part of the report that deals with Trump’s election interference case because the classified documents case is ongoing.
In a letter released Monday, Trump’s attorneys attempted to block the report, asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to remove Smith from his post and either decline to release the report or hand over the matter to Trump’s incoming administration.
“Because Smith has proposed an unlawful course of action, you must countermand his plan and remove him promptly. If Smith is not removed, then the handling of his report should be deferred to President Trump’s incoming attorney general, consistent with the expressed will of the People,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.
They also said they would seek legal recourse should Garland deny their requests.
Supreme Court Pushback
Trump has had a mixed record with the Supreme Court. His first administration had the lowest Supreme Court win rate in modern history, according to a database compiled by professors at Washington University in St. Louis and The Pennsylvania State University.
The court also refused to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss and rejected him repeatedly in clashes over investigations and documents after he left office.
However, it also ruled in favor of broad presidential immunity to criminal prosecution in July, effectively scuttling Jack Smit’s case against Trump. It also rejected efforts to ban him from the ballot under a constitutional provision barring insurrectionists from holding office.
The court’s latest ruling, 5-4 in favor of Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case going ahead, is perhaps a sign that the highest court in the land will not yield to Trump’s demands.
Nevertheless, there are still concerns that the court may not act as a check against Trump when he takes office in the way it should after ABC News reported that Associate Justice Samuel Alito spoke to Trump by phone on Tuesday hours before the president-elect’s lawyers filed an emergency request with the justices asking them to the judge from moving forward with sentencing in his criminal hush money case.
Alito told ABC News he called Trump to recommend one of his former law clerks for a job in the new administration.
“William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position,” Alito said. “I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump, and he called me yesterday afternoon.”
“Trump seems to approach the Supreme Court as his back-pocket way out of any legal thicket,” Kimberly Wehle, a University of Baltimore law professor focusing on the constitutional separation of powers, told Bloomberg News. “I don’t get the sense he’s concerned whether they will establish guardrails where they haven’t done so.”
Gaetz Dropping Out
Trump may face challenges passing his agenda after appointing GOP House members to his administration.
Trump appointed Florida Representative Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general. Immediately after the announcement, Gaetz resigned from the House of Representatives. Less than a month later, he withdrew his nomination after allegations of sexual misconduct.
Gaetz’s resignation gave the GOP one less seat in the House after the party won a thin majority in the House during the 2024 election, now 219-215.
The GOP’s majority could get even smaller, with Representatives Mike Waltz and Elise Stefanik nominated for national security adviser and United Nations ambassador roles.
If the Senate confirms Stefanik, the GOP’s majority could drop to 217, in which case, a single GOP defection would mean no vote could pass without Democratic support until new Republicans are elected to replace Stefanik and Waltz in special elections, which could take months.
In a Wednesday meeting with Senate Republicans, Trump emphasized urgency in passing his agenda. While initially advocating for a single comprehensive bill, he appeared open to dividing it into two after pushback from GOP senators.
“One bill, two bills—doesn’t matter to me. They’re going to work that out. But the end result is going to be the same,” Trump told reporters.
Approval Rating Growing
While Trump has undoubtedly faced difficulties, there is some positive news for the president-elect.
According to 538’s tracker, Trump’s net favorability rating is currently at the highest point it has ever been, presently standing at -0.3, up from -18.4 points in January 2021.
While this is lower than Biden’s net rating in January 2021, which stood at +23, according to 538, Trump is still more popular than ever. This time last year, Trump’s net favorability stood at -17 points, according to 538’s tracker, and at the beginning of November 2024, just before the election, it stood at -8.6.
Trump is “about as popular with the American public as he has ever been,” CNN pollster Harry Enten said this week.
The boost for Trump comes as his influence over the Republican Party is growing. Enten noted this week that of the 17 GOP members of Congress who previously voted to impeach Trump, only five remain after this year’s election—two in the House and three in the Senate.
Trump also won a decisive victory in the 2024 election, and the Republicans are set to control the White House, the House and the Senate.
“This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” Enten said.
Trump’s influence over his party was also apparent when House Speaker Mike Johnson was reelected to the role this month after Trump endorsed him. It is doubtful that Johnson could have been voted in without Trump’s public support, which likely swayed other GOP members in the House, including Representatives Ralph Norman and Keith Self, who switched their votes to Johnson after phone calls with the president-elect.
Much of Johnson’s support had come tumbling down in the last year after backlash over some of his compromises, including aiding Ukraine against conservative wishes and yielding to Elon Musk on short-term spending.
Meanwhile, Republicans’ willingness to support the president-elect was on display earlier this week when several of his allies defended his claims the U.S. should take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, as well as the Panama Canal, and make Canada the 51st state.
Trump’s popularity could allow him to pass his agenda easily through Congress if Republicans rally around him. It could also strengthen the likelihood of another MAGA candidate becoming the GOP’s nominee in the next presidential election, further entrenching Trump’s populist and nationalist vision within the party’s platform.
What Happens Next
Trump’s inauguration ceremony will take place on January 20, after which he will begin his second term as president and begin to enact his agenda, which includes mass deportations, rolling back environmental protections, and raising tariffs on countries such as China, Mexico and Canada.
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