He mostly had standard GOP appointees last time who weren't on board. This time he has staffed his administration with loyalists, which is why so many have so little experience. They are there to do what they're told.

One reason is the ruling by the Supreme Court on July 1st 2024 that says Agent Orange has legal immunity for most actions he does as a president.

Better preparation most likely. He had a staff of about 1,000 already hired before being sworn in. Some of them had probably been working on this stuff since 2020.

In 2016 Trump had not remolded the GOP yet. He was surrounded by "traditional" republicans who weren't fully on board with his insane, vindictive, authoritarian impulse. Republicans in Congress were also skeptical of him, making resistance from the legislature much more likely.

In 2024 the entire Republican Party had evicted the non-MAGA people. Trump could staff everything with absolute sycophants. And there is no way that the Republicans in Congress will lift a finger to change anything.

Further, Trump had years of vindictive rage bottled up after losing in 2020. Every organization and institution he spent years raging about on Truth Social suddenly becomes his target. No actual governance. Just revenge.

The sycophancy - within the administration itself, and in Congress - is pretty much universal now, which it was not in the last administration.

There was a handful of adults in the room the first time around. Now, only loyalists and sycophants. Plus, he saw that he can get away with anything (Jan 6, storing boxes of classified shit in his bathroom) and the Supreme Court backed him up.

There are no guard rails, there is no emergency stop this time.

Now he doesn’t have anything to lose anymore. He’s very old, he had to run again to avoid prison and bankruptcy. He will do anything he can to remain in power until he dies. This is my very personal opinion

Last time they lost their majority in Congress in the mid-terms and were a little kneecaped after that. It seems they've learned from that episode and are trying to achieve as much as possible before it happens again.

1. Revenge 2. Term limits so there's no reason for him to care what voters think

Putin demanded results this time.