Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent dissects the first week of Donald Trump's return to the presidency

Over in the US, President Donald Trump has completed his first week in office and he hasn't wasted any time reversing the policies from his predecessor.

After returning to the White House, Trump signed hundreds of executive actions that addressed issues he raised on the campaign trail - from changes to the economy and immigration to renaming the Gulf of Mexico and releasing files related to President John F Kennedy's assassination.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says Trump's likely feeling extra pressure to make changes in this second term.

"We know he only has one term and we know in about 18 months we're going to start talking about who's going to run in 2028, candidates are going to be throwing their hat in and starting their campaign... and that's going to take the spotlight off his agenda."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
It has been a very big week in US politics,
hasn't it. Donald Trump is five days into his second
term as president and has not mucked around stalk us
through those first few days. I'm joined by Dan Mitchinson
and the US Good morning, Dan, Thank you for being
with us.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
And to you my pleasure.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
What have you made of Trump's first five days in office?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
You know, it's interesting because we always talk about the
first one hundred days in office here in the US
when a president moves into the White House, but with him,
it really has been the first five days, and he
has done so much, and I think this is part
of his plan. What he's trying to do is what
we call flood the zone. So he's really trying to
do an awful lot in a short period of time,

(00:55):
and that's going to make it difficult for any one
of his individual moves to get the kind of scrutiny
that it might under normal circumstances.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yes, it certainly has been a suit nami of news.
What is his approval rating since returning?

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, right now, it's about forty seven percent of people
that say they approve of him this week. They did
the poll in the first couple of days that he
was in office, and this actually shows that his popularity
is a lot higher than it was throughout his last
term here. Not everyone, though, as you know, is happy
with everything he's done. About sixty percent say that they
don't agree with him pardoning all the people that were

(01:34):
convicted of the crimes for the assault on the US
Capitol back in twenty twenty one. And I think a
lot of people are just fascinated that he's back here.
One of my favorite, I have to tell you, one
of my favorite comments came from somebody that was being
interviewed by the BBC, This woman who said she felt
like she was watching a WWE professional wrestling match, you know,
just there's showmanship and playing for the cameras and that

(01:56):
you can tell that entertainment is a big part of him.
And my first thought was, Yeah, that's kind of what
he's been doing for the last few decades, and I
think that's what we're going to deal with for the
next couple of years.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Is that sort of the general mood in America? It's
sort of on the Street. How people feeling after the
start of this presidency.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
I think it's sort of a wait and see thing.
I mean, he did, grant you he signed more executive
orders in his first day than the last ten presidents combined.
And there's a sense, at least I think the public
is getting in the media certainly getting that there's sense
of urgency with him this time, because he knows he
only has one term, and we know in about eighteen

(02:34):
months we're going to start talking about, Okay, who's going
to run for twenty twenty eight. Candidates are going to
be throwing their hat in and starting their campaign, which
goes on for about two and a half years over here,
it seems like, and that's going to take some of
the spotlight off his agenda. So I think he wants
to get as much done in as little period of
time as he can.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
You're right, he has not held back with the executive orders,
but there is a backlash already. Court proceedings taking place
which areas have changed. Do you think are going to
proceed in which might be halted?

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Well, I think this is going to be interesting because
we're we're seeing, of course, he's focusing on limiting immigration
in the stricter immigration laws vetting process for visa applicants
over here, that's already gotten pushed back from from the courts.
He's starting to impose tariffs on our trading partners, or
at least our top ones over here in Mexico, Canada, China,

(03:23):
and the EU as soon as next week. And that
means I mean people think, hey, that's great. People are
all about that over here. What they're not thinking about
is when you when you put a twenty five percent
tariff on something that's coming into this country, the business
isn't going to eat up that extra twenty five percent.
That's going to be passed down to me and to
you and to anybody else that wants to buy these things.

(03:43):
So I think it may sound good on paper, but
I think he will have a lot more pushback. We're
under an extreme amount of fires here in California right now,
and the President did come out here yesterday to meet
with Governor Gavin Newsom, who is one of the top
contenders for running for president four years. And these two
guys have been going, you know, head to head for
or for a long time. And right now the President

(04:06):
suggesting withholding money from California unless we change our water
policies out here. So, you know, I think he's trying
to move forward on a lot of things, but I
think he's also getting back his own on a lot
of people that went against him last time around.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, if you look at the wake, I would sort
of sum it up by saying, he is a man
of his word. He has taken action where he said
he'd take action, but obviously those consequences may take it
a little while to sort of hit home. Military service
members have also been sent to the border. Dan, how's
that been received?

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Well, I mean the I mean California is a big
military state, San Diego where a lot of these military
people are coming from. He's a big military town. It's
where I grew up. It's a big city. It's transient
in some ways in terms of people sort of come
through it, but the one thing that is constant is
its military presence right there. So he wants he's getting
a lot of the military down to the border right now.

(04:59):
He wants to stop these refugee arrivals, so he suspended
the admission program. There is going to be a ninety
day review of this, and there's gonna be recommendations from
Homeland Securities. So really I think he's going back to
what he talked about a few years ago. He wants
to continue constructing the wall and other barriers. He wants
more military, which there was almost immediately after he went through.

(05:21):
And the other thing that you know, you have to
always find that one little nugget, that one little talking
point when something happens in a news story. And I
know this is sort of a three sixty, but for me,
it was this diet coke button that he had installed
again on his He is a huge fan of diet coke,
and when he was in office last time, he has
a button when you next time you're watching him on
TV in the in the Oval office, look to the well.

(05:43):
It's going to be on his right, but it's going
to be your left looking at the TV. He has
a little button that is installed there. Anytime he wants
a Diet coke, he presses that button and he gets
somebody that comes in and that's their only job is
to bring him that diet coke. I mean, all the
things to have installed in the first date in the
White House, but that's what he wants.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Hey, God, he's cavit everything, Dan Mitchinson, thank you so
much for your time this week is always very much.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Appreciated, my pleasure.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks A B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio