Foreign leaders have lined up to speak with him. He has rattled Mexico and Canada with threats of steep tariffs and warned there would be “hell to pay” for militants in Gaza unless they release the hostages by the time he’s sworn in.
That won’t happen for another 45 days, but Donald Trump, the president-in-waiting, isn’t shying away from acting like the president-in-reality.
Trump can’t sign a bill or issue an executive order yet, but he is crowding out Joe Biden as the sitting president winds down his term and steadily recedes from public view. In two foreign trips since the election, Biden has answered all of two questions from reporters.
He has been left to kibitz about Trump’s pronouncements — “I hope he rethinks it,” he said of Trump’s plan to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico — rather than drive an agenda of his own.
As for Trump, “his view is that he’s not going to follow rules that he thinks are stupid rules,” said a former senior White House official in Trump’s first term. “His view is these are hostages and if he can help bring them home, then why would he follow protocol if it’s going to impact peoples’ lives?”
At this point, Trump is “already basically running things, and he’s not even president yet,” the person added.
Trump’s penchant for plunging into current affairs is testing the one-at-a-time dictum that presidents are supposed to honor but, for reasons of political expediency or practical necessity, usually don’t.
This weekend, Trump will join French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral five years after it was devastated by fire. Biden was invited but opted not to attend, a White House official said.
Trump’s return to the world stage after a four-year hiatus, coupled with news about his hires, has overshadowed Biden’s trip to sub-Saharan Africa this week, in which he faced fallout from the sweeping pardon he gave his son Hunter.
— ABC NEWS
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