The chaos that will surround Trump‘s second presidency of the USA has already become apparent.
Given that Trump‘s only personal agenda appears to be saving his own skin and avoiding prison, the most important aspect of this presidency is who will have the most influence over him when decisions have to be made.
Trump‘s openness to the opinion of others could, if he consulted with wise people, be considered a strength. The problem for the USA is that those whose counsel he takes are not only unwise, they are vehemently opposed to each other. Before even reaching office, this has become very apparent.
Massive divisions have already emerged on the issue of migration. Musk and his team of tech billionaires want to perpetuate visa schemes for migrants, on whom they depend for the development of new products. The Make America Great Again faction within the Republican Party, which has been the basis of Trump's support for a decade or so now, is vehemently opposed to such visas, whatever the economic cost to the USA of denying those with critical skills access to the country.
Open ideological warfare has broken out between these factions on Twitter, X, or whatever else you wish to call it. There is nothing subtle about the language being used or the venom being expressed. These people are, after all, well-practised in delivering abuse because that is their stock-in-trade. The positions appear irreconcilable, and Trump has now made it very obvious that he is siding with Musk, pitching himself as a consequence against the anti-immigrants, which is definitely going to infuriate them.
Where will this leave the debate on the 11 million undocumented people in the USA who Trump claims must be expelled? It's a very good question because Trump has clearly come down on the side of the economy regarding visas for those with skills. If the question of the merit of expelling 11 million undocumented people were to be decided on the same basis, then there is no doubt that they would be allowed to stay. The US economy is dependent upon them. The MAGA will want to ignore that fact.
If those on the far-right thought that running a far-right government was going to be easy, then they were seriously mistaken. The Trump government is already in for a very difficult ride.
The same will also be true with regard to issues around healthcare. Tackling obesity is the front line here. Robert F Kennedy has been given the task of doing this. He wants to change the nation's diet, even though doing so will massively upset its food producers, including the Midwest farmers who voted for Trump. Musk, on the other hand, wants a solution based on Ozempic-style drugs. Again, the positions look pretty irreconcilable, but on this occasion, this gives Trump the headache of deciding which of these two of his chosen nominees he will back, with their only being the possibility of keeping one happy.
I have already suggested that politics is messy in this morning's video. What is apparent is that it is going to get very much messier still. The far-right is clueless as to what they really want to do with power and are as willing to fight each other as they are to fight everyone else. The only good news from all this is that Trump might make it very clear to the rest of the world that opting to put populists like him in power is a very bad idea. The only problem is it might take a while for that message to get through. Meanwhile, vast numbers will suffer as a consequence of the madness of these people.