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The first term ascendancy of Trump to power was accompanied by his overwhelming self-confidence, bragging about his power (e.g., claiming that Article 2 of the Constitution lets him do whatever he wants), and behavior described in the journal International Affairs as "possessing the maturity of a petulant child rather than a man in his seventies" (Dezner, 2020, p. 384). This immaturity and impulse-control failure, along with his childlike refusal to read normal presidential reading, such as the daily intelligence briefing, meant that his accomplishments in office in his first term were predictably few, mostly enabled by then-Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who drove through the tax cuts largely benefitting the über-rich and the stacking of the US Supreme Court.
That court gave Trump virtual immunity from federal prosecution no matter what he did, as long as it was done during his presidency. In addition, during the Biden years a highly detailed plan was developed for the takedown of the so-called deep state (the non-partisan guard rails structurally built into the US federal government that survived all elections and kept the government running), Project 2025. This has enabled the most impetuous Trump behavior, especially his raging revenge impulses toward any and all critics and those who have tried to hold him to account at any point.
Indeed, this sense of omnipotence is so utterly infused in Trump's thinking that he will make absurd commands to any and everyone, telling Harvard University what they can teach, even telling the head of the Federal Aviation Authority that all air traffic controllers must come from MIT because they all must be "geniuses[1]."
Drezner, D. W. (2020). Immature leadership: Donald Trump and the American presidency. International Affairs, 96(2), 383–400. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/10.1093/ia/iiaa009
[1] https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/new-email-reveals-trump-s-aggressive-new-claim-of-executive-power-tpm-233841733963
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