Trump 2.0: Confident, organised and still freewheeling
26 Jan 2025
On Saturday evening, as his plane headed from Las Vegas to Miami during a whirlwind, coast-to-coast first trip since returning to office, US President Donald Trump made his way to the back of Air Force One to talk to gathered reporters.
On the in-flight television screens, Fox News was back, having replaced CNN - and the president, fresh from a week in which he upended America's government and ripped up its immigration policies, was feeling confident.
"We're getting A-pluses on the work done - and also the amount of work done," he said in response to a question from the BBC.
"People are saying it was the most successful first week that anybody can remember a president having," he went on.
During a 20-minute conversation with journalists, Trump confirmed he had carried out a late-night purge of several independent watchdogs in government agencies.
There was more: the president said he thought the US would "get Greenland" as its own territory; he called on Egypt and Jordan to take in more Palestinians; and he said he had a "very good relationship" with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer - even though "he's liberal".
It was the kind of impromptu question and answer session that Joe Biden rarely did while in office, and the latest sign that everything has changed in Washington and in US politics in the six days since Trump returned to the presidency.