Some of the best relationship advice I ever received was to begin the way you intend to carry through. That probably meant something like being kind in disagreements and doing the dishes without being asked but this week, especially, the lesson seems appropriate for politics, too.

Donald Trump was again sworn in to the most powerful office in the world on Tuesday (AEDT). Unlike in 2017, though, he began this term by leaving his supporters out in the cold while he and his billionaire friends enjoyed the warmth of the Capitol, a building some of his supporters are all too familiar with.

Donald Trump holds a sabre after using it to cut a cake, as Vice President J.D. Vance looks on, at the Commander-in-Chief Inaugural Ball.Credit: AP

The week leading up to his swearing-in included a voluntary shutdown of TikTok across the United States (likely orchestrated to make Trump the hero to the more than 100 million dopamine-addicted American users when it was switched back on), and the launch of his own cryptocurrency meme coin, $Trump, which rose to a peak value of $US70 billion ($112 billion) – the first lady also launched her own meme coin, $Melania. Arguably Trump’s most on-the-nose decision, though, was to shut down his outdoor inauguration event to instead host it in the Capitol building with the billionaire CEOs and YouTube stars who came to pledge their loyalty.

Trump made a flurry of executive orders hours after taking office that will almost certainly result in........

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