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South Korea has endured months of political turmoil since President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in December, sending soldiers into parliament in his attempt to subvert civilian rule.

The Constitutional Court delivered the long-awaited ruling, ousting Yoon, whose impeachment it had earlier suspended. The development will potentially bring an end to the unrest.

Here is a recap of events:

December 3: martial law

On December 3, after a budget tussle with the opposition, Yoon takes to television to declare martial law in a flashback to South Korea’s authoritarian past.

He says he wants to protect the country against “threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness”.

Armed troops head to parliament, scaling fences, smashing windows and landing by helicopter in an apparent bid to stop lawmakers from overturning the decree.

As thousands of protesters gather outside, lawmakers vote 190-0 to nullify Yoon’s declaration in the early hours of December 4.

Soldiers begin withdrawing and Yoon reappears on television and lifts martial law. Protesters celebrate. Yoon goes to ground.

December 4: impeachment plan

The opposition immediately vows on December 4 to push for impeachment and file an official motion.

They file separate complaints of “insurrection” against Yoon, his defence and interior ministers, and “key military and police figures involved, such as the martial law commander and the police chief”.

Police announce they are investigating Yoon and others for “insurrection”.

December 14: Yoon impeached

Out of 300 lawmakers, 204 vote to impeach Yoon and 85 vote against the motion — their second attempt after a failed vote a week earlier.

Yoon is suspended from office while South Korea’s Constitutional Court has six months to deliberate on the vote.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo becomes the nation’s acting leader.

The vote is followed by scenes of jubilation among tens of thousands of demonstrators in front of the parliament building.

December 27: second impeachment

On December 27, lawmakers impeach acting president Han over what the opposition calls his refusal to sign into law special bills to investigate Yoon.

Finance minister Choi Sang-mok takes over.

Meanwhile, the Corruption Investigation Office sends a third summons to Yoon on December 26, after he defied investigators’ demands twice in a week.

Yoon faces impeachment and criminal charges of insurrection, which could result in life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

December 30: arrest warrant

Investigators apply for an arrest warrant for Yoon after he fails to report for questioning.

It is the first attempt in the country’s history to forcibly detain a president before an impeachment procedure is complete.

Hundreds of Yoon’s supporters rally outside his compound to protest his impeachment, as Yoon vows in a statement to fight alongside them “until the very end to protect this nation”.

January 3: first arrest attempt

Investigators make their move to arrest Yoon but are blocked by his guards in a tense six-hour standoff.

They are forced to stand down, citing security concerns.

January 14: impeachment trial

The Constitutional Court opens Yoon’s impeachment trial.

A total of 11 hearings are held till February 25, some with Yoon himself attending and defending his decision.

January 15: Yoon detained

Investigators attempt to enter Yoon’s residence as his presidential guards, lawyers and supporters try to block the execution of an arrest warrant.

Officers use ladders to breach the compound and approach the residence.

After negotiations, investigators announce the warrant has been served, and Yoon later appears at their offices. Yoon says he complied to “prevent bloodshed”.

Yoon has his mug shot taken and undergoes a physical check as he spends his first night in jail as a criminal suspect.

January 18: Yoon’s warrant extended

The Seoul Western District Court issues a formal arrest warrant extending Yoon’s detention, citing concerns he may destroy evidence.

The decision enrages Yoon’s supporters, some of whom attack the court building, smashing windows and throwing glass bottles onto the grounds.

March 8: Yoon released

The suspended president is released from detention after a court voids his arrest on procedural grounds the day before.

Outside the detention centre, Yoon steps out of the car and waves at his weeping, cheering supporters.

The decision further fuels tensions, with hundreds of thousands rallying for and against Yoon each weekend, some camping out and staging all-night protests.

Verdict

The Constitutional Court announced on April 1 that it will issue its long-awaited ruling on Yoon’s impeachment on Friday.

South Korean police vowed to mobilise “all available resources” to prevent violence that day.

Major tourist sites and nearby schools say they will close on the day of, as embassies warn their citizens to avoid areas near the court in fear of violence.

BANGKOK: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with the interim leader of neighbouring Bangladesh on Friday, the first such meeting since a revolution in Dhaka ousted New Delhi’s long-term ally and soured relations.

Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, took charge of Bangladesh in August 2024 after India’s old ally Sheikh Hasina was toppled as prime minister by a student-led uprising and fled to India by helicopter.

India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government, and her overthrow sent cross-border relations into a tailspin, culminating in Yunus choosing to make his first state visit last month to China — India’s biggest rival.

Bangladesh has also moved closer to India’s arch-enemy Pakistan during the festering diplomatic dispute.

Tensions between India and Bangladesh have prompted a number of tit-for-tat barbs between senior figures from both governments.

New Delhi has repeatedly accused Muslim-majority Bangladesh of failing to adequately protect its minority Hindu citizens — charges denied by the caretaker administration of Yunus.

Yunus posted a picture on social media on Friday showing him shaking hands with Modi. His press secretary Shafiqul Alam said later the “meeting was constructive, productive, and fruitful”.

Their meeting took place on the sidelines of a regional summit in Thailand.

Yunus also shared a photograph of the two men smiling as he handed Modi a framed picture of themselves a decade ago, when the Indian leader honoured the micro-finance pioneer in 2015 with a gold medal for his work supporting society’s poorest.

‘Spirit of pragmatism’

Vikram Misri, the secretary of India’s foreign ministry, told reporters that Modi “reiterated India’s support for a democratic, stable, peaceful, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh”.

Modi said he wanted a “positive and constructive relation with Bangladesh based on a spirit of pragmatism”, Misri added, repeating New Delhi’s concerns about alleged “atrocities” against minorities in Bangladesh.

Yunus, according to Alam, also raised with Modi Dhaka’s long-running complaint about what it says are Hasina’s incendiary remarks from exile.

Hasina, who remains in India, has defied extradition requests from Bangladesh to face charges including mass murder.

Dhaka has requested that India allow Hasina’s extradition to face charges of crimes against humanity for the killing of hundreds of protesters during the unrest that toppled her government.

Misri said Modi and Yunus had discussed the extradition order but there was “nothing more to add” at present.

Yunus also raised concerns about border violence along the porous frontier with India, as well as issues of the shared river waters that flow from India as the Ganges and the Brahmaputra wind towards the sea.

Misri said that the “prevention of illegal border crossing” was necessary.

Yunus’s caretaker government is tasked with implementing democratic reforms ahead of fresh elections slated to take place by June 2026.

Modi and Yunus had dinner on Thursday night, sitting next to each other alongside other leaders from the BIMSTEC regional bloc in Bangkok, but the bilateral meeting on Friday was the first since relations frayed between the neighbouring nations.

The head of secretive US intelligence body the National Security Agency (NSA) was fired Thursday, the Washington Post reported citing US officials who knew the matter.

The officials said that General Timothy Haugh was fired after a little over a year on the job. However, they did not give a reason for Haugh’s removal, The Post added.

Haugh was also serving as head of the US Cyber Command, the Pentagon’s cyber warfare body, which conducts offensive and defensive cyber operations.

His NSA deputy, Wendy Noble, was also fired and reassigned to another job at the Pentagon, The Post said.

The NSA is the US government’s largest and most secretive signals intelligence agency.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

Haugh, who was appointed in February 2024, previously held a string of high-profile government cybersecurity roles, including commander of the elite Cyber National Mission Force.

Reacting to the news, Democratic Congressman Jim Himes said he was “deeply disturbed” by Haugh’s sacking.

“I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security force,” he said in a statement posted on X. “I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this Administration.”

US President Donald Trump has led a major shake-up of the armed forces’ leadership since taking office in January.

Trump fired top US military officer General Charles “CQ” Brown in February, not explain Brown’s dismissal less than two years into his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

His administration is presiding over sweeping layoffs of federal workers and moves to dismantle government institutions just months into his second term.

US Cyber Command’s Deputy Commander William J Hartman and NSA executive director Sheila Thomas have been named acting NSA chief and deputy, The Post reported.

A new report has highlighted the persistent issue of illicit arms proliferation along the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The Small Arms Survey, in its report titled “Documenting Arms Availability in Afghanistan”, underscored the continued arms trafficking in the region, with both Soviet-era and NATO-style weapons still readily available in informal markets, despite the Taliban’s attempts to regulate arms distribution.

Field investigations conducted between 2022 and 2024 focus on arms availability, prices, and trafficking dynamics in Afghanistan’s eastern provinces and Pakistan’s tribal districts.

The findings show that, while the Taliban have attempted to tighten civilian arms possession, weapons continue to circulate, often with the tacit approval of local Taliban officials.

These weapons are regularly diverted to non-state armed groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al-Qaeda, raising concerns about regional security.

As per the report, the availability of small arms, light weapons, and ammunition in the border regions has shifted significantly since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.

The report found that NATO-pattern weapons, such as M4 and M16 rifles, have seen a substantial price increase, with M4s rising by 13% and M16s by 38% in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.

These increases could indicate reduced supply or increased demand for these weapons in the region. In comparison, Soviet-pattern weapons, including AK-47 rifles, have remained more affordable and relatively stable in price.

While the price of NATO-pattern weapons in Afghanistan has risen, they remain cheaper in Pakistan. For instance, M4 rifles in Pakistan cost between $3,325 and $3,700, which is cheaper than in Afghanistan’s Khost and Nangarhar. M16s, on the other hand, are priced lower in Pakistan, averaging between $1,245 and $1,400, compared to $1,824–3,065 in Afghanistan.

The report highlights that the variation in prices is likely due to factors such as the weapon’s condition, origin, and whether it is a locally made or high-quality replica. These price discrepancies underscore the ongoing dynamics in the informal arms market, with different regions having varying levels of access to and demand for different types of weapons.

Research conducted between June and September 2024 focused on the areas of Khost, Kunar, Bajaur, Khyber, and North Waziristan, which are known for active smuggling routes. The study found that while prices in Pakistan remained relatively stable, the price of NATO-pattern weapons in Afghanistan fluctuated, particularly in areas like Khost and Nangarhar, where prices were higher due to increased demand from armed groups such as the TTP and the Haqqani Network.

In regions like Durbaba in Nangarhar, close to the Pakistani border, M4 rifles were sold for $3,722, significantly more expensive than the same weapon in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan, where it could be bought for between $3,325 and $3,700. The prices of AK-pattern rifles and RPG launchers, however, remained more stable, with slight fluctuations observed during the monitoring period.

While the Taliban’s restrictions on civilian arms possession appear to have had little impact on the availability of weapons in informal markets, the ongoing stability in arms prices in Pakistan is attributed to a combination of factors.

Local arms dealers are reportedly taking precautions to avoid detection by authorities, refraining from openly displaying NATO weapons to avoid seizures. This has led to some price stability in Pakistan, despite the backdrop of ongoing insurgent activities and counterterrorism operations such as Pakistani’s “Azm-e-Istehkam”.

A deeper look at the prices in Afghanistan and Pakistan reveals several important trends. In Afghanistan, regions like Khost and Nangarhar, which have strong militant presences, tend to have the highest prices for NATO-pattern weapons, including M4s and M16s. This may be due to the demand from armed groups operating in these regions. Conversely, in areas like Paktika and Paktia, the prices are lower, suggesting these regions may have better access to weapons or face less intense demand.

The disparity in prices between Afghanistan and Pakistan is also linked to differences in supply chains, local market conditions, and the influence of various armed groups.

For example, the Haqqani Network’s control over Khost and its smuggling routes contributes to higher prices in the region, as weapons are diverted for militant use.

South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Friday upheld President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment over his disastrous martial law declaration, voting unanimously to strip him of office for violating the constitution.

Yoon, 64, was suspended by lawmakers over his December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule, which saw armed soldiers deployed to parliament. He was also arrested on insurrection charges as part of a separate criminal case.

His removal triggers fresh presidential elections, which must be held within 60 days.

“Given the serious negative impact and far-reaching consequences of the respondent’s constitutional violations… (We) dismiss respondent President Yoon Suk Yeol,” said acting court President Moon Hyung-bae.

The decision was unanimous by all eight of the court’s judges, who have been given additional security protection by police with tensions high and pro-Yoon supporters rallying in the streets.

Yoon’s actions “violate the core principles of the rule of law and democratic governance, thereby undermining the constitutional order itself and posing a grave threat to the stability of the democratic republic,” the judges said in their ruling.

Yoon’s decision to send armed soldiers to parliament in a bid to prevent lawmakers from voting down his decree “violated the political neutrality of the armed forces and the duty of supreme command.”

He deployed troops for “political purposes”, the judges said, which “caused soldiers who had served the country with the mission of ensuring national security and defending the country to confront ordinary citizens.”

“In the end, the respondent’s unconstitutional and illegal acts are a betrayal of the people’s trust and constitute a serious violation of the law that cannot be tolerated from the perspective of protecting the Constitution,” the judges ruled.

Impeached

Yoon is the second South Korean leader to be impeached by the court after Park Geun-hye in 2017.

After weeks of tense hearings, judges spent more than a month deliberating the case, all while public unrest swelled.

Police raised the alert to the highest possible level Friday, enabling the deployment of their entire force. Officers encircled the courthouse with a ring of vehicles and stationed special operations teams in the vicinity.

Anti-Yoon protesters cried, cheered and screamed as the verdict was announced. Some jumped and shook each other’s hands in joy, while others hugged people and cried.

Outside Yoon’s residence, his supporters shouted and swore, with some bursting into tears as the verdict was announced.

Yoon, who defended his attempt to subvert civilian rule as necessary to root out “anti-state forces”, still commands the backing of extreme supporters.

At least two staunch Yoon supporters — one in his 70s and the other in his 50s — have died after self-immolating in protest of the controversial leader’s impeachment.

Embassies — including the American, French, Russian and Chinese — have warned citizens to avoid mass gatherings in connection with Friday’s verdict.

The decision shows “first and foremost the resilience of South Korean democracy,” Byunghwan Son, professor at George Mason University, told AFP.

“The very fact that the system did not collapse suggests that the Korean democracy can survive even the worst challenge against it — a coup attempt.”

‘Highly unlikely’ to reinstate

South Korea has spent the four months since Yoon declared martial law without an effective head of state, as the opposition impeached Yoon’s stand-in — only for him to be later reinstated by a court ruling.

The leadership vacuum came during a series of crises and headwinds, including an aviation disaster and the deadliest wildfires in the country’s history.

This week, South Korea was slammed with 25% tariffs on exports to key ally the United States after President Donald Trump unveiled global, so-called reciprocal levies.

Since December, South Korea has been “partially paralysed — it has been without a legitimate president and has been challenged by natural disasters and the political disaster called Trump,” Vladimir Tikhonov, Korean Studies professor at the University of Oslo, told AFP.

Yoon also faces a separate criminal trial on charges of insurrection over the martial law bid.

WASHINGTON: The US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, is under investigation after using the messaging app Signal to discuss plans for airstrikes on Yemen, raising questions over security and protocol.

In a memorandum addressed to Hegseth, the Inspector General’s office said it would examine whether Hegseth’s use of Signal met Defence Department guidelines, including those related to classified information.

Hegseth has repeatedly said no classified information was revealed in the chat, even though it included precise times for the launch of US airstrikes and some targeting details that are regarded as closely guarded secrets ahead of a surprise military operation like the one in Yemen.

The details of the chat were revealed last week by The Atlantic magazine after its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was mistakenly included in the conversation, causing an embarrassing incident involving all of President Donald Trump’s most senior national security officials.

The case has also renewed scrutiny of Hegseth, who only narrowly won Senate confirmation after a bruising review that raised serious questions about his experience, temperament, and views on women in combat.

“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defence and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” wrote Steven Stebbins, the acting Inspector General.

“Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.”

Hegseth texted about plans to kill a Houthi militant leader in Yemen two hours before the military operation started and included precise details about when F-18 fighter jets, as well as sea-based cruise missiles, would launch.

‘Cean on OPSEC’

Hegseth’s text started with the title “TEAM UPDATE” and included these details, according to The Atlantic:

“TIME NOW (1144 ET): Weather is FAVOURABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch”

“1215 ET: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”

“1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)”

“1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)”

“1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)”

“1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”

Toward the end of the text chain, Hegseth said the mission was “clean on OPSEC”—an acronym for operational security—touting no leaks, even though the reporter was on the text chain.

If Houthi leaders knew a strike was coming, they might have been able to flee, possibly to crowded areas where targeting is more difficult, and the number of potential civilian casualties might be deemed too high to proceed.

The top Democrat on the Senate’s Pentagon oversight committee, Jack Reed, said a leak could have put US pilots at risk.

“The potentially deadly consequences from Secretary Hegseth’s blunder are chilling,” Reed said in a statement.

“Had the intelligence in his chat messages been obtained by the Houthis or another adversary, it would have allowed them to reposition weapons to target our pilots with dangerously accurate intelligence.”

In a sign of the sensitivities, the US military’s Central Command has provided far fewer details to the public than usual about its ongoing operations in Yemen, including basic information like the number of strikes so far.

Asked about details on the campaign, which began on 15 March, a defence official—providing a written response on condition of anonymity—told Reuters:

“CENTCOM won’t provide details on strikes until the operation has concluded and there is no additional risk to US personnel or assets involved.”

Stebbins, the acting Inspector General, said the review would take place in Washington, DC, as well as at Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida.

“We request that you designate two points of contact for this evaluation within five days,” he wrote in the memo, which was also addressed to Hegseth’s deputy, Steve Feinberg.

While it is rare for the Inspector General to investigate a US Defence Secretary, the office most recently probed Hegseth’s predecessor, President Joe Biden’s Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, over his secret hospitalisation last year.

Stebbins became the acting Inspector General in January after Trump fired the previous head of the Defence Department’s independent watchdog and other agency watchdogs across the government during his first week in office.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has conveyed to his members of Cabinet and other close contacts that billionaire and ally Elon Musk will soon step down from his government role, Politico reported on Wednesday, citing three people close to Trump.

The tech tycoon was tasked by Trump to lead efforts to cut government funding and dismantle various US agencies as a special employee of the government. 

Politico has reported that both Trump and Musk decided in recent days that the SpaceX CEO will soon return to governing his businesses but the publication failed to provide a specific date. 

Representatives for the White House, the Musk-led task force and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Shares of some companies, including government contracting companies, rose following the report. Shares of Musk’s Tesla, which were down 2% in early trading after a sharper-than-expected fall in first-quarter deliveries, reversed course and were up 3%.

Trump and Musk have both recently indicated that Musk would move on but have not said when.

Asked if he wanted Musk to stay longer than his 130-day term, Trump told reporters on Monday: “I think he’s amazing, but I also think he’s got a big company to run. At some point, he’s going to be going back. He wants to.”

Based on a 130-day term, Musk’s time as a special government employee would be set to end as soon as the end of May. He told Fox News last week that he was confident he would finish most of the work to cut $1 trillion in federal spending.

BANGKOK: Myanmar’s devastating earthquake death toll has surpassed 3,000, with hundreds more missing, as forecasts of unseasonal rain presented a new challenge for rescue and aid workers trying to reach people in a country riven by civil war.

The 7.7-magnitude quake of last Friday, one of the Southeast Asian nation’s strongest in a century, jolted a region home to 28 million, toppling buildings, flattening communities and leaving many without food, water and shelter.

Deaths rose to 3,003 on Wednesday, with 4,515 injured and 351 missing, Myanmar’s embassy in Japan said on Facebook, while rescuers scramble to find more.

But conditions could get even tougher for the huge relief effort after weather officials warned unseasonal rain from Sunday to April 11 could threaten the areas hardest-hit by the quake, such as Mandalay, Sagaing and the capital Naypyidaw.

“Rain is incoming and there are still so many buried,” an aid worker in Myanmar told Reuters. “And in Mandalay, especially, if it starts to rain, people who are buried will drown even if they’ve survived until this point.”

There have been 53 airlifts of aid to Myanmar, the embassy in Japan added in its post, while more than 1,900 rescue workers arrived from 15 countries, including Southeast Asian neighbours and China, India and Russia.

Despite the devastation, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing will leave his disaster-stricken country on Thursday for a rare trip to a regional summit in Bangkok, state television said.

It is an uncommon foreign visit for a general regarded as a pariah by many countries and the subject of Western sanctions and an International Criminal Court investigation.

Unseasonal rain

The rains will add to the challenges faced by aid and rescue groups, which have called for access to all affected areas despite the strife of civil war.

The military has struggled to run Myanmar since its return to power in a 2021 coup that unseated the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The generals have been internationally isolated since the takeover and Myanmar’s economy and basic services, including healthcare, have been reduced to tatters amid the strife.

On Wednesday, state-run MRTV said a unilateral government ceasefire would take immediate effect for 20 days, to support relief efforts after the quake, but warned authorities would “respond accordingly” if rebels launched attacks.

The move came after a major rebel alliance declared a ceasefire on Tuesday to assist the humanitarian effort.

Nearly a week after the quake, searchers in neighbouring Thailand hunting for survivors combed a mountain of debris left after a skyscraper in the capital, Bangkok, collapsed while under construction.

Rescuers are using mechanical diggers and bulldozers to break up 100 tonnes of concrete to locate any still alive after the disaster that killed 15 people, with 72 still missing.

Thailand’s nationwide toll stands at 22.

United States President Donald Trump, in his first 10 weeks in office, has aggressively pursued a strategy to assert dominance over perceived adversaries across various sectors, including business, politics, media, and allied nations.

His administration has taken controversial steps, such as seeking the arrest and deportation of student protesters and withholding federal funds from colleges.

Additionally, Trump has marginalised law firms linked to his political rivals and threatened judicial authorities while pressuring journalists for critical coverage. Simultaneously, he has significantly downsized the federal government, removing employees deemed obstructive to his agenda. 

At the core of this strategy are his assertive executive orders and a willingness to leverage lawsuits, public threats and financial sanctions to ensure compliance from institutions.

“What unites all these efforts is Trump’s desire to shut down every potential source of resistance to the MAGA (Make America Great Again) agenda and to his personal power,” said New York University law professor Peter Shane.

Some targets have rushed to placate the president, a few have fought back, and many are still trying to figure out how to respond. Many of Trump’s actions are being challenged in courts, where some judges have tried to slow him down.

The stunning speed and breadth of the Republican president’s actions have caught Democrats, public-service unions, CEOs and the legal profession off guard.

Trump’s supporters say he is simply using the full reach of his presidency to achieve the goals he set as a candidate.

“He’s laid out these broad battle lines, whether it’s with people that he thinks have tried to ruin him personally, whether it’s with people he thinks have tried to ruin Western civilisation,” said Republican strategist Scott Jennings, a longtime adviser to Senator Mitch McConnell. “Everything he said he was going to do on the campaign, he’s doing.”

Trump’s aims are not just political. His actions show he wants to reorder American society with an all-powerful executive at the top, where financial, political and cultural institutions carry his stamp and where opposition is either co-opted or curtailed.

With a compliant Congress controlled by his party and a US Supreme Court dominated by conservatives, Trump operates with fewer checks on his power than any of his modern-day predecessors.

Trump has attempted to subdue and cajole his adversaries on an almost-daily basis, backed by the fearsome might of the law enforcement and regulatory agencies at his command. He has often succeeded.

He managed to wring concessions out of several of his targets, including storied Columbia University, powerful law firms and corporate titans such as Meta and Disney. All of them settled with the White House rather than endure the pressure, surrendering some independence and setting what some view as damaging precedents.

Others are taking preemptive measures to avoid Trump’s wrath.

More than 20 of America’s largest companies and financial firms, including Goldman Sachs and Google, among others, have rolled back diversity programmes that had drawn Trump’s ire.

Three law firms cut deals with the administration rather than risk losing their lawyers’ security clearances, access to government buildings and perhaps, as a result, clients, while three others targeted by Trump’s executive orders sued in response.

Trump’s orders have also been his vehicle to remake the government, deport alleged Venezuelan gang members with little due process and levy tariffs against US trading partners.

He has sued US media corporations and silenced the Voice of America, taken control of the Kennedy Center, a leading arts facility, and sought to put curbs on the Smithsonian Institution, whose mission is to chronicle history.

His administration has detained student protesters whose political views it says are a threat to the country.

Trump has pushed a mineral-rights deal on Ukraine’s leadership with the veiled threat of ending US support for Kyiv in the Russian war in Ukraine. He has threatened the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) ally Denmark to try to wrest control of Greenland, spoken of annexing Canada and threatened to take the Panama Canal back from its home country.

New ways

Mark Zaid, a Washington lawyer who represents whistleblowers against the federal government and who himself had his security clearance stripped away by Trump, said the president’s conduct is like nothing he has seen in his 30-year career.

“Executive orders have never been designed to specifically target individuals nor non-government actors for purposes of retaliation or retribution,” said Zaid.

The White House and Trump’s allies deny the president is acting out of revenge.

A White House spokesman said more traditional approaches have failed to bring meaningful change.

“Unconventional is precisely what the American people voted for when they elected President Trump,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields said. “The president is committed to upending the entrenched bureaucracy.”

In his first term from 2017-2021, Trump was hamstrung by a variety of factors: a federal probe into Russian interference, his aides’ lack of experience and greater Democratic opposition in Congress.

With those roadblocks gone, an emboldened Trump has demonstrated at the start of his second term that he has learned how to use the resources available to him more fully to get what he wants.

“He really does know how to pull the levers of power this time, more so than last time,” said Rina Shah, a Republican strategist.

Claire Wofford, a political science professor at the College of Charleston, said Trump has used executive orders not only to push forward a policy agenda, but also to send messages to his political base, as in his attempt to scale back birthright citizenship, and to test the limits of his power, as with his invocation of an 18th-century law to designate some migrants as “alien enemies.”

“What strikes me most at this point is how strategic Trump is – but in new ways,” said Wofford.

Funding and litigation

In cases such as with Columbia University, Trump has used the federal purse as a cudgel, concluding that his targets have financial interests that make them vulnerable to coercion.

In other cases, he has used the courts, forcing companies such as Disney and Meta into favorable settlements after Trump filed lawsuits against them.

CBS News, another Trump lawsuit target, is under pressure to settle its suit because its parent, Paramount, is eager to have its proposed merger with Skydance Media approved by Trump administration regulators.

But not every institution has bent the knee.

Many of Trump’s actions, particularly those regarding his government cuts, remain tied up in federal court. In the last two weeks alone, judges have ruled against Trump in matters challenging his deportation policies, attacks against law firms and plans to eliminate government agencies.

In response, Trump and his allies have called for judges who rule against the administration to be impeached and drawn a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.

Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the libertarian CATO Institute, said Trump’s attacks on law firms and judges are without precedent and are reminiscent of other nations with authoritarian regimes.

“Clipping the wings of law firms and the courts,” Olson said, “is the behaviour of an autocrat.”