Trump's return to power has old critics and skeptics reconciling with a new 'normal'
Across the spectrum of American society, leaders who once shunned Trump or battled him are now seeking to bolster their ties or extend olive branches.
In the weeks and months after Donald Trump won his shock election victory in 2016, business and tech leaders began a steady march leftward, adopting policies and postures to counter his influence on America.
Media outlets reckoned with what some saw as their leading role in helping Trump get elected and pledged to be ruthless and unintimidated in their coverage of him and his administration.
And Democrats, boosted by a grassroots “resistance,” readied for their biggest fight yet.
That couldn’t be any more different from the run-up to Trump’s second term.
Now, executives are bending policies — and bending a proverbial knee — by abandoning their social and environmental agendas in manners that could appeal to Trump. Leaders of multiple major media platforms appear to be reorienting their coverage to be less antagonistic. And Democrats, without much of an active resistance to underpin them, have taken a wait-and-see approach to a new president with whom they already have eight years of experience.
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