Different Tone
The former Treasury chief drew a distinction between the Trump’s 2017-21 term and what the Republican has signaled if he defeats Joe Biden. Advisers last time were “drawn from the mainstream” of the GOP, including former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, he said. But Trump has this time been using “extreme rhetoric” and has surrounded himself with “figures committed to tearing down the establishment.”
Overseas, the likelihood is that US allies and others would view Trump’s first term, and the rejection of legitimate electoral results in the 2020 vote that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol as not an “aberration,” Summers said.