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19 Jan 2025

‘Trump’s second term could be unrecognisable new era’, says Biden’s former Chief of Staff

Europe Editor and Presenter

In the final hours of his Presidency, we speak to the author and political consultant Susan Platt who was chief of staff to Joe Biden when he was a senator.

Matt Frei: I know that you were team Kamala Harris, you were not very happy about Donald Trump getting re-elected. But what do you look out for tomorrow during this inauguration and during his speech?

Susan Platt: Tomorrow, of course, will be the first day of welcoming back our chief felon and commander of chaos. It’s been a wonderful four years of no chaos that comes from the White House. Biden had a comforting, calming effect. Some would say too much. But I think what we’re going to be looking for tomorrow as we listen to his speech, he ran a very dark campaign, as we all know. He’s going to be talking about unity and fairness, his folks say. But I’m not sure what’s fair about dismantling the diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, banning books, taking away women’s rights, deporting millions of immigrants. I’m just not sure that I believe him on that. We’ll wait and see. I hear he’s going to enact over 100 executive orders on day one. We’ll see what happens to that. But it’s going to be time that the chickens come home to roost, because he’s made all these promises. It’s the thing he does.

Matt Frei: It’s interesting that you’re still quite critical of him because many of your friends and colleagues on the Democratic side, including some of the bigwigs in Silicon Valley, have been very much kowtowing to Donald Trump, putting a ton of money into his inauguration fund, going to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring. Is there a general realignment here amongst those who feel that they were defeated in the election to basically put up with Trump?

Susan Platt: Definitely not. I think we have a pause. But I do think Democrats, just like all Americans, want to get something done that’s good for the whole of the country, not for the oligarchs, not for the billionaires. But that’s what Donald Trump is doing now, surrounding himself with billionaires that control our media, control our messaging and really aren’t out for all of us. He talks a good game, Donald Trump really does, of being progressive and and for the whole. But really all he’s for is to buck, the money buck and the oligarchs. So I think, what we’ll do is we want to move this country forward. But when we see him going off the rails, I’m sure we’ll be fighting back even harder than we did before.

Matt Frei: You talked about chaos and Trump earlier, and many people would not disagree with you. But on the other hand, it was Trump’s involvement in Israel-Gaza that finally led to this deal that we’ve seen come to fruition today.

Susan Platt: Let’s just say victories have a lot of mothers and let’s remember that this was a plan put forward by Joe Biden in May. I think there were a lot of things at play in this, not the least of which is a lot of the Hamas leaders are gone. People were getting tired and yes, Biden’s people did talk to Trump, as they should. But again, victory has a lot of mothers.

Matt Frei: Is this the beginning of a new era in American politics, or will it be unrecognisable? Yes or no?

Susan Platt: It could be. It could be. I worry about that. And that’s what I’m so glad Joe Biden talked about, in his speech, where he said he tried to take care of business. Now it’s our turn. And what do we do with that?