In his first term, he had a center-right Court that was willing to rule against him. Congress was also not solely controlled by Republicans, and there was a notable never-Trump coalition within their ranks.

Now, the Court is balanced more heavily to the right, and they've already been willing to accept ridiculous proposals that help Trump. And he'll be going into this next term with a Republican-controlled Senate and House. And most of the never-Trumpers have either left or been voted out.

So I do understand that it's possible that our fears are overblown, but there are good reasons to believe that he'll do more lasting damage in his second term.