When President Trump assessed his team’s performance in late March, he boasted that the White House had executed “two perfect months.”
Border crossings were down. Military recruitment was up. The stock market was humming.
Mr. Trump was achieving his maximalist policy goals with efficiency and minimal internal drama, a notable change from his first term. The White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, known as the “ice maiden,” received much of the credit.
But in recent weeks, the veneer of a more disciplined White House has begun to crack.
The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, shared sensitive military information in not one, but two Signal group chats. The I.R.S. has had three different leaders in the span of a single week. A Salvadoran man living in Maryland was deported because of an “administrative error.” And, in yet another misstep, administration officials kicked off a war of threats with Harvard University by sending a letter to the school prematurely, two people familiar with the matter said.
While the chaos has not reached the first Trump administration’s levels, the mistakes, miscommunications and flip-flops have started piling up after an early run defined by a flood of major policy changes at breakneck speed.
“There was a good reason to believe it would be more disciplined this time around,” said Hans C. Noel, a government professor at Georgetown University.
Conservative groups, through Project 2025, laid the groundwork for Mr. Trump to quickly enact his agenda upon taking office. Almost immediately, the president opened investigations of his perceived enemies, issued sweeping executive orders and slashed the federal work force as part of a flood-the-zone strategy aimed at distracting his opponents and throwing them off balance.
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