Another check on the administration could be the fear of tariff-induced inflation. Americans’ experience of the highest price rises in 40 years helped doom Kamala Harris’s election bid. Mr Trump may not want to be seen as the architect behind surging prices of everything from Americans’ breakfast avocados to their newest set of wheels.

The president-elect floated the tariff idea, including additional 10% taxes on goods from China, as a way to force the countries to halt the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the U.S. But his posts Monday on Truth Social threatening the tariffs on his first day in office could just be a negotiating ploy to get the countries to change behavior.