Well, it’s not even a week into Trump’s second term and he’s already vindicated the argument that his second term would not be like his first. Whereas his first term contained responsible professionals who checked many of his wildest impulses, this term is already proving to be one in which the inmates are running the asylum.
Still, it’s important to focus on what’s significant and what’s mostly noise. Musk’s maybe-Nazi salute? Ambiguous and distracting. The splashy deportation of criminals? Mostly fine, though I do worry it’s not being done carefully. The purging of DEI in the Federal government? Stupid vice-signaling and more than a little racist at times, but a lot of those programs were dumb.
Some significant things are the hiring freezes, which was indiscriminate and has disrupted a lot of lives for people who had already gotten ready to move to new jobs. And these weren’t just “DEI” jobs, but roles at the VA, law enforcement, etc. Maybe this will be temporary and many will be reinstated, but it’s evidence of the carelessness and callousness that is going to come. It’s also very possibly going to backfire. I know people affected by this, and it’s not limited to woke liberals in blue states. Even if this doesn’t progress to mass-firing of permanent federal employees (which it very well may), this sort of behavior discourages good candidates from wanting to work in government and will likely degrade government services that Americans depend on.
Even more significant is the obvious unseriousness and ignorance that Trump brings to the job. This is no surprise to many of us, but it’s still remarkable to read through the examples from just this week as catalogued by Dana Milbank. I can’t imagine any corporate board approving this guy to be CEO of a company of any size, but Americans decided to make him CEO of America. What could go wrong?
But some things are truly scary. The pardons and commutations of the January 6 rioters criminal sentences - many of whom attacked police - is an affront to the rule of law. Unfortunately, Biden abused the pardon power himself just before Trump did by issuing own corrupt pardons of family members and violent criminals. Still, as David French points out, Trump’s pardons at the beginning of his term, combined with his revoking of security protection for allies-turned-critics like Mike Pompeo and John Bolton (whose lives are seriously threatened by Iran for their role in Trump’s decision to assassinate Soleimani) sends a dangerous message: if you get in trouble for me, I’ll protect you, and if you cross me, I’ll do the opposite. Also in that podcast episode with French is a sober warning of what could happen if border crossings (apprehensions are currently at their lowest level since 2020) are truly considered an “invasion” and used to unlock wartime powers. Dark stuff.
Also scary? $TRUMP, the memecoin Trump launched right before his inauguration as an anonymous way for anyone with deep pockets (including foreign governments, special interests, etc.) to enrich him by boosting the value of his 80% share. Maybe it was intended as just another way for him to grift his supporters, but the opportunity for bribery without any regulation, disclosure or oversight is frightening. Count this among crypto’s many “contributions” to society, along with NFTs and FTX. So much for crypto going legit.
While much of this is legal, it’s part of a broader theme that portends a uniquely authoritarian administration. As Nick Catoggio summarizes in The Dispatch:
His ploy on birthright citizenship implies that he, not the Supreme Court, decides what the Constitution is. His out-of-thin-air deadline for TikTok amounts to declaring that he, not Congress, decides what the law is. And his amnesty for even the most dangerous miscreants involved in January 6 is a claim that he, not law enforcement, decides what justice is.
It’s going to be a very long four years, and we haven’t even gotten to tariffs (which in Trump’s latest threats are higher for our allies Canada and Mexico than China, who he is supposedly “tough” on) or experienced the effects of a true reduction in immigrants (and their labor).
But the one silver lining in all of this is that unrestrained Trump is going to be a lot harder to whitewash with biased news coverage, one-sided social media feeds or simple disengagement. If friends are losing government jobs, inflation returns, government services degrade, international business declines and the chaos in Washington becomes unavoidable again, I expect Americans will sour quickly. If it gets bad enough, they might finally reject Trumpism for good. I only hope that whatever rises in its place is a restoration of competent, centrist, constitutional governance and a majority strong enough to enact reforms that strengthen our system against such illiberal threats in the future.