Trump’s first week: “Designed to destroy the United States from within”

Donald Trump’s most dangerous quality may be his honesty.

During his 2024 campaign, he vowed to rule on “Day One” as a “dictator,” and promised the “most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history.” He would launch a “shock and awe” campaign to enforce his will and remake American society and government in the far-right MAGA movement’s desired image.

During the first 10 days of his second term, Trump has delivered all that and more. As I wrote earlier this week, his dozens of  executive orders and other edicts have included “freeing virtually all of his supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, attempting to nullify the 14th Amendment and end birthright citizenship, declaring a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border, launching nationwide raids against undocumented immigrants and their communities as part of ‘the largest deportation plan in American history,’ escalating attacks on the LGBTQ community, closing down government programs and offices focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, withdrawing from both the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord, and throwing out many other changes made by the Biden administration regarding the environment, the economy, education and other areas.” None of that should have come as a surprise.

At the New Republic, Michael Tomasky summarizes Trump’s unprecedented first week:

What have we learned? Three things, all of them ugly:

1. They came in prepared this time, with outrageous and lawless executive orders written and ready to roll out.
2. When Trump makes an impromptu decision…. it’s based on his worst and most authoritarian instincts.
3. Obviously, this administration will act totally without regard to precedent or law.

In a bold new essay, Thom Hartmann defines the goal of Trump and the MAGA movement’s revolutionary project: “Trump is hell-bent-for-leather to turn America into a tin pot dictatorship as fast as he can, establishing the same sort of single-party state his mentors, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán, run in Russia and Hungary.”

In a roundtable discussion for the New York Times, David French issues a similar warning: “You can paint a picture where the combination of Trump’s obstinance, the total unyielding loyalty of MAGA, plus the abuse of the pardon power — which he’s established as of right now as having no real limits in his mind — create a situation of absolutely sustained and profound lawlessness.”

Nearly lost in the tsunami of intentional confusion and chaos created by Trump’s “shock and awe” assault are orders that the U.S. stop accepting refugees, end most foreign aid assistance (except military assistance to Egypt and Israel), prohibit the use of federal money for women’s reproductive health services, and shut down grants at the National Institutes of Health. Trump also ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop cooperating with the World Health Organization.

At this writing, the status of the Office of Management and Budget order dictating a “pause” in all federal grants and loans remains unclear. Its intention is to shut down or redirect the many billions of dollars of spending on education, health care, poverty and food assistance, housing, disaster relief, science, the environment, and numerous other areas of American society and life. For the moment, that pause appears to be on hold, thanks to a federal court order.

By normal standards, such an action would immediately be understood as a violation of the U.S. Constitution and an attempt to abrogate the spending power granted to Congress. These are not normal times. The right-wing justices on the Supreme Court have declared Trump a de facto king who can act with impunity. 

In an attempt to make sense of Trump’s “shock and awe” first week and what may happen next, I reached out to a range of experts.

Steven Beschloss is a journalist and author of several books, including “The Gunman and His Mother.” His website is America, America.

For anyone who pays close attention to politics and cares about a democratic future, as I do, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed right now. None of it is surprising, but that doesn’t make the reality any more tolerable. The pardoning of violent Jan. 6 MAGA people stands out as a particularly vile demonstration of Trump’s desire to reject the rule of law, stoke fear and incite more violence, now with aggrieved paramilitary shock troops ready to do his bidding.

I have made the decision to focus more on the helpers, the first responders and the motivated members of the opposition who are doing what they can to support the vulnerable and minimize the damage. This is not only helpful as Trump accelerates his agenda of cruelty and hate, but a way for us to positively manage the emotional toll.

The fact that tens of millions of Americans voted to reinstall this abusive narcissist tragically underscores how pervasive racism, bigotry and the need by white Americans to scapegoat immigrants and people of color remains. But this is also part of the larger failure of an information ecosystem and education system that have bred an uninformed citizenry that fails to comprehend the danger we are now facing. In 1796, George Washington warned us in his Farewell Address that the nation would suffer without an educated electorate and with the rise of a self-serving despot who rejects public liberty.

America is trapped in the ugly nexus of an abusive leader who demands obedience and will never be satisfied. This period demands fierce opposition by the Democratic Party. That means elected officials must refuse to work with him and abandon the mistaken idea that collaboration can mitigate the damage or is the only way they can accomplish something. The more they give him, the more he will take. The more they communicate that they accept his dominance and respect his power, the more he will exploit their vulnerability, particularly because he relishes harming and demeaning others. Only by opposing Trump and his authoritarian regime driven by reckless and incompetent sycophants do we have the chance to imagine a better future.

That said, the overwhelming nature of this agenda seeking to dismantle our democratic government, further enrich the billionaire class and model cruelty toward innocent people can quickly lead to burnout. I hear from many who already feel like they need to disengage from politics and ignore the news. I get it. That’s why I’m encouraging people to pick one or two issues that matter most. Prioritize them and look for ways to help. That effort should also include acts of kindness toward others who are in danger and struggling. Let’s not lose sight of what we are fighting for.

Cheri Jacobus, a former Republican, is a political strategist, writer and host of the podcast “Politics With Cheri Jacobus.”

This past week has been the longest year of my life. My closest friends feel the same. We are gutted. But we will fight on and resist. 

While many are claiming that Trump is doing precisely what he said he would do during the campaign, that is not entirely true. He is causing more harm and destruction than he ever hinted at during the campaign. He knew that most of what he and his allies had in store for us cannot be squeezed into even the most naive and stupid definition of “Make America Great Again” for even the most naïve, gullible and unintelligent of his cult followers.

Did Trump promise at his campaign rallies to invade Greenland? Panama? Launch economic war against Canada? Of course not. 

Did he promise to end FEMA? Did MAGA understand he would pull the U.S. out of the WHO and revoke the 1965 executive order prohibiting employment discrimination in federal hiring based on gender, race and religion? Do they have any idea what taking us back 60 years will do to anyone who is not white and male?

Did Trump announce to a cheering MAGA campaign crowd that he would end cancer research and clinical trials? Or that instituting a science and health freeze will make liquid nitrogen unavailable — which is needed for specialized replacements for birth defects and will go bad within 10 days — causing an increase in infant mortality rates? 

Every move Trump has made in his first week appears designed to destroy the United States from within. The firehose of destructive and, in some cases, unconstitutional and illegal executive orders makes it impossible for rank-and-file MAGA people to keep up, and unlikely that the compromised courts can stop him on the vast majority of firebombs he lobs our way. Of course, MAGA followers exist in their own alternate reality and media echo chambers.

MAGA is entertained, and most assuredly enjoying a sick satisfaction witnessing the cruelty and brutality Trump inflicts on migrants and others they hate. They have not yet figured out that they too will soon be victims of Trump. MAGA people are pawns of Trump and the wealthy oligarchs who are now looting this once great nation.

Nathan J. Robinson is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Current Affairs magazine. He is the author of several books, and co-author with Noam Chomsky of “The Myth of American Idealism.” His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the New Republic, among others.

I alternate between feeling overwhelmed and feeling energized. On the one hand, Trump’s return to power is depressing and demoralizing. Many of the measures he is introducing will inflict major harm on the country, and there are so many of them that in the time it takes to write an explanation of why one thing is wrong, five more things have happened. It can be exhausting and make one wish to give up. I remind myself, however, that without a strong, principled, loud opposition, Trump will get away with all of it, and I am determined not to let that happen. So, I feel energized, because there is important work to be done. I have not specifically checked the personal feelings of too many others, but I get the impression that there is a similar mix of feeling demoralized and feeling as if we must act.

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My impression is that Trump’s use of “shock and awe” is effective at making people feel the situation is hopeless and making them feel totally powerless against the steamroller of right-wing politics. That is very dangerous, because the thing that will guarantee Trump’s success is the crumbling of opposition, so it is important not to succumb to this feeling.

What does this all reveal about America’s “national character” and “personality,” as some public voices have reflected on and struggled with? I think it’s playing into Trump’s nationalist worldview to speak of “national character.” This is a highly diverse country full of hundreds of millions of people. Most Americans did not indicate they wanted this (Trump did not crack 50% of the popular vote). It is a mistake to say that the Trump presidency displays America’s “national character.” Most people are thoroughly disgusted by politics and don’t really care for either option. The spectacle is designed to reinforce Trump’s narrative that he has a clear mandate from the American people. Such a mandate does not exist, and we must point that out over and over.

I believe that part of the plan all along was to begin with a bang, a slew of executive orders designed to make Trump look as if he’s immediately taking action on his agenda. Over time we could see him successfully implement that agenda, but on the other hand, we could see internal fissures within the administration that cause much of it to fizzle. Already it seems like the much-touted DOGE that was supposed to gut the federal workforce is suffering from internal tension, with co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy booted out. Now there is tension between Trump and Elon Musk. Hopefully, the MAGA movement will tear itself apart and Trump’s presidency will fizzle, a not unlikely outcome since Trump tends to surround himself with backstabbing people.

It is too early to draw conclusions about whether Trump’s presidency will be a successful authoritarian nightmare or an embarrassing failure. It might be some hybrid of the two. Either way the task is clear: to identify the worst and most harmful policies, focus on organizing opposition to those, and build a credible force that can counter MAGA-ism.