THE DAMAGE DONE | Editorial

Donald Trump’s first year back in the White House has brought only one surprise: the speed with which he has upended the American Experiment. This board spent 2024 warning of the dangers a second Trump administration could bring. It was hardly soothsaying.

During his first term, Trump proved to be unfit for office in myriad ways. He lied consistently and openly, ignored norms and rules, disparaged the military, fomented division, avoided accountability, indulged in racism, bias, and xenophobia, and attempted to steal the 2020 election — falsely denying Joe Biden’s electoral victory and stoking the flames that culminated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

That Trump was elected in 2016 was a fluke; that he was reelected in 2024 was folly.

Perhaps the electorate was swayed by nostalgia for a pre-pandemic America — the three years when Trump’s worst impulses were kept in check by his cabinet, and the economy sailed swiftly on the course inherited from President Barack Obama.

Sadly, Trump’s 2025 performance has reminded many voters that his undeniable luck, charisma, and bravado may be entertaining, but the reality of governance demands more. The office of the presidency demands more.

For his second term, no longer constrained by the guardrails the conservative establishment placed on his first presidential stint, and surrounded by sycophants and incompetents, Trump has wasted no time trying to live out his authoritarian fantasies while being unable to keep the trains running on time.

Indeed, he is very much the man whose administration helped give the world a COVID-19 vaccine in record time before bowing to anti-vax conspiracy theories that ultimately cost American lives.

Instead of allowing inflation to continue to abate and the U.S. economy to live up to its label as “the envy of the world,” he haphazardly and likely illegally instituted tariffs on global trading partners that amount to a tax on American consumers. Rather than sitting back and taking credit for curtailing immigration at the southern border, which concerned a large number of voters, he’s lost public support as masked federal agents abuse, harass, and intimidate immigrants and citizens alike.

Trump’s signature legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is set to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, all while a shrinking middle continues to lose faith in America’s institutions — some of which have willingly acquiesced to whatever Trump demands.

But while Trump has failed to make life better for everyday people, he has been successful in enriching himself, his family, and his cronies. He has captured the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, pushing them to pursue his perceived political enemies; used the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to implement cruel immigration policies and as a de facto secret police; and devastated America’s standing in the world by destroying the U.S. Agency for International Development, which helped generate enormous goodwill while improving the lives of millions of people around the globe.

The following appraisal of Trump’s presidency so far is not a “we told you so,” because we are all in this together. It is a reminder that those of us who value democracy and the rule of law must continue to stand fast and push back in defense of the ideals that fueled our nation’s founding and the rights and obligations codified in the Constitution.

As 2025 ends and a new year begins, we must not allow the avalanche of outrages to numb us to the fact that Trump remains unfit for office.

As far as ominous indicators of dire times ahead, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here” is difficult to beat. But Trump’s blanket pardon of the roughly 1,600 people involved in the attack on the Capitol comes in a close second.

Signed shortly after he took power, among a raft of other troubling executive orders, the clemency shown to the insurrectionists — including those who brutally assaulted law enforcement officers — showed the administration had no interest in accountability for its political allies nor any true concern for the rule of law.

Among Trump’s biggest abuses of presidential power are pardoning Rudy Giuliani and dozens of others accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election, campaign donor and convicted fraudster Trevor Milton, cryptocurrency kingpin Changpeng Zhao, and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking.

Not only have some of the people Trump pardoned committed new crimes, but victims of fraud awaiting restitution have now seen those hopes dashed.

But why wait for a pardon when the president can simply pressure Justice Department lawyers to drop the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, or dismiss allegations that Trump border czar Tom Homan took $50,000 from FBI agents posing as business executives.

It is part of the administration’s stifling hypocrisy that while it righteously claims to seek justice by going after people like former FBI Director James Comey or New York Attorney General Letitia James, or labels all undocumented immigrants as criminals, it brazenly ignores due process — a bedrock principle of the American legal system.

If there are bright spots in a U.S. justice system in which the attorney general operates more like the president’s lawyer than a servant to the American people, it’s that grand juries remain independent, refusing to indict on trumped-up charges. And the courts — run by judges appointed by presidents of both parties, including some by Trump himself — are still a bulwark against the administration’s abuses.

The Department of Government Efficiency was Elon Musk’s chance to eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development, an agency he called a “criminal organization” that needed to die. That the tech billionaire’s passion to eliminate USAID dovetailed with a bullet point in the conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term was likely welcomed by the administration.

Call it Pet Project 2025.

Musk, who spent $250 million to help get Trump elected, was the public face of DOGE and promised to eliminate $2 trillion in government spending by identifying and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. What he did was bring in a squadron of techies more versed in crunching code than in carefully evaluating government services.

The chaos that followed meant not only the dismantling of USAID — which, as of Dec. 22, was estimated to have led to almost 700,000 deaths, more than half of them children, through the elimination of health and nutrition programs — but the firing or early retirement of nearly 300,000 federal employees.

DOGE also terminated more than $2.6 billion in contracts at the National Institutes of Health tied to medical research and clinical trials, leading to setbacks that may impact Americans’ health for generations.

So what was the result of DOGE’s actions? How much of that promised $2 trillion will show up on the positive side of the government’s ledger? According to an analysis by the libertarian Cato Institute, DOGE had no noticeable effect on the trajectory of government spending.

It did reduce the federal labor force, with savings that may amount to about $40 billion annually. That’s a lot less than it sounds when you consider it’s equal to 0.57% out of around $7 trillion in U.S. spending.

Looking at the data, it was easier to see why Vice President Kamala Harris did not distance herself from President Biden’s economic policies in her 2024 run for the White House. After all, after suffering through the pandemic like the rest of the world, the U.S. economy was bouncing back faster and stronger than that of other developed nations.

Unfortunately for Harris, to many voters, “Bidenomics” did not mean higher wages, lower unemployment, record stock market gains, and that post-pandemic inflation was starting to ease. It certainly didn’t mean billions in investment in infrastructure projects or in domestic production of critical semiconductors through the CHIPS and Science Act.

It meant the high cost of a dozen eggs.

Trump took advantage of the bad economic vibes and pledged to lower prices on Day One if elected. This was a dubious promise under most circumstances. Considering the president’s signature economic policies — indiscriminate tariffs and mass deportations — were destined to actively hurt consumer prices, it was political malpractice.

It is no wonder, then, that people have begun to sour on Trump’s economy, with the latest polling finding 57% of Americans disapprove. People are worried about losing their jobs, as unemployment has increased, and household debt levels are at record highs.

The impact of the president’s tariffs, which are taxes paid by the importer, not the exporter, is gradually being felt on the price of goods. Meanwhile, the administration’s crackdown on immigration, both legal and illegal, is hurting industries that depend on immigrant labor, including construction, agriculture, and health services.

According to the administration, fewer immigrants in jobs means more jobs for native workers, but so far, that result has not materialized. Instead, the projected economic impact of mass deportation on the labor force and consumer market (i.e., fewer people in the country purchasing goods and services) could reduce the U.S. gross domestic product — a common measure of economic growth — by 4.2% to 6.8%, according to the American Immigration Council. On the low end, that would be similar to the impact of the Great Recession on GDP.

Trump also promised to reduce energy prices by half within 18 months of taking office. The growing demand from data centers and the administration’s continued efforts to delay or kill renewable energy projects make it unlikely he will be able to deliver.

Trump infamously said his tariffs meant kids would get “two dolls instead of 30” come Christmas, but even that may have been optimistic, as data find more Americans are relying on installment or buy-now-pay-later plans to cover their holiday shopping.

The president, who had called Americans’ affordability concerns a “fake narrative” and a “con job,” backtracked in a prime-time speech on Dec. 18 in the most Trumpian way possible: He lied.

Trump falsely blamed immigrants for driving up the cost of housing, claimed gasoline is $2.50 a gallon “in much of the country,” and took credit for the mathematically impossible “400, 500, and even 600%” reduction in the cost of some prescription drugs, and for securing $18 trillion in investments in the U.S.

“Inflation has stopped, wages are up, prices are down, our nation is strong,” Trump said.

Well, at least the cost of eggs is down.

The Trump administration does not like immigrants. Period.

It does not like those who crossed the border illegally in search of a better life, nor those who are fleeing persecution and are seeking asylum in the land of opportunity. It does not like those who come here to study in America’s universities, nor those who want to fill jobs in fields in which there are not enough native-born workers.

It does not like immigrants having a child here just to have the Constitution grant that newborn citizenship, nor does it like those who go through the yearslong process to become naturalized Americans.

The administration is looking for any excuse — any one example it can point to — to paint all immigrants as rapists, as murderers, as garbage. Any excuse to shut the golden door that has welcomed people from across the world to the benefit of a nation that is as dynamic as it is diverse.

What Trump and the ethnonationalists who surround him fail to understand is that the United States is an ideal — one so strong it has held disparate groups of people together for almost 250 years. The secret to America’s success is that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Perhaps that’s why the administration’s immigration enforcement feels so wrong to so many. Why it’s losing support even among those who voted for Trump.

It’s un-American to have heavily armed, masked, and unaccountable government forces trampling people’s rights. It’s un-American to send immigrants to foreign torture prisons. It’s un-American to turn your back on those in need.

That is why people are standing up against Trump’s tactics. They are organizing and pushing back, peacefully, against people being snatched up off the streets, against neighbors being intimidated, families split apart, cities roiled by chaos of the government’s own making.

Because while the administration may not like immigrants, America does.

The American people’s concern about affordability is at least not the biggest “con job,” according to Trump. That distinction belongs to climate change, humanity’s era-defining challenge that the president has long called “a hoax.”

Speaking to the United Nations in September, Trump said predictions about the impact of a warming planet “were made by stupid people that have cost their countries fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success.”

Never mind that the effects of climate change are already evident in rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and more frequent extreme weather events such as wildfires and flooding.

Not content with simply ignoring decades of science that prove greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity are negatively affecting the planet, the Trump administration has swiftly moved to defund climate research, reverse U.S. climate change mitigation efforts, and impede the development of clean energy sources.

On Monday, the government suspended all large offshore wind farms under construction, citing “national security risks.” It was the latest example of Trump using regulatory red tape to hinder these kinds of projects to the detriment of both the environment and clean energy jobs.

Trump and his allies in Congress have also eliminated subsidies for solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles — all while promoting fossil fuel use, including oil, gas, and coal.

While Trump’s climate and energy policies are a danger to the entire world, his administration’s policies also put Americans at risk in their own backyards. The Environmental Protection Agency has rolled back multiple efforts to promote clean air and water, including limits on toxic pollutants from coal-fueled power plants, greenhouse gas emission limits from coal- and gas-fueled power plants, and delayed timelines for water utilities to remove some “forever chemicals” from drinking water.

As Trump tries to leave a legacy by demolishing part of the White House to build a $300 million ballroom or emblazoning his name atop the Kennedy Center, it may be his shortsighted gutting of climate and environmental rules that truly leaves a mark for the ages.

The man who once couldn’t make money off a casino is $3.4 billion richer since he took office on Jan. 20. He did this, as reported in a comprehensive piece by the New Yorker’s David D. Kirkpatrick, by ignoring conflicts of interest and gauchely trading on the prestige and power of the U.S. presidency for personal gain.

The corruption is so flagrant and transparent that many voters perhaps think this is normal. But while there is likely nothing illegal in what is known about the president’s business ventures, no clear evidence of any quid pro quo, there is nothing ordinary or ethical about what Trump and his associates are doing.

For example, potential access to Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club now comes with a $1 million initiation fee — up from $100,000 in 2016. In May, the president hosted a gala at a Virginia golf club for the biggest buyers of his meme coin, an intrinsically worthless digital token for which the 220 attendees at the event shelled out $148 million. The venture, along with a separate $MELANIA meme coin, reportedly netted the Trumps $385 million.

Cryptocurrency is where Trump and his family are profiting the most.

The digital currency, which can be traded without relying on banks to verify transactions — or regulate or report them — has so far earned the Trump family billions. It is here where some of the most egregious conflicts of interest are made manifest, as individuals and foreign governments with interests before the United States, including government regulation of crypto itself, have made large investments that end up in Trump’s coffers.

Shortly after Trump won the election, a Chinese billionaire accused of fraud invested $30 million in World Liberty Financial, a Trump family cryptocurrency interest. In May, an Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates-backed investment firm put $2 billion into the company.

While Trump’s two sons strike lucrative business deals around the world, Trump’s foreign policy seems to be dictated by his drive for fortune. A plan for the “Gaza Riviera” was tied to the end of the war between Israel and Hamas, while either mineral deals from Kyiv or business ventures in Russia have become part of the calculus around the war in Ukraine.

In his short time back in the White House, Trump has shown that the presidency of the United States is open for business.

Among the promises Trump made in his bid for the White House in 2024, releasing the investigation files regarding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein should have been the easiest to fulfill. Yet, more than a year later, it took an act of Congress to force the Department of Justice to release the files — or at least some of them, at least partially.

The documents made available recently were criticized by lawmakers and victims as incomplete and full of heavy redactions, with some of the published material quickly taken down over unspecified administration concerns.

Epstein, who took his own life in 2019 inside a federal jail cell, was accused of exploiting or abusing hundreds of women and girls over decades, procuring them for his famous friends, who included financial titans and political leaders.

Despite the president’s denials, he and Epstein once shared a friendship, reportedly bonding over the pursuit of women. There are videos and photos of them together, and Trump repeatedly flew on Epstein’s plane (known as “the Lolita Express”), though the president claimed he “never had the privilege” to visit Epstein’s notorious island.

The island, Little St. James, was once described by government officials as “the perfect hideaway and haven for trafficking young women and underage girls for sexual servitude, child abuse and sexual assault.”

The Trump administration’s efforts to delay and obfuscate regarding the files remain an affront to justice and decency. Survivors of the horrors perpetrated by Epstein and the rich and powerful he catered to deserve a public accounting of what happened to them, and there must be accountability for those who participated.

If the president has nothing to hide, if the “privilege” was indeed never his, then whose was it? Whom is Trump protecting?