US politics

It’s possible that later, when we know more about how the Trump regime reshapes the US and about how it ultimately comes to an end, we will look back at this moment in 2025 and conclude that we were already living under an autocracy. Checks on executive power seem to have all but vanished; the Trump administration is not acting like either the courts, the judiciary or the people have any prerogatives that they must respect.Science is suffering: massive cuts to federal funding of research into medicine, climate change or anything that might include a word on a long list of banned ones – like “transition” – has decimated research, made the US a global laughingstock, and set the cause of human thriving back by years. The economy is in chaos, and the bribery is all but out in the open; it no longer seems to occur to many Americans that their politicians should not be on the take.Immigrants appear to have lost the entitlement to due process, and the administration appears to be trying to deport as many of them as possible, paying smaller countries in the American sphere of influence to imprison them at forced labor camps from which they have no means of petitioning for their own release. Dissidents are being captured on the streets, kidnapped from their homes and arrested in the courtrooms they preside over as punishment for their speech. In light of all this, even without the benefit of hindsight, it is already becoming more difficult to speak of American “democracy” with a straight face.Which is not to say that the developments of the past few months are unprecedented. In many ways, the first 100 days of Trump’s restoration are much like the first 100 of his initial term, in 2017: they are marked by a dizzying whirlwind of scandals, so numerous and preposterous as to be difficult to keep up with; by a cartoonish incompetence; and by public displays of aggression, cruelty, malice and dominance – be it over the federal workforce, his political rivals, foreign leaders, major institutions or the American people themselves.But the second Trump term has also been more reckless, more focused and more frictionless in its work to consolidate power and cut off its political opposition. Long gone are the first-term administration staff members who sought to have some sort of moderating influence on Trump – the bureaucrats and institutionalists who thought they could slow him down with procedure, the more cynical Republican opportunists who thought they could bend his charisma to their own ends. What is left in Trumpworld are only the true believers, or those with the zeal of converts. They are no longer being slowed down from the inside.Nor are they being opposed much from without. In 2017, when liberal Americans could still comfort themselves with the notion that Trump’s election was an anomaly, and in the early months of Trump’s first term, an uncharacteristic level of civic engagement and pride sprang up. The Women’s Marches attracted millions, and crowds swarmed the airports to lend support to travelers from the countries that Trump had targeted with his Muslim ban. But while the early resistance movement had tremendous amounts of feeling, it ultimately lacked direction: all that outrage did not find a useful place to go, and eventually it ebbed. It is hard to find hopefulness, now, among American liberals, and the Democratic party is showing few signs of life. On the Sunday talkshows last week, the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer was asked about the administration’s attacks on institutions of higher education, which have lost federal funding as the regime attempts to restructure their curricula and faculties. Schumer replied that he had sent a strongly worded letter.The United States has long been in a state of constitutional erosion. The role of Congress, the most representative of the federal branches, has been dwindling for decades, as gerrymandering and malapportionment have made its two chambers less competitive and more partisan, leading to permanent gridlock and dysfunction. Congress was once endowed with both the power of the purse and the sole power to declare war; it has largely handed the latter off to the executive, endowing the president with broad powers to use the US military abroad even without congressional approval and has not seemed interested in taking that power back.Now, the Trump administration seems to have also usurped Congress’s power of the purse for the executive, declaring that the president may refuse to appropriate congressionally allocated funds by personal fiat. This is a profound constitutional change, one that shifts a massive power into the hands of one man; and again, Congress does not seem to be interested in this assault on its own prerogatives, with even many Democratic leaders seemingly preferring to have less power – and, hence, less responsibility.For a long time, the decline of Congress meant the ascent of the federal judiciary, which appropriated large swaths of de facto policymaking authority to itself in light of congressional paralysis. This was already a degradation of democracy: the unelected judges came to have far too much influence over federal policy. And the judges were not the neutral, non-ideological referees that they claimed to be: many interpreted the law to be maximally deferential to the whims of the powerful and only minimally respectful to the rights of the less powerful.The US supreme court, in particular, seemed to change its doctrine almost as whim based on whatever outcome would best serve conservative priorities. Indeed, the judiciary itself seemed more than willing to share in democratically unaccountable power with the president, so long as that president was a Republican: it declared last year that the executive was immune from almost all criminal prosecution, thereby carving out a category of person – Donald Trump – to whom federal criminal law mostly does not apply. But even this wildly partisan federal judiciary does not seem to be good enough for the restored Trump regime, which wants to eliminate all possibility that its agenda might be checked by the courts: JD Vance, the vice-president, has taken to complaining in public when judges rule against the administration, claiming, falsely, that they do not have the authority to check the executive. But such petulant little demonstrations may not long be necessary: increasingly, the Trump regime is simply ignoring judicial orders that it does not like.Critics of the Trump administration have called this state of affairs a constitutional crisis. I have come to think of it more like a constitutional collapse: long vacant, the vestiges of the US’s democracy are crumbling to the ground, falling like an empty tent. We don’t yet know what, exactly, will be erected in its place.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist More

In the 2024 election, Donald Trump eked out a narrow victory, by 1.5 percentage points nationally, the lowest popular vote margin in 56 years, since Richard Nixon’s wafer-thin win by 0.7 points in 1968. Trump claimed he had won an enormous historic mandate to impose a counterrevolution. “The American people have given us a mandate, a mandate like few people thought possible,” Trump boasted on 6 March in his address to the Congress.His election rested on two principal issues, immigration and inflation. He demonized immigrants (“poisoning the blood” of the country), raised the bogeyman of transgender people, and racialized the Democratic candidate, Vice-President Kamala Harris, whom he claimed had decided herself she was Black. In the minds of the marginal voters who swung to him, however, immigration and inflation were conflated, factors impinging on their standard of living and economic security. Trump stigmatized migrants as the source of crime and cultural impurity, but swing voters mainly (and falsely) regarded them as economic competitors for jobs and government resources.Trump’s formula in the first 100 days of his second term, and onward, is to reverse an extraordinary success into spectacular failure. His ironclad approach is that problems that don’t exist can be solved by policies that won’t work. On 19 October 2024, the Economist ran a cover story headlined “The envy of the world”. “The American economy has left other rich countries in the dust,” it reported. Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve Board, had announced cuts to interest rates based on the economy approaching the fabled “soft landing” of low inflation with high employment. On the edge of achieving a glide path toward stable prosperity, he cautioned that the policies in place would have to be maintained to reach an equilibrium. “We haven’t completed that task,” he said.On 2 April, Trump’s “liberation day”, he proclaimed astronomical tariffs on nearly every country in the world based on a nonsensical equation he got from his crackpot adviser Peter Navarro, whose academic work is studded with footnotes referencing the work of a non-existent scholar named Ron Vara, an anagram of Navarro’s name. Navarro, who served a prison sentence for contempt of Congress, refusing to testify about January 6, is considered an absurd figure among virtually all professional economists.In response, the reality-based Powell felt compelled to announce that the US now faced a “challenging scenario” of “higher inflation and slower growth”, and that the Fed would halt rate cuts, which would increase inflation further. The “soft landing” has disappeared from sight.Trump ruminated aloud that he wanted to fire Powell. The market tanked. Wall Street and CEOs freaked out. Trump reluctantly backed down, at least for the moment. The market went up. When Trump crashes, the market rises. But uncertainty rules the day. Trust has evaporated. His gyrations have made business planning impossible.Trump’s feat is unprecedented in US economic history in the speed with which he has created the most profound harm. The only precedent was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, passed by a Republican Congress and signed by President Herbert Hoover, raising rates by an average of 20%. The act provoked retaliation from other nations and deepened the Great Depression, which had begun with the stock market crash in September 1929. William Hague, the former British foreign minister, wrote in the London Times about Trump’s plan: “It makes Herbert Hoover look like a far-sighted and enlightened economist.”Trump’s pattern is predictably monotonous. First, he claims omnipotence: “I alone can fix it.”Then, if anything goes wrong, he disclaims responsibility. “I’m not involved,” he said, for example, about the wrongful expulsion of Kilmar Ábrego García. Then he blames others for the misfortune he has caused.Trump inevitably squanders his inheritance. His behavior is repetitive. The combination of his malignant narcissism, grandiosity and impulsiveness led to his blowing the nearly half-billion dollars handed to him from Fred Trump, the founding father of the family fortune, in six flame-out bankruptcies. Trump’s first presidential term imploded in his incompetence when he was confronted with a true crisis in the Covid pandemic and exploded finally in his January 6 insurrection. Having re-entered office with the best economy in a generation, he has single-mindedly used every stick of dynamite to blow it up to usher in his proclaimed “golden age”. He has strangled the golden goose.Meanwhile, Trump’s reckless illegality in dealing with immigration has caused a majority of the public to turn against him on the question that had been his strongest issue. His fall in support here is related to his contempt for due process, individual cases of specific outrage (abducting a two-year old US citizen and a four-year-old with cancer), and his disdain for the courts that frequently rule against him.Trump’s spreading economic disaster, so clearly attributable to his own actions, decouples immigration as an economic cause. What do immigrants have to do with this, as the Financial Times reports: “Meanwhile, the Port of Los Angeles, the main route of entry for goods from China to the US, expects scheduled arrivals in the week starting May 4 to be a third lower than a year before. The number of ‘blank sailings’, where scheduled sailings from China are cancelled, are rising sharply. US-China air freight volumes have also plunged.”Trump’s self-induced economic crisis drastically reduces the effectiveness of his demagogy while making his need for a scapegoat that much more urgent. He continues to propagandize about migrants, but if Trump’s policies are plainly the cause of economic pain, immigrants diminish in stature as a looming menace. Fewer people care whether they are eating the dogs and the cats.The same cycle of demystification and disillusionment applies to Trump’s demonization of the “radical left elites”, the “deep state”, the “snooty” law firms, “radical” universities and students snatched off the streets and having legal visas voided for participating in pro-Palestinian protests. As the economy pulls back, it reveals his retribution for what it is: nothing but a personal vendetta.Cui bono? Who benefits? The voters are not benefiting. His grudges do nothing to assist them. The tech billionaires at his side can no longer be depicted as representative of privileged Democrats. Elon Musk is greatly responsible for Trump’s election through his $270m contribution, and Trump is then responsible for Musk’s chainsaw destruction of government workers and services. Everything that Musk’s name is attached to is less popular. Musk’s prancing at a Republican rally in Wisconsin, donning a triangular cheese-head hat, and providing massive campaign money turned a state judgeship race into a referendum on him and Trump. The Democrat won by 10 points. Musk’s company Tesla lost 71% in profits this year amid consumer repulsion.But, ultimately, Trump owns the damage. He authorized Musk’s wild ride. Musk exists as a function of Trump’s splenetic vengeance.Trump’s instinct is to deepen and accelerate his retribution and propaganda. But the damage is already done, and the worst is ahead. In the shortest disorder possible, he has created the recessionary stagflation to come, which by its very nature is sticky and difficult to undo. He is angry at the Fed for not rescuing him by cutting interest rates. But if the Fed followed his dictate, inflation would only increase more. Trump’s frustration is that he is trapped within a failure of his own making. Even if he were to reverse himself overnight, it is too late. The effects of his uncertainty and instability have delivered a body blow to both supply and demand, shattered consumer confidence, upset the bond market, undermined the dollar, forced other nations to reorganize global trade and empowered China above all.It’s all too late. Trump has destroyed Trumpism. “I alone can fix it.” Trump’s fix is in.Trump invariably reverts to his tried-and-true method: he blames someone else. Yet Trump has not quite done the damage alone. He has had accomplices, without whom he could not have perpetrated his rapidly growing calamity. He required the complicity of the Republicans in the Congress. They are more than his handmaidens; they could have restrained him at any moment. They chose to abdicate their power to enable him.Trump’s crusades have been made possible by his invocation of emergency powers. But his executive orders declaring emergencies are rooted in fictions. There is no real war to justify his use of the Alien Enemies Act. The Venezuelan migrant targets are not the instrument of the Maduro government, according to the US intelligence community. There is also no national security basis for Trump to grab all tariff authority from the Congress.But rather than staging an intervention to assert their rightful constitutional authority, the Republicans have allowed Trump carte blanche for his rampage. In the House, the Republican leadership twice refused to allow a vote on a Democratic bill to repeal Trump’s emergency power for tariffs. They can no more escape responsibility than he can for the consequences.Then the House Republican leadership refused to fund a delegation of Democratic members to inspect the El Salvador maximum-security prison where migrants have been jailed. But neither the continuing incarceration of Kilmar Ábrego García nor the indictment of a Milwaukee county judge will serve as a sufficient political distraction except on Fox News. The migrant and the judge did not declare a tariff war.Trump’s foreign policy ventures have been rattling fiascos. He has his feigned efforts at negotiation over Ukraine, in which he echoed Russian demands. His attempt to bring China to heel in his trade war has led only to being ghosted while China has busily been making deals with our repelled allies to their advantage. Trump’s bellicose imperial ambitions for a nostalgic 19th-century colonialism have boomeranged. Trump’s threat to annex Canada as the 51st state has led to the sudden collapse of the Conservative party there and the phoenix-like ascent of the Liberal prime minister Mark Carney on widespread Canadian loathing for Trump. Vice-President JD Vance’s visit to Greenland, a semi-independent territory of Denmark, to stir up support for annexing it to the US was a farcical episode that met with an icy reception.The Economist, which just months ago touted the supremacy of the US economy, featured a cover on 26 April of a bruised and bandaged American eagle. “He has already done lasting harm to America,” the magazine wrote about Trump’s first 100 days.Trump arrives at his 100 days the most unpopular president at that point in the history of recorded polls. His limited mandate was to lower inflation and to deal legitimately with immigration, both of which were already largely resolved issues. He had only to do nothing or little. But self-control and clarity of vision are not among his traits.Trump’s infernal war is with his designated enemies within. He is left to his kulturkampf, his culture war against the professions, the law firms, the media, the medical research centers, the universities, the arts and humanities, the libraries and museums, against reason itself and, as always, the judiciary. But he never had a mandate for his imposition of an authoritarian regime. “I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” he said during the campaign. Then he implemented its extremist agenda point by point.Once again, inevitably, Trump finds himself back in court. Trump had signed 137 executive orders by 27 April, almost all facing legal challenges. According to the Just Security Litigation Tracker of the New York University law school, as of 26 April, 211 complaints had been filed against the Trump administration.Trump is a recidivist. The convicted felon in the White House cannot help but break the law and attempt to justify his lawlessness. “He who saves his country does not violate any law,” Trump declared three weeks into his new administration. But he is not saving the country; he is wrecking it.

Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth More

The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second term have polarized the United States and the world.Public opinion polls show the president’s approval rating is around 40% – having flipped from positive to negative since his inauguration. A vast majority of Americans are worried about a recession and how his trade war will affect the economy.The Guardian asked readers to react to what the president said would be an “extraordinary” first 100 days in office.Here, 100 Guardian readers share their thoughts on the first 100 days in 100 words or less:A whirlwind 100 daysThe 100 worst days of my life.– James McGraw, Louisiana, 76 years old, retiredIt’s extraordinary that he has made 100 days feel like 1,000.– Joe, New ZealandThis was the plan and now it’s in action. People who were shocked weren’t listening, and the people who knew were mocked and called crazy.– Aleesa Edwards, Georgia, 17, high school seniorI’m fearful of the future. And I’m sad to see what’s happening to our democracy and the erosion of our freedoms. So many people are suddenly less safe due to the policies of this administration. We’ve gone backwards.– T Handley, Huntsville, Alabama, 44, working in the real estate industryHe’s an abuser, he’s a liar, and he fakes his golf game.– Chris, Maine, 47The pace and breadth of his destruction of the constitution and federal government makes me ill. I’ve never felt so afraid and powerless, but I suppose that is his goal.– Amanda Harris, Louisiana, 42, caregiver for two disabled peopleI didn’t vote for Trump, but I know that a lot of people regret it now because they realise they’ve voted against their own interests.– Megan, Brainerd, Minnesota, 28, pregnant and disabledTrump has succeeded in extraordinary destruction. He has warmongered, gutted time-honoured institutions and endangered everything Americans hold dear.– Taraneh Ghajar, Washington DC, public relationsHe’s a stupid, selfish, crass and unremarkable man. He knows this and is just taking it out on the rest of us. His first 100 days have been a nightmare.– Paige Harris, Swansboro, North Carolina, 37, student and substitute teacherHis first 100 days? Deplorable!– Christopher Stevens, Chattanooga, Tennessee, data analystPresident Trump has packed so much into his second presidency that I’m so excited about. The end of “woke” nonsense, DEI, etc has been a welcome step forward. The cutting the fat mentality has also been eye-opening and I’m excited to see corruption sniffed out and efficiency take hold.– David, Davenport, Florida, 43, radio personalityUnmitigated disaster!– Arjen Bootsma, Atlanta, Georgia, 60, county engineerI’m terrified and angry and terrified for my teens and what type of future they will have, let alone my life as a middle-aged person with retired, elderly parents.– Michele West, Oregon, 52, stay-at-home momFew of the promises he made to his supporters have been kept: the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are not over; the stock market has tanked; inflation can only go up due to tariffs; Musk is wreaking havoc, while failing to hit the trillions in cuts he projected. But on the positive side, I think Democrats will win big in 2026 and 2028, if this continues. Or rather, they should.– Lucas Miller, Locust Valley, New York, TV advertising producerOur other branches of government seem content to just sit back and let him do it. I have been waiting since his first campaign for the thing that would be “bad enough” to get everyone to wake up to his lunacy, but apparently we still aren’t there yet.– Lacy, Colorado, marketing consultantTrump has delivered on his promises with bold action and clear results. He prioritized securing the border, reinstated strong immigration policies, and finished the wall in key areas. Trump revitalized the economy by slashing regulations and bringing jobs back to America. He defended American energy, withdrew from harmful global agreements, and put American interests first. His swift executive actions dismantled Biden-era diversity mandates and returned power to the people. Trump restored law and order, backed law enforcement, and strengthened the military. In just 100 days, he kept his word and proved that leadership rooted in patriotism can get results fast.– Felix Basco, Las Vegas, Nevada, chefShort of a nuclear holocaust or a successful junta, it’s hard to imagine things can get much worse.– Don Stevens, Washington, 68, IT in educationTrump has gutted our rights, social safety net, allies and trade relationships.– Larry Gassan, Camarillo, California, mostly retiredWe’re going to have to come up with a new word for whatever’s worse than a cluster fuck.– Mark Warren, Michigan, 63, retiredHis all-out assault on our freedom, our climate, our international relations, and our financial security is not only impulsive and ill-advised, it is dangerous to our democracy.– Larry, Arlington, Texas, 65, retiredFear and sorrow for my lovely planet, children, grandchildren, future. Aghast at the inhuman choices for cutting funding to science, the poor, everything just to enrich the rich. Totally engaged in personal and community resistance to the local politics and regime in place. Will never show loyalty to this buffoon.– Elise, Michigan, retiredIf this is what people define as great, they need to refer to a dictionary. I don’t know who is doing well under this administration except Trump and his buddies.– Will CThe worst presidency I have personally lived through. An idiotic president with an incompetent cabinet that is working hard to dismantle our great country and its institutions.– Preet, California, 32, software engineerAre you familiar with the story of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius? The only difference is that Trump will disappear all the bodies. Evidence? What evidence?– Steven Baty, Maine, 65, retiredFull of chaos, cruelty and completely unconcerned with anyone but himself.– Jen, Gainesville, Florida, retired doctorThere is no rating low enough. The Maga party is a danger to our country.– Chris Gates, Portland, Oregon, healthcare workerAt this point, optimism has come down to hoping he’ll do something so horrendous that I’ll qualify as a political refugee in a functional nation. Spain, I’m looking a ti.– Henry Quinn, Maine, 50, tutoringHe led his base to believe he was going to make our life better. He never gave details about how his plan would work. Now things appear to be off track. He has convinced his voters that they will have to suffer for a while before things get better. Yet many of his voters still believe him. I don’t know why.– Bert, Wisconsin, chemical processes industryIt has been a catastrophic presidency. I am embarrassed and ashamed of his actions, words and decisions.– CandaceIt’s a daily rollercoaster, it is overwhelming and shocking. We are protesting, we are making calls to government officials. Trump doesn’t seem to care how he treats Americans. It is disgusting and quite terrifying!– J Bowman, Alaska, 45, accountantTrump has acted exactly as promised and expected. He promised tariffs; he delivered in a typical spasmodic manner. He promised an immigration crackdown; he delivered a “best that I can do” waddle. He promised dictatorship on day one; he’s done his best to supersede his incompetence.– Darryl K, Virginia, retiredChaotic at best, mediocre for sure, and totally fucked-up.– Erik Charpentier, Montreal, CanadaHe has succeeded beyond my greatest fears.– Joe, California, business owner/operatorTrump’s second term has unfolded about as we expected, with an administration equal parts billionaire grifters and incompetent sycophants.– Jim Summerville, South Carolina, 65, healthcare IT consultantTrump has succeeded in remaking the government in his image and cowing Congress and rankling markets and all, but on a day-to-day level, on the ground, nothing has changed. Everything feels eerily normal. There’s a disconnect between everyday reality and Washington.– Stephen Twentyman, northern Virginia, 39, meat guy at WalmartTrump’s first hundred days are great; if you don’t care about clean air, clean water, freedom of speech, freedom of choice, or democracy.– Craig, northern California, 78, retired high school teacher and Vietnam veteranProject 2025The nation was told by Trump, pre-election, that he knew nothing about Project 2025. On day one he swiftly began implementation of the program.– Shirley Deakins, Tennessee, retired professional nurseHe seems to be following Project 2025 pretty closely. As of now, for me, little has changed in my daily life. But I drip with privilege. Everything he’s doing, he promised to do during the election. Anyone clutching their pearls at this time is a performance artist seeking attention.– Paul Grajnert, Beverly Shores, Indiana, 60, writer, film-maker, social workerHe’s followed the Project 2025 plan alarmingly closely, occasionally veering off on his own to be extra crazy.– James Gosling, California, 69, retiredEndangering democracyI grew up hearing my grandmother’s stories about when the Germans came to her village in the 1930s, and I’m watching it happen all over again.– Michelle, New OrleansBy definition Trump has succeeded at being extraordinary in almost all negative ways. He has violated laws, norms, decency, human rights, and morals. He is doing what his wealthy funders want and destroying all the best things in America– OliverHe governs like a bull in a china shop, preferring chaos over law and order.– Jacob Hansen DO, North Carolina, 48, physicianTrump is tearing down the foundations of American democracy, aspiring for autocracy, in service to fellow billionaires.– Bruce Brod, Sequim, Washington, 76, retired software and IT managerTrump is a psychopathic narcissist who is destroying the US, abetted by the spineless Congress. My father fought in the second world war to free Europe. He would be heartbroken to see those alliances destroyed. I am enraged and I am fighting back.– Kathy Callaway, Woodacre, California, 75 years oldI feel like the iron curtain is falling over our country.– Sara, Detroit, Michigan, 39, IT project managerI knew Trump hoped to make drastic changes to the country on every level, but I thought saner heads would prevail and keep him in check.– Christine, Georgia, 70, retiredEfforts to abolish ‘‘DEI’’ policies have been effective, and, in my opinion, need to be a continued focus of the current administration. Likewise, there has been some success in “downsizing”, or abolishing, some federal agencies, notably the US Agency for International Development. The motivation for previous US administrations to make an open-ended commitment to underwriting “social” programs in foreign countries was difficult to justify. Closing down such programs seemed appropriate.– Martin F Heyworth, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 78, retired academicHe and his henchmen promised to institute fascism and they did.– Mac Markeiwicz, Reno, Nevada, teacherHe has only riled up his supporters and base. He has hurt the majority of Americans with his attacks on the environment, education and health system. He is a nightmare one cannot wake from.– Matthew Gallagher, New York, retired teacherHe’s taking us backwards in time.– Teri Poyner, Colorado Springs, Colorado, disabledTrump does not have the burden of responsibility for his rash actions.– Frank Boekhout, Sint Maarten, retired teacherOne fails to remember how shortsighted and simple his mind is. When you elect a monkey, don’t then blame the monkey when he throws excrement on the walls.– Jâms Ward, Liverpool, United Kingdom, musician and housing officerIf a foreign power had managed to gut federal agencies, crash the markets, alienate allies and take citizens off the streets and “disappear” them, it would be considered an act of war. The old America would muster all its resources and obliterate the attacker. But, the current lawless Republican cult is an insidious cancer consuming us from the inside.– JP Hussey, Columbia, Maryland, 67, retired[Trump] has also succeeded in showing how you build an oligarchy in the west.– Gil Garces, Porto, Portugal, 43, entrepreneurNo time in our history have so many civil liberties been stripped while simultaneously destroying our global positions of strength economically and democratically. I am not sure the majority of Americans have realized the strides towards authoritarianism that have been made and am afraid they won’t realize before it’s too late.– Ryan Sweet, South Carolina, 32, restaurant managerHe has gone against the constitution several times, and is slowly destroying our entire system of law.– Victoria, Tennessee, 32He (as expected) hasn’t done a single positive thing for the American people. Plenty for billionaires, his cronies and Musk, but he has not lowered costs for average Americans, hasn’t improved their day-to-day lives and hasn’t kept us safer.– Sunni Willis, FloridaI wish the media would treat this administration as extraordinary instead of acting as if it’s “normal”. There is nothing normal about it. Trump has very rapidly demolished American democracy. I expect to never have another free and fair election in this country. He will simply declare a national emergency and cancel the elections, leaving his minions in place. The American experiment has failed.– David, Arizona, 70, auditorHe has managed to turn the entire country into a failed Atlantic City casino. In the words of Pussy Riot we as Americans “have to wake up”.– Mark, Arkansas, 66, physicianEconomic turmoilThe most heartbreaking results of this catastrophic administration are seen daily in the faces and demeanor of my elderly patients, all of whom rely on social security, Medicare or Medicaid for survival. Every single patient is panicked about losing their earned benefits, and most are experiencing some amount of cognitive decline. So they worry. A lot.– Andrew Maxwell, Thurston county, Washington, 40, in-home caregiverMy situation is not terrible as yet, but further economic turmoil will severely damage my pension and possibly my social security payments.– Richard, North Carolina, 76, retired university professorMy retirement funds have diminished dramatically. I now add stress about continuing to receive social security and my retirement annuity to stress about healthcare costs and availability, food costs and availability. And stress about my poor children and grandchildren.– Joan, Michigan, 68, retired healthcare providerHe promised lower prices. That seems to be the last thing he has on his mind. My small retirement fund has lost at least 25% (and counting).– Michael Lynch, Billings, Montana, 70, retiredAs my portfolio declines, my chances of a decent retirement decline. We seniors are through working and we do not have years and years to wait for our portfolios to regain what they have lost.– Cecil Corson, Westfield, Indiana, retired, sales account representativeHe did a phenomenal job of duping conservative working-class voters into voting for him and they will likely pay the biggest price– Matthew, California, 41, hospitality leader[Trump] might be able to skip the recession middleman and take us straight to depression – he’s that good. So if that’s the definition of extraordinary, (and with apologies to George W Bush) mission accomplished.– Sylvia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 69, retiredA dictator wannabe who has simultaneously ruined our economy and our stability, our safety and our good name in the world.– Deb Edge, Wisconsin, 67, retiredI believe we are headed towards a “Trumpression” – a Trump-led depression that will shake the world.– Stuart Reis, New York, 75, retired, part-time tai chi instructorHis willingness to compromise the economy was a surprise. The myth that he understands the economy is extremely important to maintaining his power, so I tend to view undermining that as a sort of self-sabotage.– Jasmine, Wisconsin, 37, self-storageEverything is worse, scarier and more expensive.– Joey Gonnella, New York City, 27, artist and college professorElon MuskTrump has not succeeded. Bringing in Elon Musk was a bad idea, including setting up Doge to wreak havoc on our civil servants with firings and layoffs. The appointment of unqualified goons to cabinet positions is without merit.– Paul G, Marana, Arizona, 65, process consultantHe violates US law and is not held accountable. He’s allowed Musk to destroy our government.– JM, California, physicianDoge is not doing anything efficiently. It is targeting departments for layoffs that have zero understanding of the departments they are ravaging.– Chris, Pennsylvania, 56, geriatric healthcareDismantling important agencies and betraying allies is lunacy.– Jeff Stone, San Francisco, California, 73, retired surgeonThe staff around are dreadful. At best “C” players.– Michael Bruno, New Jersey, management consultantUS leadership around the globeWhat has taken me more by surprise is the international chaos. The president and his team have managed to evaporate American soft power in a matter of weeks, yet he seems to think that he can handle international trade like a mob boss running the least subtle protection racket in history. Sometimes I wonder if the country is mere months away from a sort of quiet pariah status. Or perhaps that’s already happened.– Allan Scott, Sunnyvale, California, 45, software engineerHe has single-handedly wrecked decades of US leadership and international goodwill.– William, South Carolina, retired teacherHe has destroyed the reputation of the US.– Gary Farrar, United States, 72, retiredTo our friends, allies and those seeking a home, I apologize, and know that many of us stand with you.– Ian, Alexandria, Virginia, 35, consultingI am heartbroken over America’s decline in morals and leadership.– Margaret Szoke, Boulder, Colorado, 71, retiredOur president has isolated us from the rest of the world. We no longer have any allies that trust us.– Chris, Michigan, non-profit executiveI think Trump has succeeded at further dividing our country, fracturing our institutions and alienating us from the rest of the world.– Sarah, Reno, Nevada, 39, healthcare adminThree months ago, I was a proud American. I loved my country, cherished our democracy, and appreciated our government for what it did domestically and internationally. I am now ashamed for all that has transpired these past 100 days.– Keith, Smalltown, Washington, 67, retiredThe US is in danger of losing its powerful position in the world and damaging itself beyond repair.– Ed Strosser, New York City, 60, contractor and writerFor the first time in my life, I am embarrassed to be an American.– Matt, Massachusetts, white-collar professional[W]hen a 79-year-old man says that countries are “kissing his ass” to make deals, it makes me cringe.– Chris Harvey, Illinois, 74, retiredTariffsIt has been a disaster. The tariffs have taken away 20% of my business.– John K Thomas, California, self-employed in manufacturingThe man is a fucking idiot. He has harmed most Americans with Doge, especially, and tariffs.– Janet L Colbran, Nashville, Tennessee, retired biochemistTrump’s tariffs are economic lunacy and unfair to Australia where the US had a trade surplus.– Jim Graham, New South Wales, Australia, 78, retired teacherThis unstable tariff situation seems like a replay from his first time in office, his inability to actually understand finance and manufacturing is only creating uncertainty and fear.– Wayne Stiles, grants administratorHis Maga base is willing to suffer the consequences to their retirement accounts from his tariff folly yet whined when they had to wear masks during the pandemic. Make it make sense!– Brian, Massachusetts, 68, semi-retired marketing managerTrump has choked the life out of the GOP, and is now strangling our economy with his absurd tariffs policy that seems to have been enacted for no reason other than providing a forum for transactional diplomatic flattery and grift.– Geoff Morrison, San Diego, CaliforniaAs a small business owner I am now fearful of the cost of my supplies ballooning and becoming unaffordable.– Steven G Hittelman, California, attorney specializing in family lawInstead of honoring campaign promises to bring down the cost of living and broker peace in Ukraine, he has implemented radical tariffs and brought chaos to international trade agreements; alienated our best allies; and issued a slew of constitutionally questionable if not illegal executive orders.– John O’Leary, Indiana, retiredRule of lawExtraordinarily cruel and vindictive toward people who favored diversity and equity, opposed him or denied his false statements about the 2020 election, and pursued basic constitutional rights, including law firms, universities, and private businesses.– Lewis Kirshner, Waterford, Vermont, retired professor at Harvard Medical School at the Brockton VA Medical CenterTrump has trashed the country, the constitution, our civil rights, and the things this nation was founded on, in order to make himself a king.– Heather Swierczek, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 49, physical therapistBecause of Trump we are moving towards a dictatorship. Need I say more?– Patrick Doherty, Wisconsin, self-employed home remodelerDiversity and protestI’m afraid for my profession. I’m a proud librarian. And, I see how my profession and colleagues are being attacked by far-right extremism and how that’s being encouraged by this administration. I don’t plan on taking books off of our shelves because they feature queer characters or rolling back our DEI collection development policy. I feel grateful to live in a more liberal state, but Massachusetts libraries, including my own, have been targeted with challenges to programs and materials.– Meaghan, Massachusetts, 44, librarianThere’s been an obvious focus on suppressing student dissent on Gaza and that’s frightening, but the Democrats have been almost silent on that front.– Blair Zarubick, Petaluma, California, 64, living on a fixed incomeAs a gay man and immigrant, witnessing the rising tide of disrespect and animosity directed towards individuals who embody these dual identities is disheartening. The United States, often regarded as a land of opportunity and freedom, should ideally serve as a sanctuary for all individuals seeking a better life, irrespective of their sexual orientation or nationality.– Carlo Licheri, Sydney, Australia, interior design More