Trump's chaos governance failed once. He's trying it again.
He's breaking eggs while ignoring their price.
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Pundits spent the past week expressing wonderment at how Donald Trump has lumbered back into the White House with a massive show of dominance and power. What they missed is that he’s already done more damage to the two most valuable assets of the office — its legitimacy and institutional power — than any prior presidency.
Trumpers have relished the chaos and utter dysfunction they’ve rapidly and deliberately sown, calling it a “shock and awe” operation. Leaving to one side the perversion of likening a president’s governance to the mass bombardment of a military adversary, the comparison of the start of Trump’s second term to the beginning of George W. Bush’s failed Iraq War may prove to be very apt, in a catastrophic sort of way.
While many are already unfurling “Mission Accomplished” banners for The Donald, there are many red flags flying.
Trump damages himself by pardoning cop beaters
Trump has long favored pardoning friends and cronies, as well as the friends and cronies of his friends and cronies. He apparently thinks arbitrarily exercising the pardon power brings him closer to the dictatorial status he aspires to.
But by making one of his first presidential acts pardoning nearly every one of the insurrectionists — including among them those who beat, bear sprayed, crushed, and concussed police officers — Trump immediately diminished himself and his office.
During a particularly unhinged news conference, during which Trump ranted about Southern California’s water supply being shut down by a nefarious plumber who closed a “valve,” the newly inaugurated president casually admitted how little thought or consideration he had given to the vile crimes he was excusing.
In response to a reporter asking why he pardoned an insurrectionist who had tased a Capitol Police Officer in the neck, an apparently befuddled Trump responded with “Well, I don’t know,” and then said he would “take a look” at it. (Watch below.)
As if to attempt to make up for letting off the violent insurrectionists, Trump followed up his cop-beater pardons by pardoning a cop responsible for killing a guy he was chasing for riding a moped without a helmet, as well as the partner who helped cover up the crime. That only amplified the (accurate) impression that Trump has departed from basic standards of decency.
The consequence of the debacle extended well beyond Trump himself. Before he issued his blanket pardons and commutations, his toadies offered assurances that he would not be so irresponsible as to let the violent insurrectionists off. These lackeys were immediately beclowned by Trump’s actions, and then, of course, leapt into action by offering embarrassing excuses for the Leader’s actions.
These apologists aside, a number of Republicans took the rare step of criticizing Trump’s first major presidential action, which a poll showed 58 percent of Americans disagreed with. It’s not a great opening look for a would be populist strongman.
The embrace of fascism
While Trump was busy letting off cop beaters and inviting the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to become part of the “political conversation,” his top White House advisor, Elon Musk, was focused on directly associating the new regime with fascism at home and abroad.
During an inauguration day address, an ebullient Musk flashed two Hitler Salutes at a gathering of Trump supporters. Musk’s apologists later claimed, variously, that he had actually been giving a “Roman Salute” or — in an insult to persons on the spectrum — asserted that Musk’s salute was a product of his alleged “Asperger’s syndrome.”
Musk himself, however, couldn't be bothered to come up with such excuses. Instead, he responded to criticisms of his Sieg Heils with a tweet replete with National Socialist “humor,” including: “Some people will Goebbels anything down!“ and “Bet you did nazi that coming.” He even managed to include juvenile “anti-woke” humor in his Nazi tweet, saying: “His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler!”
Lest there be any doubt that the presidential consigliere’s predilection for fascism is real, Musk later in the week addressed followers of the German far right nationalist party, AfD, and urged them to “move beyond” their “past guilt” and “get excited about a future for Germany.” (Watch below.)
Trump, for his part, has so far remained largely mum about his closest advisor’s now unmistakable embrace of fascism, even while leaders of the AfD attended his inauguration. By entering office announcing their proud association with the far right, Trump and his team of extremists are marginalizing themselves.
Open and notorious illegality
The massive stack of executive orders Trump signed provided the first indications of a serious problem: He and his cronies are simultaneously confirming their status as chronically sloppy bumblers while doing their best to destroy some of the very governmental institutions that GOP presidents, including Ronald Reagan, have used to implement the kind of rightwing policies Trump claims to favor.
Overreaching and amateurish executive orders are nothing new for Trump. He stumbled during his first weeks in office in 2017 when he tried to implement a “Muslim ban” that federal judges repeatedly recognized to be illegal and galvanized resistance throughout the country.
During recent months, Trump associates claimed they had carefully prepared to avoid the stumbles of his first term. It was therefore all the more surprising that, during the first couple of days of his second one, Trump signed many EOs that are patently illegal and gratuitously offensive to many constituencies Trump and his party have come to rely on.
For example, Trump signed an executive order that made a terrible argument for the false proposition that the president has authority to deny citizenship to the children of people born in this country. The order, which purports to deny citizenship to US-born children of undocumented immigrants, is at direct odds with the first clause of the 14th Amendment. Indeed, the order is chock full of embarrassingly false assertions of law.
It therefore should have come as no surprise when a federal judge appointed by Reagan imposed a temporary restraining order preventing the Executive Order from being enforced, stating that it is “blatantly unconstitutional” and observing: "I've been on the bench for four decades, I can't remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is." Similar rulings are all but certain to come soon, and it seems highly likely that Trump has set himself up for an early, major — and entirely unnecessary — loss at the Supreme Court.
On Monday night, Trump made another blatantly lawless move, ordering his budget office to put a total freeze on “all federal financial assistance.” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed yesterday that the administration’s goal is “to ensure that all of the money going out from Washington DC is in a line with the president's agenda," but those dollars are appropriated by Congress and should flow regardless of Trump’s whims. Leavitt told reporters that organizations concerned about making payroll in light of the freeze should simply directly reach out to OMB Director Russ Vought, ignoring that fact that Vought hasn’t even been confirmed yet and that the order likely violates federal law.
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Trump also unleashed a series of initiatives directed at the favorite bugaboo of the far right: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, otherwise known as civil rights. Trump left no doubt that his administration will be welcoming to invidious discrimination, including by revoking an executive order issued by Lyndon Johnson in 1965 requiring government contractors to ensure that their employees are “treated during employment, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.”
Lest there be any doubt that the Trump administration is doing its very best to gin up an anti-civil rights movement, the Department of Defense ordered its educational personnel to censor training videos about the historic Tuskegee Airmen, until it was publicly shamed into retreating. The administration also established a hotline to snitch on suspected civil rights workers.
While the fair treatment of members of minority groups repulses a relatively small cohort of bigots among the MAGA base, such a governmental assault on non-white Christian Americans is a problematic cause for Trump, who has been trumpeting his purportedly outsized ability to garner votes from Latinos and Black Americans.
Nihilism
In recent days, Trumpers could be heard cackling in joy over the chaos that Trump’s reckless executive orders caused throughout the federal workforce. One apparent goal of this strategy is to drive as many people out of the government as possible.
The “be careful what you wish for” adage, however, could not more aptly apply. In situations like this, it’s always those who have the most sought-after skills and expertise that exit an organization, taking with them essential knowledge and abilities.
Trump’s moves may seem brilliant to nihilists who take glee in blowing up large portions of the government regardless of the consequences. But, as George W. Bush learned during Katrina, people get mighty angry when they find essential government services they rely on have been stripped away or placed in the hands of stooges.
Just as importantly, these attacks on governmental agencies and the personnel that constitute their essential infrastructure will hobble Trump’s efforts to carry out his extremist agenda. His acolytes imagine that they can restock the government with fellow extremists who just happen to have the skills and expertise required to ensure essential functions are preserved. It’s as if Trumpers don’t remember the huge costs past presidents — including Trump — have paid for putting cronies in charge, particularly during emergencies.
The first test is already upon us, as Trump confronts a rapidly escalating bird flu epidemic that is already resulting in egg prices far above those Trump used against Biden during the 2024 campaign. This is happening even as Trump is effectively inviting mission critical scientists and inspectors to leave the government’s employ.
On a longer term basis, Trump is already well on the road to doing just what the most successful far right president, Reagan, deliberately avoided — blowing up the institutions that will be essential to any actually successful effort to “remake” government.
As Reagan and his advisors recognized, it was essential to maintain the foundational infrastructure and prestige of lynchpin agencies like the DOJ, Treasury, and State Departments. Without them, a president’s powers are drastically diminished. But Trump and his acolytes are too enraptured by the flames and explosions resulting from the bombs they have been lobbing at public servants to think much about the potential consequences, including for their own agenda.
While Trump has been playing the role of The Great Dictator and ruling by decree, trouble’s been brewing. He just decamped to the sort of place he will spend much of the next four years, a golf course at a Trump resort. He’s summoned GOP lawmakers to Florida to pay him large sums and discuss perhaps the most important task of Trump’s next two years, but one he clearly finds uninteresting — passing critical legislation.
Trump and his sidekick Musk came close to causing a government shutdown, for absolutely no reason, just before Christmas. Since that time, Trump has evinced a characteristic lack of interest in the nuts and bolts of passing budgetary legislation. He reportedly told congressional leaders to come up with a way to get the debt ceiling raised to pay for his tax cuts and report back to him.
While Trump tries to keep his distance from the excruciatingly difficult task of passing anything through a House that has only a nominal Republican majority, he has also reportedly demanded that Congress pass a single, massive piece of legislation encompassing his entire agenda. It will renew and expand his unpopular tax cuts for the rich and gut essential programs — likely including ones for veterans, healthcare, education, housing, and nutrition.
The problem is that Trump and his team can’t afford to lose more than a couple of GOP votes to pass such a bill. Passage therefore requires a yes from pretty much every Republican lawmaker, from the “budget hawk” extremists to those in perilous positions in swing districts.
This, of course, is where the rubber hits the road. Many of the massive cuts in spending that GOP leaders have been floating will hit key Republicans constituencies even as Trump pushes for even more tax cuts slanted in favor of the ultra rich. Trump and his party are pursuing this strategy despite the fact that similarly regressive tax legislation, as well as a failed attempt to gut the Affordable Care Act, contributed to a major midterm loss for the GOP during Trump’s first term.
Trump is relying on fear and relentless pressure (the only type of politics he understands) to compel reluctant GOP lawmakers to vote for a bill that seems likely to doom some of them in under two years. But if only a few of them conclude that passage of Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” is likely to end their careers, it could be delayed and stripped down. Furthermore, successfully passing the bill on a party line vote could impose huge political costs on Trump and his entire party, given how unpopular key elements of it are likely to be.
In the meantime, Trump’s popularity — which while at a high for him, remains below 50 percent — could well start to decline, lessening his appearance of political invincibility.
Opportunities presented by disaster
Readers should not construe this assessment of Trump’s opening moves as a prediction of either his political demise or triumph.
Trump and his crew are plainly at war with democracy and are determined to stay in power regardless of how unpopular their policies may be. But the unpopularity of many of Trump’s policies, as well as the sheer idiocy of many of the his actions and those of his cronies, offer real opportunities to the opposition.
Whatever happens, nobody will be able to blame Trump and his party for failing to provide their opponents with a lot of ammunition to fight back.
That’s it for today
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Thanks for reading.
Heckuva piece. The part that hit me hardest was that fuckwit Johnson claiming, “we believe in redemption.”
Nah, bro. You’ve had your chance. You fucking blew it. You just fucking blew it and for the rest of time, ain’t NO ONE gonna cut you any slack and your crazy interpretation of Scripture is in the toilet. Flush twice.
Many of the Trump supporters need to remove their blinders, to realize that he does not and never did care who he takes down! He will always survive!