In his first 100 days back in office, Donald Trump has made a strong case that his second term will be by far the worst presidential term in US history.
So many of his actions are mind-boggling and heart-wrenching. So many seem powered by ignorance and incoherence, by capriciousness and callousness. With their sociopathic desire to disrupt anything and everything, the president and his top henchman, Elon Musk, seem eager to pulverize the foundations of our government, our democracy, our alliances and our notions of truth. In just 100 days, Trump’s new term has shown itself to be the most lawless and authoritarian in US history.
The most dangerous part of Trump’s agenda is his war against our democracy and constitution – defying judges’ orders, deporting people without due process, pardoning hundreds of January 6 criminals, calling to impeach judges who rule against him, suggesting he will run for a third term, using federal agencies to take vengeance against his perceived enemies, and banning books from military libraries. Underlining his contempt for the rule of law, Trump has even talked about disappearing US citizens to foreign prisons where they could be locked up for ever. For anyone who cares about democracy and basic liberties, this is Defcon 1 stuff.
Every previous president since the second world war – from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden – worked hard to build alliances to promote peace and deter aggression. But second-term Trump has rushed to lay waste to the US’s bipartisan foreign policy: he has enthusiastically embraced Vladimir Putin, a brutal dictator, and undercut Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. Trump showed our allies once again that he couldn’t be trusted when he disgracefully accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia.
Trump sounds like a rapacious 19th century imperialist when he threatens to use force to take over the Panama canal and seize control of Greenland. Then there’s his idiotic taunt that Canada should be the 51st US state. What a way to insult and infuriate the US’s best friend. And let’s not forget Trump’s astonishingly callous proposal to empty Gaza of all Palestinians and turn it into “the Riviera of the Mideast” (presumably with Trump hotels).
Many business executives who backed Trump are feeling buyers’ remorse because of his disastrous on-again, off-again, it-may-all-change-tomorrow tariff scheme. Trump and his clown car of advisers seemed to have no idea that his tariffs would send the world’s stock markets into a nervous breakdown. Trump and team were foolish enough to believe that China was too feeble to respond to Trump’s trade war, with the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, saying China held “a losing hand” with just “a pair of twos”. Trump – who hates to be briefed – utterly failed to realize that China could retaliate in devastating ways, for instance, by curbing rare earth exports that US manufacturers desperately need. The former treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, called Trump’s tariff debacle “the worst self-inflicted policy wound I’ve ever seen … inflicted on our economy”.
Trump’s economic stewardship has been so inept that many economists are predicting a recession this year, with some saying it has already begun – a stunning contrast to early this year when they said there was no way the US would slide into recession anytime soon. Consumer and business confidence have plummeted.
With such an erratic, economically illiterate man at the US’s helm, global investors are souring on the US and the dollar as never before. Nervous bond investors are asking whether the US will make good on its debts – a fear that has caused interest rates to jump, hurting millions of Americans. Convinced that Trump is dragging the US down, not lifting it up, many investors are questioning the dollar’s primacy and whether it should remain the world’s reserve currency – a privileged position that gives the US many advantages. Trump has in effect downgraded the US and the dollar.
Trump seems more myopic than Mr Magoo. More than any president in memory, Mr. Make America Great Again is pushing policies that will harm our country long-term. The US has many of the world’s greatest universities, famed for their scientific breakthroughs and Nobel prizes, but Trump seems intent on squashing leading universities and crippling their research programs unless they submit to his dictates. Trump’s brutal cuts at the National Institutes of Health will set back research and discoveries on cancer and many vital medicines for years to come. His animosity towards immigrants will discourage many brilliant foreign students from studying in the US; in the past many of those students contributed mightily to research and start-up businesses here. The US’s – and the world’s – environment will suffer greatly because of Trump’s strange affection for fossil fuels and his childish refusal to admit that global heating is a reality. His executive order to ban federal agencies from using paper straws deserves a spot atop the Pantheon of Presidential Pettiness.
I strain to think of one good thing Trump has done. His party’s trillions in planned tax cuts benefitting the rich? No. His gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects typical Americans against financial scams? No. His closing down various offices that investigate government corruption? No. His firing tens of thousands of dedicated federal employees who serve the public? No. His and Congress’ plan to potentially cut $1tn from Medicaid and food stamps, which help tens of millions of struggling Americans? No. As for Trump’s campaign vow to reduce food prices and cut auto insurance and energy prices in half, no, that’s not happening. The only laudable Trump action I can think of is his push to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, but he’s doing that only because he impulsively blew up Barack Obama’s smoothly running nuclear deal with Iran.
I often argue with a good friend about who was the worst president in US history – Trump or James Buchanan. Buchanan was indeed a terrible president, helping to engineer the horrendous Dred Scott decision and set the stage for the civil war. But Buchanan inherited a largely untenable situation with tensions boiling between free states and states with slavery.
In contrast, Trump took over a nation in excellent shape. It’s the world’s richest and strongest country. When Trump’s second term began, the US had the fastest-growing economy among advanced industrial nations (with unemployment low, inflation way down and manufacturing rebounding). It was a magnet for people from across the globe, with many of the greatest universities.
Trump has felt a perverse need to trash the US because his insatiable ego demands that he be able to claim, however falsely, that he made America great again. It’s hard to deny, though, that second-term Trump is making America less great. He’s taking a wrecking ball to our democracy, rule of law, alliances and scientific research – the list goes on. Trump 2.0 means decline, not greatness.
After Trump’s first term, a poll of 154 historians ranked Trump as the worst US president ever, even behind Buchanan. But with Trump unbound, with the guardrails off, with no adults in the room, Trump’s second term is shaping up to be far worse than his “worst-in-history” first term.
Trump’s Maga movement should perhaps be renamed Manga – making America not great again.
Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author focusing on labor and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues
