Last Monday, Donald Trump, aiming to bolster his public backing for sweeping tariffs, tweeted: “The United States can take a step that should have been taken DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (a new party of Weak and Stupid people!).”
By Wednesday, Trump had retreated. His uninformed, chaotic, and poorly executed initiatives—including tariffs imposed on an uninhabited Australian territory that ironically hosts numerous penguins—sparked a financial crisis that threatened to wreak havoc on the American economy and potentially initiate a global recession. Trillions of dollars in stock market value vanished within mere days.
A person who has dedicated much of his life, and the majority of his presidency, to misleading the public faced the harsh truths of reality. Misinformation, bullying tactics, and incendiary social media posts proved powerless. The stock and bond markets were unmoved by the threats of the aging president.
Trump battled against reality, and in this struggle, reality triumphed.
WE’RE LESS THAN 90 DAYS into Trump’s second term; many more confrontations between the president and the real world are imminent. What can we anticipate, given what we’ve observed?
While we won’t see new traits from Trump that haven’t been displayed before, his behaviors will be more pronounced. He is becoming increasingly impulsive, vengeful, and chaotic compared to his first term. “He’s at a point where he just doesn’t care anymore,” a White House official familiar with Trump’s mindset stated to The Washington Post. “Negative stories? Doesn’t care. He’ll do what he wants.”
Trump has transformed into America’s Mad King.
Compounding the situation is the fact that the president has surrounded himself with individuals who exhibit complete loyalty to him, are reluctant to challenge him, and are certainly incapable of reigning him in. (The ardent praise he receives from his Cabinet members during meetings would even make Kim Jong Un feel shy.)
Moreover, this administration is populated with second-rate minds, conspiracy theorists, and oddballs. They aren’t qualified to manage even a small town like Oak Hill, Alabama, or Monowi, Nebraska, let alone the federal government. Their blend of malice and incompetence has resulted in significant, harmful, and at times lethal disturbances. Here are some prime examples:
- The formula Trump employed to determine his tariffs was not merely misguided but completely irrational.
- Trump’s press secretary claimed the tariffs were not up for negotiation—until Trump and his Treasury Secretary stated otherwise. His Commerce Secretary insisted there was no chance the president would retreat from his tariffs—until Trump reversed his position the following week. Last Friday, the administration revealed it would exempt iPhones, computers, and other electronic devices from the tariffs—yet on Sunday, Trump declared that this did not count as a tariff exemption.
- In his obsession with purging diversity, equity, and inclusion content, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued orders so ambiguous that the Defense Department flagged images of the Enola Gay for removal from all websites and social media. (The B-29 bomber that dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima was named after the pilot’s mother, Enola Gay Tibbets. One witty response on social media was, “Enola Gay will henceforth be known as Enola Straight.”)
- Another directive from Hegseth resulted in Maya Angelou’s memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings being removed from the U.S. Naval Academy’s library, while copies of Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf, remained on the shelves.
- Hegseth, during a February press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, prematurely conceded a key negotiating position for Ukraine before formal talks with the Russians had even begun. Roger Wicker, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, expressed his “disturbance” at Hegseth’s comments, labeling them a “rookie mistake.” The Mississippi Republican noted that everyone understands the importance of not revealing what one will agree to or refuse before meeting. Wicker added, “I don’t know who wrote the speech—it’s the sort of thing Tucker Carlson could have authored, and Carlson is a fool.”
- In an appearance on The Tucker Carlson Show, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy and lead negotiator tasked with resolving the conflict in Ukraine, not only praised Russia’s harsh leader, Vladimir Putin, but also repeated Kremlin propaganda asserting that “the overwhelming majority” of people in four Ukrainian regions occupied and annexed by Russia desire to be incorporated into Russia. (During the interview, Witkoff, a wealthy real estate developer, struggled to recall the names of the aforementioned Ukrainian regions.)
- The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently included in a Signal group chat that involved senior Trump officials coordinating an airstrike against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
- In its widespread firing of federal employees, the Trump administration dismissed—and later had to rehire—individuals in highly sensitive roles within the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency responsible for maintaining the readiness of the nation’s nuclear arsenal. The individuals who authorized the firings failed to grasp the gravity of those duties.
- Employees engaged in the federal government’s response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak, which threatens poultry stocks and spreads to humans, were terminated. The Department of Agriculture scrambled to reverse these dismissals.
- The most significant budget item on the DOGE website inaccurately claimed an $8 billion savings from a canceled contract; the actual contract was worth $8 million, much of which had already been spent.
- The Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is known for anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, recruited a discredited vaccine skeptic to investigate whether vaccines cause autism.
- In the midst of a measles resurgence within the United States, Kennedy is spreading unsupported and misleading claims. ProPublica revealed that CDC leaders instructed staff not to divulge assessments linking the spread to areas with low vaccination rates.
- The National Institutes of Health, a global leader in biomedical research, faces irreparable harm due to drastic cuts implemented by individuals lacking knowledge about the agencies they are dismantling. Progress in cancer treatments like cell-based immunotherapy stands at risk. Active clinical trials are being disrupted, and decades of research is being compromised.
- PEPFAR, the global AIDS initiative launched by President George W. Bush in 2003, which has saved over 25 million lives and previously enjoyed robust bipartisan support, is also experiencing severe setbacks. PEPFAR is estimated to save 1.6 million lives annually.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio has issued limited waivers for PEPFAR, but these are largely superficial. The waivers have hardly succeeded in restoring funding or facilitating medication distribution. One expert told The Dispatch that organizations qualifying for waivers have struggled to access funds from the USAID payment system. “A waiver is basically useless without the ability to facilitate cash flow,” stated Chambers Sharpe, a former employee in the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator at the State Department. “You can’t send a waiver to a clinic as an antiretroviral medication.” Major disruptions in HIV prevention, testing, and treatment services have occurred, with clinics shutting down and rising fatalities.
- In February, an inspector general reported that approximately half a billion dollars in food aid already procured was at risk of spoiling. The inspector general was fired the next day. Furthermore, the Trump administration has “dismissed the few remaining health officials who oversaw care for some of the most vulnerable populations: over half a million children and over 600,000 pregnant women living with H.I.V. in low-income nations,” as Apoorva Mandavilli reported in The New York Times earlier this month. “Expert teams responsible for programs aimed at preventing mother-to-child transmission of H.I.V. and providing treatment for affected children were disbanded last week amid the chaotic restructuring of the Health and Human Services Department.”
- DOGE slashed nearly $900 million from the Department of Education’s initiative to collect national statistics and monitor American student progress, decimating an essential governmental function in the education sector. These cuts jeopardize our ability to evaluate school performance, identify existing disparities, and discern effective practices. Many halted projects were nearing completion, making the decision even more baffling.
- The Trump administration acknowledged mistakenly deporting a Maryland man with legal protections to a notoriously savage prison in El Salvador. (Later claims by White House aide Stephen Miller, asserting that Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation was lawful, were undercut by actual case facts and court decisions.) Judge Paula Xinis, overseeing the Abrego Garcia case, indicated on Tuesday that she was contemplating contempt proceedings against the Trump administration. Xinis had previously mandated the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from Salvadoran custody, a directive upheld by the Supreme Court last week. “As of now, the record demonstrates that no action has been taken. None,” Xinis stated on Tuesday.
- According to their legal representatives, certain Venezuelan migrants are being erroneously accused of gang affiliations and deported to the same prison in El Salvador based solely on their tattoos and upscale urban clothing. “In one instance, a deportee was accused of having a crown tattoo that supposedly proved his gang membership, though his lawyers argue the tattoo was intended to honor his favorite soccer team, Real Madrid,” reported The New York Times. “Another migrant received a similar crown tattoo to commemorate his grandmother’s death.”
- Yesterday, federal judge James E. Boasberg indicated he found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating an order he issued last month that directed officials to cease sending Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.
Boasberg stated that he would initiate contempt proceedings unless the administration provided a means for the men to exercise “their right to challenge their removability through a habeas action,” even if it required them to remain in El Salvador during this process.
“The Constitution does not permit willful defiance of judicial orders—especially from officials of a co-equal branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” Boasberg wrote. Allowing political leaders to disregard court rulings would render “a solemn mockery” of “the Constitution itself.”
Such malicious incompetence is evident in nearly every aspect of the Trump administration’s actions. It’s certain that many more incidents of ineptitude remain undisclosed. With over 1,350 days left in his term, this outlook is grim.
THE SECOND TRUMP PRESIDENCY, even more than the first, will be characterized by Trump’s authoritarian ambitions and his incompetence. The latter may hinder the former; while ruthless efficiency can facilitate the dismantling of democratic institutions, an administration riddled with misfits and fools can stall that effort and incite public dissent, and even resistance.
Evidence of this is already surfacing in some election results, in widespread protests across the nation, in public opinion polls, and in the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index, which provides insights into the current economic climate. Earlier this month, we learned that this index reached its second-lowest score since 1952, influenced by worries regarding increasing prices and unemployment. Inflation expectations soared to levels not witnessed in 44 years.
However, the danger is that vengeful narcissists like Trump cling to grudges and harbor resentments, place blame on others, and weaponize information. They have a cruel, even sadistic, inclination, belittling those around them to elevate their own self-worth while using, exploiting, and discarding people.
For them, empathy is an alien trait. When they sense the walls closing in; when their external validation, feelings of superiority, and grandiosity are threatened; when they encounter setbacks or public humiliations, they can enter a phase known as “narcissistic collapse.” This may evoke intense rage, aggressive behavior, agitation, increased impulsivity, and distortions of reality.
As the second Trump administration careens from failure to failure and dissatisfaction with the president rises amidst a reality that refuses to bend to his wishes, he is likely to become more malevolent, cruel, and unstable. His advisers, fearful of opposing him, will only facilitate his descent into chaos. The MAGA movement, increasingly cult-like and more disconnected from reality than ever, will continue to follow him to the bitter end.
Historical precedents exist of leaders who were more ruthless and skilled than Trump, and the resilient system of governance bestowed by our Founders offers a protective framework. Many of our institutions are more robust than those in numerous other countries. Trump is not invulnerable, and countless millions of Americans will fight back against his agenda. It is my hope and belief that they will prevail and that America will endure, albeit at a substantial cost. It didn’t have to unfold this way. A staggering 77,302,580 co-authors share responsibility for this calamity upon the Republic.
