Asshole of the Month: Donald Trump
We feared that if Donald Trump ever occupied the White House for a second term, it could be worse than his first, an amateur production by a real-estate huckster who didn’t know what the hell he was doing. In the interim, Trump has had time for remedial lessons in government and to gather a posse of loyal henchmen to do his bidding. But few suspected that he would lunge out of the gate like a cattle-prodded bull, goring the bowels of government, trampling all legal constraints and fostering chaos around the planet. “The first time, I had two things to do,” he said. “Run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys. And the second time, I run the country and the world.”
The bad news started with the Day-One Dictator terminating every DEI policy in the federal government, trying to end birthright citizenship (as enshrined by the Constitution), issuing blanket pardons to all for their roles on January 6th and withdrawing from the crucial Paris climate agreement (again) and the WHO. By the 100-day mark, he had issued a record-setting 143 executive orders! Many of his EOs violate longstanding legal precedents and are seen by critics as brazen attempts to rule by diktat. The President has never hidden his admiration for strongman tyrants like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and Viktor Orbán; rather, it seems he aspires to be one of them. As of May, Trump’s EOs have spurred more than 160 lawsuits in opposition.
Despite claiming in his campaign debate against Kamala Harris that he had “nothing to do with Project 2025,” it’s clear that Trump has had no issue enacting the proposals outlined in this radical far-right manifesto. Hatched by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a blueprint for defunding or eradicating whole swaths of the federal government while expanding the power of the executive branch. In fact, Trump appointed Project 2025 key contributor Russell Vought as his Office of Management and Budget director. Vought once vowed that he wanted to “traumatize” federal employees. He and the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by the chainsaw-wielding billionaire Elon Musk, have succeeded in that mission, firing thousands of officials: nuclear weapon regulators, FAA personnel supporting air traffic control, doctors at the National Institutes of Health researching cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s, NOAA scientists, wildland firefighters, FEMA staffers, IRS agents, veterans and workers serving disabled veterans, and on and on—all ditched like stray dogs. Some had to be rehired once the dire consequences were realized. The DOGE whiz kids were granted license to prowl through government databases, accessing citizens’ private information—bank accounts; Social Security numbers; tax, employment and health records—until the courts finally curtailed this abuse.
