It’s been a year, though at times it has felt like an eternity. Donald Trump came into office again, claiming to care about Americans, declaring he could fix the government and quickly repair the systemic ills of our economy. Let’s review what he really has done (and mind you, it has only been a year!).

The Economy: Americans would tell their representatives “Its Inflation Stupid”. The reply of the President was “Its Tariff Rates Stupid”. And don’t we all feel liberated since Liberation Day? Maybe he meant liberated of our money, as families spend more on housing and food. He promised tax cuts, but he was primarily speaking to the wealthy and managed to enact the largest tax increase in the nation’s history through his reckless tariff policies. Meanwhile he claimed to be able to fix the manufacturing sector, but between tariffs on inputs and quixotic decision making, manufacturing employment has cratered. In fact, US employment growth in the past year has been the worst since 2020 (when we all stayed home to wait for the pandemic wave to ebb). He claims to have solved these problems and more, but Americans appear to know better.

War on America’s Health: After years (well frankly, almost a decade) of claiming that he had the ‘concept of a plan’ to solve America’s health care problems. Donald Trump’s administration has done virtually nothing to improve the health of Americans. In fact, his policies have centered on destroying access to to healthcare for millions of Americans (through Medicaid and ACA subsidy cuts), making it harder to poor people to access healthy foods (with record SNAP cuts), and destroying the credibility of the CDC. Through the work of the HHS Secretary, the administration has sewn vaccine skepticism, which will result in greater rates of disease (at least according to this NIH funded study, which likely got through the administration’s censors). Appointing CDC and FDA leaders and committee members that purposely ignore scientific bases for their decisions doesn’t help either. New vaccine schedules will even make it more difficult to obtain access to vaccines. Apparently the MAHA movement has a different definition of ‘healthy’ than the rest of us.

Reducing our Standing in the World: Belligerence and threats are rarely the method to form alliances and project leadership, but that is the arrogant approach taken by Donald Trump. Whether it is tariffs, or demands to take Greenland, or demands to get rare earth mineral rights in Ukraine (in exchange for selling them weapons in their war with Russia), the tactics have been the same – threaten, belittle, browbeat. Only if they don’t cave does the President cave, and call it his idea. American’s think our standing in the world is declining. Same with how we are viewed across the world. The standing ovation for Prime Minister Carney at Davos solidified this view, as he declared the ‘end of the rules-based international order’ and is no longer relying on the US for economic or strategic partnership.

Law and Disorder: In truly Orwellian fashion, we have been sold a bill of goods from leaders who pretend to be the ‘law and order’ party, while at the same time they coddling and excusing criminality. One of the first things the President did was direct the Department of Justice to suspend enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (because refraining from bribing foreign officials is inconvenient?). Then he began pardoning convicted criminals that assaulted police officers (on Jan 6, 2021). If those pardons weren’t enough, the President appears to have a soft spot for people who commit financial fraud (particularly if they make donations to his PAC), as well as individuals who facilitate human trafficking and crypto money launderers (particularly when he is in business with them) – pardons for them all! But the epitome of the disorder has been the uncontrolled actions of his secret police (ICE and Border Patrol agents), who go around asking citizens and non-citizens alike for their papers (in true German SS mode) and shoot first, ask questions later (with no consequences for their assaults and murders). It is entirely unclear if there is equal justice for all in the US right now.

Narcissism: What we have learned is that this Administration is not about the American people – it is all about Donald Trump. His grievances direct the attention of his Justice Department to investigations against political enemies and anyone who might have slighted him. He favors anyone who panders to him – be that Arab sheiks who give him airplanes, tech leaders who give him golden gifts, or foreign leaders who gift his Nobel Prizes that are non-transferable (and he still won’t overthrow the Socialists leading the country he “runs” in South America). He must be the center of our attention – with his name attached to buildings that he has no business being associated with or the semi-quincentennial coin to feature his face. None of this is about the American people.

Will any of this end? Well, we have three more years of this administration – and an important election coming in November. Change will be up to us.

And the national disgrace continues…