"Just as bad as we feared": Experts on the chaos and carnage of Trump's first week

Donald Trump's "shock and awe" first week in office was exactly what he had promised — or threatened.

He issued almost 100 executive orders and policy changes during that chaotic week. These included freeing virtually all of his supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, attempting to nullify the 14th Amendment and end birthright citizenship, declaring a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border, launching nationwide raids against undocumented immigrants and their communities as part of “the largest deportation plan in American history,” escalating attacks on the LGBTQ community, closing down government programs and offices focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, withdrawing from both the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord, and throwing out many other changes made by the Biden administration regarding the environment, the economy, education, and other areas.

Most of this was spelled out in advance by Project 2025 and Agenda 47. None of it should have come as a surprise.

As Trump’s eventful first week concluded, he fired more than a dozen inspectors general across a wide range of federal agencies. The role of such inspectors is to provide nonpartisan legal supervision and oversight, something Trump manifestly sees as an obstacle to autocratic rule. Firing them all was likely illegal, but Trump simply doesn't care. According to him — and also according to the right-wing justices on the Supreme Court — his narrow electoral victory now renders him above the law as a de facto dictator.

In an essay for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Will Bunch reflects on this "reactionary Week One backlash" striking "at the very heart of LGBTQ rights, academic freedom on college campuses, the environmental movement, and decades of rising empowerment for women":

On the surface, Trump’s dictator-on-Day-One orders were a campaign-promise-fulfilling war on 21st-century liberal “wokeness,” but in reality the MAGA movement was stabbing at the heart of MLK, of LBJ’s “Great Society,” and the progressive victories that have sustained my generation for our lifetimes.

In a matter of hours, an American strongman had achieved the long-held dream of the far right, to toss the wave of liberations of the Long Sixties down an Orwellian memory hole … .

[B]oomers like us grew up in the afterglow of victory of World War II that led us to believe America was the nation that conquered fascism, not a land that would someday succumb to it. Most of us didn’t realize as schoolchildren what we understand better today, which is that the forces of reaction that powered Jim Crow and the KKK would never go away or stop pushing back… . There is much to be written — today and by future historians, if the field of history survives — about how we got here, with the dangerous mix of understandable grievances about a capitalist and right-wing assault on the American middle class mixed with the toxic base fuels of racism and sexism. But first we’re going to have to grapple with how does it feel, with no direction home.

One of the most ominous and dangerous of Trump's executive orders targeted the supposed "weaponization of the federal government." Under this directive, the Department of Justice will begin systematically investigating those deemed to have “persecuted” Donald Trump by attempting to hold him and his MAGA allies accountable under the law like any other person in this country.

To this point, Trump and the MAGA Republicans have encountered no substantive opposition from Democrats or the so-called resistance. Public opinion polls show that a large percentage of Americans, close to a majority, either support Trump's early actions or are indifferent to the existential threat he represents to American democracy and a healthy and free society. If there is indeed a slumbering mass of Americans who believe in real “we the people” democracy, they need to wake up. immediately.

In an attempt to make sense of President Trump’s first week and what happens next, I reached out to a range of experts.

Norman Ornstein is emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and co-author of the bestseller "One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported."

I am distraught. This is just as bad as we have feared. The sweeping executive orders, right out of Project 2025, stretch and in most cases shatter legal and constitutional limits, but I do not in any way trust the Supreme Court to constrain the dictator. The actions to stop legitimate and important government programs in their tracks, including foreign aid and information about diseases and viruses, are destructive and deadly. This is only the beginning.

As I have said for years, and as Susan Glasser wrote in The New Yorker, the strategy of flooding the zone with scandals and outrages means that we lose track of them, lose our capacity for outrage. They are lost on most Americans, in part because of the inadequacy of press coverage. He will get away with a lot of this until it is too late.

The press is once again normalizing Trump with softball questions. Any tough ones get thrown back at the questioner, with other journalists refusing to follow up or defend their own. So people see an active president who reporters say good things about because they love their access and fear any blowback — including from their owners.

We have lost our guardrails against autocracy. The press is pathetic. The Republicans running Congress are pathetic. The Supreme Court is in Trump's pocket. Civil society, starting with the business community, is worthless. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Jennifer Mercieca is a historian of American political rhetoric at Texas A&M University and the author of several books, including "Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump."

Trump's return to power is going as I expected it would. He's declared a state of emergency, declared that God endorses his agenda and declared that he has unlimited power. He's using that power to reward himself and his friends and punish his enemies. A lot of folks in my community are scared by Trump's moves, but I feel calm. I expected them. The goal is to see it for what it is and figure out how to preserve and protect democracy within these new constraints. 

It's important to see what it is so you don't waste time hoping it won't be what it is. Figure out how you can resist in your area of influence. Test the boundaries of power where you are. Put pressure on the capitulators above you. Support fellow Democrats. Give your time and attention to organizations, businesses and people who support democracy. Defend people who are turned into hate-objects.

Trump's intimidation campaign is working. People in all parts of government, industry and education are going with a strategy of appeasement, trying to get by. Trump's goals are to remake the nation in every way, so people focus on the parts they want to see remade and ignore the parts they don't like. Trump's supporters are thrilled to see so much action — even if his policies and proclamations are illegal or against the Constitution. 

American politics is all spectacle — it's a form of entertainment that gives us the illusion of democratic deliberation, without the substance. Since Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, presidents used the media to communicate directly with the public, which changed the balance and separation of powers between the branches of government and made the president the center of our political system (which the founders tried to prevent).

By Reagan's presidency, it was clear that the president had two jobs — the first is the actual job of the president, which is to go to meetings, attend briefings and make the hard decisions required of the office. The public has no access at all to the president doing the actual job of the president. The second job of the president is to play the role of the president on TV and the rest of America's screens.

Trump excels at the second role — playing the president on TV. Trump calculated his performance to be aggressive and outrageous in order to attract and keep our attention. I called him the "demagogue of the spectacle" in my book about his 2016 campaign rhetoric — part authoritarian and part P.T. Barnum. He's quite good at it, which accounts for the loyalty of his base.

People are looking for leadership and they're seeing it on the right, and not the left. Democrats and left-leaning independents feel abandoned, and they don't know where to turn or what to do. They feel vulnerable. It's hard to watch all sectors of the government, media and business capitulate to an authoritarian. The notable standout of the past week is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has been showing that it's still possible to resist Trumpism. 

D. Earl Stephens is the author of "Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters."

Personally, I feel angry as hell, which is a decided improvement from feeling just plain sad. There is a feeling of helplessness I am seeing among many, which is understandable, and is being exacerbated by the opposition’s muted approach and pushback on this authoritarian attack on our democracy.

I found Joe Biden’s reaction to the election to be appalling at best, heartless at worst. He struck an incomprehensible tone. His doubletalk and verbal whiplash were stunning in their ineffectiveness. Instead of paving a way forward, he left a trail of smoke. It took Biden but a week to invite the man who tried to overthrow our government back to our White House. He seemingly couldn’t wait to warm Trump by the fire while literally smiling and saying, "Welcome back!" Can somebody explain to me what the hell that was about? 

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It only got worse, because in Biden’s final days his "welcome back" turned into "warning, warning!" when he addressed the nation and solemnly warned us that "an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy." Thanks, pal. Most of us were aware of that eight years ago. Now he's gone, his family is safe and we are left holding the bag. Like I said, I’m angry. 

Trump’s "shock and awe" campaign is working as planned. It’s Trump’s singular talent. Trump is a chaos agent. Consider this: On the first day of his reign of terror, Trump released 1,500 or so dangerous people, who beat the life out of cops and tried to set fire to our country by violently stopping the certification of our election. Trump said that he “loved” them, and they now have safe harbor. 

What kind of job has our media done in explaining this to the public? If I still ran a newsroom, here’s the slammer at the top of the page: "America in Middle of National Emergency!" Instead, it’s just another day. We won’t make it if this kind of shoddy journalism continues. 

Now we see if the Democrats can find their footing. They have fought hard the past eight years, and some of the political infrastructure they put in place will slow this unrelenting Republican attack. But it won’t erase the damage that has already happened, and too much of what is coming.

You don’t need me to tell you that we are craving bold leadership on the left, who will not only oppose this anti-American attack but will speak to it in ways that inspire a call to action. There are openings all over the place. As split as we are as a nation, there is a consensus that billionaires don’t belong anywhere near our government, much less running it. A recent AP Poll showed only 12 percent of Americans thought it was a good idea for a president to rely on billionaires for advice on government policy. Democrats need to exploit this. 

Democrats need to realize they still have power. They haven’t relinquished it — they still demand more of themselves and the people who will lead us. Maybe that doesn’t mean a thing right now, in practical terms, but it's much more in line with this nation’s democratic values.