Donald Trump’s first weeks back in office have been a whirlwind of chaos and political destruction. This is by design and one of the central features of the “shock and awe” strategy that Trump and his allies have been planning for years, as detailed in Project 2025 and Agenda 47, to undermine American democracy and replace it with a form of autocracy if not outright authoritarianism. This strategy is being rapidly enacted through such actions as the almost 100 executive orders that include voiding the 14th Amendment, declaring a national emergency for Trump’s mass deportation plan, gutting the Department of Justice, seemingly as part of a plan to get revenge on his personal “enemies,” firing inspectors generals en masse, reversing 60 years of progress in civil and human rights and freezing federal loans and grants.
The Democrats, mainstream news media and the American public have been left flummoxed, confused and overwhelmed, as Rolling Stone details:
Late last year, as Donald Trump and his transition staff crafted executive orders, pardons, and a multi-front policy blitz designed to create “shock and awe” at the dawn of his second term in the White House, they were confident that the American people would ultimately let them get away with it — no matter the initial media or political backlash.
According to two advisers who spoke with the president-elect in advance of his inauguration, Trump was betting that a “flood the zone” approach could overwhelm a demoralized Democratic Party and oversaturate the media ecosystem. Trump and his officials were confident the general public would grow numb — and stay numb — to this opening onslaught.
So far, the judiciary has responded as an initial check. Its effectiveness in standing against Trump's assaults, however, remains very much in doubt.
This strategy of chaos and confusion is more than “just” a political strategy, it is a reflection of, and amplified by, Trump’s personality, character and mind. Trump’s followers and allies are excited by the chaos because to them it is an example of him being a man of action and vitality and in all a great leader who is channeling the will and energy of the MAGA movement. The appearance of constant action, of being human dynamos, is a common tactic of authoritarians and fascist leaders.
Writing at the Columbia Journalism Review, Jon Allsop summarizes the difficulty the mainstream news media is facing in responding to Trump’s unprecedented attacks on the Constitution, the rule of law, the country’s institutions and the American people’s collective sense of normalcy:
But journalistic attention... is not in practice an infinite resource, and so the more of it that Trump seeks, the less of it there is to go around; in other words, if he benefits from ruling our attention, so he does from dividing it. Whether this is intended or not, it has the effect of slipping historically radical and abnormal policies and behaviors past us before we can get a firm grip on them — and Trump, as I’ve written before, certainly seems to have an instinctive, decidedly old-school grip on the finite nature of journalistic attention. (It was no surprise, when he fired all the inspectors general last week, that he did so late on a Friday night.) On Thursday, I wrote that Trump’s second term so far “feels less than his first like an exercise in pure attention domination: government by radical, planned executive order, and less so by tweet.” … It’s not necessarily that there’s less chaos or rage-posting this time around, but it does make up a lesser share of the things the press should be paying attention to. Not all of that stuff is dominating our attention. And again, it’s reasonable to see this as being by design.
Donald Trump and his administration and its enforcers are only going to increase the rapidity and ferocity of their efforts to remake American society in service to their revolutionary project. To that point, Roll Call reports that “at a House GOP retreat Monday evening in Florida, [Trump] compared himself with mobster Al Capone, saying the gangster 'was not investigated as much as your president was investigated.'” Earlier in the day, his Truth Social account posted an image of the president wearing a Capone-style fedora with a sign reading “FAFO” — short for “F**k around and find out.”
Ultimately, Donald Trump is having fun at the literal expense of the American people. For him, as for other autocrats and those in their orbit, the cruelty is the point.
In an attempt to make sense of Trump’s historically disruptive first weeks in office and what happens next, I reached out to a range of experts.
Federico Finchelstein is a professor of history at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College in New York. His most recent book is "A Brief History of Fascist Lies."
What is going on was to be expected but this does not mean that it is less striking or horrible. I don’t feel surprised about this Trumpist mix of lies, stupidity and extremism. As experts on fascism and populism know, these kinds of leaders typically use their first days in power to downplay legality, increase demonization and in the case of fascists, or wannabe fascists like Trump, even deportation and persecution. What we are witnessing is an attempt to set the tone to render acceptable what is usually in normal democracies regarded as unacceptable. They want to numb the population to idiotic statements, fascist types of lies and unpredictable and illogical actions. For instance, the surreal exchange with the Colombian president and the use of tariffs to negotiate non-economic political spectacle. And yet, unlike full-fledged fascists, Trump’s first days in power are also somehow unarticulated and uncoordinated and even tamed by the fact that the leader is clearly not a smart person. This level of ignorance at the height of the US government is, of course, shocking but expected.
"What we are witnessing is an attempt to set the tone to render acceptable what is usually in normal democracies regarded as unacceptable."
There is a numbing effect. There is a Trump fatigue among the 48% that voted against Trump. And also, on the many that decided not to vote against him. Trump won with 49% of the vote. This, of course, cannot give the legitimacy to be unconstitutional and a wannabe dictator and yet he tries. This is something they know, and this is why they regard these first weeks as so important. American Greenland? Gulf of America or the taking of the Panama Canal? This is the kind of stuff we can expect from Trump: extreme nationalist propaganda and lies that possibly can become a reality if nobody else cares. Eventually, lies are confronted with reality and more citizens will be confronted with this. In other words, Trump was supported because of fake promises and propaganda when this is more evident, his legitimacy will decrease.
Belief is driving the Trumpist cult. Not evidence but belief. Belief is key to this extreme political religion. And the spectacle of it all, a sort of Jerry Springer show in the White House, is also part of longstanding rituals of violence and persecution. It is not exclusive of many Americans to be often mesmerized by these illogical forms of thinking and its propaganda and spectacles. But many did not vote for Trump for this but actually for economic reasons. I think sooner or later many of them will realize how they believe in fake promises and lies. The question is how soon…
As I stated recently, the new big lie is that Trump won in a landslide and this authorizes him to turn the world upside down. This is the big confusion being promoted right now. In a democracy, winning elections does not give you a blank check to erase the past or legality. Trumpism launched a coup, and illegality cannot be erased by votes or pardons or the fake rewriting of history. When this happens, democracy is downplayed and dictatorship is on the horizon. This is what Trump promotes, the new big lies of his full legitimacy.
Anthea Butler is a professor of religious studies and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been a guest on MSNBC, CNN, PBS and the BBC, and her essays have been featured in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Religion News Service and MSNBC. Her most recent book is "White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America."
Buckle up folks, it's going to be a bumpy ride.
As someone who has been speaking, writing, and cajoling people about the dangers of a Trump administration since Jan. 6, 2021, I am not surprised about the rapidity with which everything is moving forward. After all, I was speaking about Project 2025 in December 2023. To be effective in pushing back against what is happening (with the knowledge that we may not be able to stop everything), I think the first question you should ask yourself is, what are you willing to do to help your neighbor, your colleague, or someone you don't even know? Second, you should think about what you can do on a local level to organize where you are. Part of the very big problem is that the guardrails are off and all the people in charge of them are being fired. You should not expect business as usual. Third, with all of the agencies being siloed or silenced, expect food issues to become more prevalent, you won't know the status of bird flu or any other pandemic. Trump has discussed dismantling FEMA right before the tornado and hurricane season and in the wake of the fires in Los Angeles.
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Knowing all of this, I think it is important to say that no matter how down or defeated by all of this, you should prepare yourself to either think about ways to participate, organize and strategize locally. It is important and the only way to prepare to push back in the midterms … if we even have midterms.
Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and the author of "Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President."
Trump’s 2025 inauguration feels different from 2017 because this time the people Trump named to his Cabinet are known entities. But they are more to the right of him than in 2017 — if such a thing is possible — and largely unqualified. This makes it clear that Trump is incapable of compassion and that signals great danger for American lives in his second term. He remains at best a very paranoid, immature person now holding an office that demands thought and care. But for him, the priority is mostly about personal vendettas. He refuses — or is unable — to stop and think, which is the source of genuine strength of character. He appears to be motivated primarily by hurting people.
There are two kinds of collective emotions from the left in response to Trump’s rapid decrees and firings in the first week. The first, as I see it, is one of fear and insecurity. It reminds me most of a Ferlinghetti line from a poem: “We have despair to spare.” That is how many are feeling, including some of my patients. The second reaction reminds me of Moliere who described a sudden retreat into home life, to plant our gardens, as it were. I think this apathy, born of fear and despair, will recede over time and people will begin to organize and stand up to Trump. Obviously, the emotions of his MAGA supporters are basically enthusiastic.
"We got here because people don’t read history books anymore, which led to collective amnesia about reality."
What does his return to power reveal about the American people and their national character? America doesn’t have a single national character. Those who voted for Trump felt enriched by his inauguration. They appreciate his defiance and his unique qualities of overtly expressed aggression, dissatisfaction, and outrage. Now Trump is celebrating what he feels is a mandate, dominated as he is by his own grandiosity. And part of America is grandiose, with our long history of shouting “USA! USA! USA!” and the conviction that “We’re number one!” The other half of America didn’t even watch the Inauguration and has only recently resumed paying attention to the news. Many, hopefully, are preserving their energies; gathering strength for future battles against fascism.
The first week has been exhausting, and I’ve taken more naps than in recent memory. But at the same time, I have faith, by which I mean confidence, that many of those who voted for Trump will regret that choice as their lives, and the issues that matter to them, are negatively impacted. Of course, I don’t wish for economic ruin or damage to fellow Americans, but I am concerned that restrictions on freedoms and even martial law could be in our future. I believe most MAGA followers didn’t want either of these things and will be shocked, disappointed and angry if this comes to pass. One week of this presidency is already too much: my psychiatric practice has shifted dramatically to people feeling discouraged and frightened about losing their jobs. I’m too busy trying to help others to look at my own feelings.
Investigative reporter Heidi Siegmund Cuda writes about U.S. politics and culture for Byline Times and Byline Supplement.
Americans were sleep-marched into fascism. Those who ignored the election are finding out about the dire reality and stakes of this situation. This is a life and death matter. Where I live in Southern California we just suffered through the worst fires in our history and the response from the Trump administration was to weaponize our tragedy against our Democratic leaders. They are coming for any politician with empathy, who takes their public servant oath seriously — anyone who gets in their way of unbridled greed. Welcome to West Russia, where the oligarchs run the politicians and all are bandits who steal from the poor to give to the rich.
I got out of the US before the inauguration, because I didn’t want to be around such a spectacle again. So, I’m traveling through Europe, warning people wherever I go not to let what happened to America happen in their countries. I find myself sobbing each time I think about the US. And I am distressed that people in my circle still do not see it for what is — an organized crime network succeeding in turning America into an authoritarian hellscape. I am distressed that Democrats talk about two years from now and four years from now, oblivious to the fact that we just had our last free election.
The real problem is America has not been occupied by a foreign military so there’s no lived experience of what happens when oligarchs sink their fangs into a country. I documented 22 countries attacked by Russia in the exact same way America has been attacked — each of these countries has a main oligarch and multiple oligarchs beneath them whose job is to destroy democracy. America is not unique, just really naive.
We’re going to have to go through some things as a nation and a people. As I wrote in an elegy for my country, we got here because people don’t read history books anymore, which led to collective amnesia about reality. They like their politics and professional wrestling reality TV show, featuring supervillains behaving badly. They won't like it when their neighbors start disappearing.
We got here because of a judicial coup. It’s a mistake to think the majority of people are bad or wanted this, Trump won with less than 32% of all eligible voters. About a third of any population wants authoritarian leaders, they want their strongman to tell them what to do. The majority that doesn’t want billionaires to deliver them to austerity, or tell them what to do, better learn to get along and start working together. The regime will last as long as the people tolerate it.
There was a time when I believed that social media, which delivered us to this disaster, could be turned into public utilities. That ship has sailed. Get off it if you want a happy life. Psychological operations are being waged on the population in order to control it, and we are on our own to defend ourselves and our loved ones. Nothing will get better until we learn how to fight an information war.
Start with small acts of resistance and stay close to trusted allies.
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