"consumed by revenge and retribution, and encouraged by sycophants and yes-men who would insure that he faced few of the constraints that hampered him in his first term? Yes, but now we know that bracing for the worst did not make the inevitable any less painful. In the future, historians will struggle to describe that feeling, particular to this Trump era, of being prepared for the bad, crazy, and disruptive things that he would do, and yet also totally, utterly shocked by them."
"A partial catalogue of the horrors of 2025 that not even the most prescient Trump-watcher could claim to have fully predicted: gutting cancer research in the name of expurgating diversity programs from the nation's universities. Shutting the door to refugees- except for white Afrikaners, from South Africa. Empowering the world's richest man to cut off funding for the world's poorest children. Welcoming Vladimir Putin on a red carpet at an American Air Force base."
2025 featured Trump's return to the presidency with actions that exceeded dire expectations. He pursued monarchical power, prioritized revenge, and empowered sycophants to remove institutional constraints. The administration cut cancer research funding while eliminating university diversity programs, closed refugee pathways except to white Afrikaners from South Africa, and enabled a billionaire to withhold funds from vulnerable children. The White House publicly welcomed Vladimir Putin and unexpectedly razed the East Wing. Canada experienced diplomatic alienation. On day one of the second term, the President pardoned more than fifteen hundred violent rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Read at The New Yorker
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