We started 2025 with a bit of trepidation. A divisive president was to be given another bite at the apple, but we had made it through a previous 4-year Trump presidency, so we knew what to expect. We assumed that would be similar to the last time. We would be proven woefully wrong in just 20 days. He governed during his first term like a pinball hitting pop bumpers, slingshots, vertical up-kickers, spinners, auto launchers, and flippers, then he broke the top glass and tried to keep the ball live with an insurrection. Then on January 20, 2025, he took office but now vowing, “no more Mr. Nice-Guy.”
He promised to secure the borders and deport those hardened criminals hiding within the immigrant communities. Mission accomplished, sort of. He completed this task by making America a place that neither immigrants nor tourists would want to visit. He deported hardened criminals, but when he ran short of them in his world of quotas, he rounded up other immigrants and even a few US citizens who had been quietly working and paying taxes.
The Trump administration worked outside the norms of the law by issuing executive orders often on the pretext of his self-declared “national emergency.” Without congressional approval, he implemented tariffs under existing laws that allowed such changes in times of national emergency and on a temporary basis. Challenges in the courts have had some federal courts saying he exceeded his authority. Approval or not, the tariffs have resulted in inflationary increases in the cost of goods.
On the international front, we are poised to overthrow Venezuela to get access to their oil on the pretext of them being a narco-state. Our military, at the direction of their commander-in-chief, has violated international law by killing over 100 people in multiple incidents on the high seas.
The public has responded negatively to much of this with a People’s March in January and a nationwide No Kings protest in June. In a shocking pivot that nobody saw coming, Marjorie Taylor Green has questioned Trump in a not-quite 180-degree shift, but certainly she is no longer in lockstep with the president.
To placate an upset citizenry, Trump has promised a one -ime paycheck using tariff revenue. While this may excite some of those suffering with the inflationary tactics of his tariffs, it faces legal, mathematical, and economic challenges. It would take an act of Congress and the current revenues from the tariffs wouldn’t come close to covering the cost.
Trump recently announced another way to glorify his name with the “Trump-class” battleships for the US Navy. You don’t have to be a military expert to see that this is an impractical idea in this modern age. Such a ship would be obsolete before the keel is laid and it would be exceptionally vulnerable if ever completed. This is seen as just another move to gild his legacy, at taxpayer expense.
Trump has used his “bully pulpit” to be a bully. He has tried to muzzle the press and his critics. In this he has had some success.
Not since CBS cancelled The Smothers Brothers in 1969, have we seen such a trampling of free speech. Their anti-war content and political/social satire was too much for Nixon and CBS. Now Trump has brought similar pressure to bear to get Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert taken off the air. Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon have also been Trump targets as his fragile ego can’t take a joke.
Trump has bragged about getting certain drug prices lowered for next year and those efforts will see some savings for some people. The drug companies, however, just announced a price increase of 350 branded medications for the coming year. This plus higher out of pocket expenses and a loss of insurance for many won’t make 2026 any better. It will probably be much worse.
The Trump administration has bragged about its war on drugs and drug overdoses and its immigration crackdown, killing of boat crews off the coast of Venezuela, and the labeling of drug cartels as “terrorists” may have some effect on the lower end of the drug problem. Contradicting this claimed anti-drug policy, is the fact that major drug smugglers have been given pardons by Trump. “Donations to Trump” may have been involved.
Yes, 2025 will go out with a bang. For some, there will be fireworks in the sky, and for others that will be ICE blowing off their front door. I will be grateful for another trip around the sun and will look forward to a new and better year for one and all in 2026. I have to go now as someone is pounding on the door.
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