This Administration has committed so many outrageous acts that Americans have become numb to the onslaught and simply fail to process their repercussions. Here are some examples.
Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. and his team used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to write their Make America Healthy Again report. Seven studies listed in the report were either wildly misinterpreted or never occurred. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told The Washington Post, “This is not an evidence-based report, and for all practical purposes, it should be junked at this point.”
Draft-dodger President Trump gave a commencement speech at West Point and skipped the traditional handshake and salute to each graduating cadet. Instead, he made a beeline to his golf course. During his speech, he found time to opine on the concept of trophy wives.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has dramatically limited press access inside the Pentagon and has ejected The New York Times, CNN, Politico, and NPR from their dedicated workspaces inside the building. Since the Signalgate debacle, Hegseth has given no press conferences.
On Memorial Day, Trump called judges who oppose him “monsters” who want the United States “to go to hell.”
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Secretary Russell Vought said that OMB would reduce cooperation with the government watchdog Government Accountability Office (GAO) requests because there are too many of them and they are too invasive.
A GAO spokesperson disagreed and said, “The majority of our audit work is mandated in law or in response to bipartisan Congressional requests.”
By the way, OMB’s takedown of its apportionments website, which is a public record of where taxpayers’ money is spent, violates federal statutes.
Trump’s Justice Department is set to pay $5 million to the family of Ashi Babbitt, the Trump-supporter rioter who was shot and killed while trying to climb through a smashed window into the Speaker’s Lobby of the Capitol.
All indications are that Trump’s June 14 military parade will cost $45 million. The DOGE team is in the process of firing up to 80,000 Veteran’s Administration employees, including at least 20,000 veterans.
Trump has issued a series of pardons for several of his loyal followers and campaign donors. In addition to commuting sentences of some January 6 insurrectionists and pardoning all other insurrectionists involved in the attack on the Capitol, he has pardoned reality TV stars who committed fraud, massive tax evaders, and many more loyalists.
Trump is also taking a look at pardoning the men charged with plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is currently on trial for sexual trafficking and several other crimes.
In a humiliating meeting in the Oval Office, which was broadcast globally, Trump told Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, “You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.” Vice President Vance also chastised Zelensky, accusing him of not showing sufficient gratitude to Trump.
Last weekend made it pretty clear that Zelenskyy has some cards—maybe even an ace. In an operation code-named “Spider’s Web,” Ukraine used 117 drones against Russian military airbases, operating across several Russian regions in three different time zones. Around 40 Russian military planes were hit in the attack. The operation had been planned for more than a year. Ukraine did not notify the Trump administration of the attack in advance.
Trump has fired those whom he feels are too closely aligned with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, including Kim Sajet, Director of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery; Carla Hayden, the longtime librarian of the Library of Congress; and the Chairman and the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center.
Last Saturday night, Trump shared a post on Truth Social claiming Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by a clone.
At a Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas last week, Vice President JD Vance, Don Jr., and Eric celebrated the fact that the current President is a fan of Crypto. Already this administration has eased regulations on Crypto, promoted their growth, and sought to bring Crypto into the mainstream.
Vance owns between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of Bitcoin. Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company to Truth Social, has announced plans to buy up billions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin. While the legality of these actions is subject to debate, clearly, they are shameless examples of grift and exploitation.
After Bruce Springsteen called this administration, “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous,” Trump threatened a “major investigation” and wrote these words on Truth Social: “This dried out prune of a rocker ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the country, that’s just standard fare. Then we’ll all see how it goes for him.” (Trump seemed to have no problem with January 6 insurrectionists using their so called “freedom of speech” rights to scream death threats regarding Nancy Pelosi or chants of “Hang Mike Pence.”)
This Administration has used legal and financial threats to punish universities, law firms, companies, and the courts for failing to align with his agenda. In response, there are currently more than 200 court cases against this administration. Trump has defied several court orders on illegal deportations and university actions.
All actions noted above are straight out of the Project 2025 playbook, which includes tactics on how to overwhelm the opposition by flooding the zone and strategies for limiting access to factual information.
In a so-called “normal administration,” many of the actions listed above would prompt a public outcry and calls for investigations and impeachments.
Experts recommend countering the current flood-the-zone strategy by prioritizing substance over sensation, building resilient information systems, verifying information at all times, educating audiences, engaging with the media, and owning the conversation by emphasizing facts over and over again.
The counterattack full-court press is beginning to gain momentum. May the force be with it.
Maria Grant was the principal-in-charge of a federal human capital practice at an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, music, and nature.
Joseph A. Fick, Jr. says
It is truly a shame that you anti-Trumpers spend so much of your time being so negative. Try offering some positive ideas and comments, if you actually have any.
The world was certainly no “paradise” when you all were in charge.
Deirdre LaMotte says
The children of the world through PETFAR were fed and now over 500,000 children will needlessly die thanks to the reprehensible acts of the coup on our democracy and civilized world.
This was George W Bush’s greatest accomplishment while in office.
This is just one act that is absolutely abhorrent.
Try finding real news. You perhaps will find humanity in your heart.
Maria Grant says
Joseph, thanks for writing. I did suggest some positive suggestions at the end of my article. The former administration may not have been paradise but there was due process, attention to improving the environment, veterans’ benefits, Medicare and more. I might add that Trump has also cut funds that have been allocated to restoring the Chesapeake Bay which is really disappointing.
Chris Gordon says
I would to hear some positive ideas. Do you have any?
John Ramsey says
Dismissing us as “anti-trumpers” is to dismiss the harm that the Trump administration is causing on a global scale. Something positive would be to elect a congress that would take back their right to levy tariffs, and wake up to the fact that 10,000 more ICE agents seizing people without due process and disappearing them into distant detention centers, makes a police state that owes it’s allegiance, not to the constitution, but to one man and his right hand xenophobic master mind, Stephen Miller.
Maria Grant says
John thanks for writing. I agree with you. Miller and his team are extremely dangerous. Miller seems to be driven to check every box in the Project 2025 action steps.
Patricia W Deitz says
Maria Grant, Once again you have you have collected and synthesized the national outrages in such an articulate way. I hope you will be at a June 14 No Kings Day Rally here or elsewhere. We all need to keep up the beat and be seen. This is not OK.
Maria Grant says
Patricia, thanks so much for your comment. I agree this is not OK and we all need to take responsible actions to change the course.
Vic Pfeiffer says
Maria,
Once again thank you for cataloguing these unthinkable and democratically destructive actions from Trump and his sycophants. Keep it up.
Maria Grant says
Vic, thanks for writing. As you can see from some of the above comments, not everyone agrees. I appreciate your support.