Surveying the Damage

The Trump administration's slash-and-burn mentality is destroying the institutions that benefit every American’s life.

We’re now several months into the second term of America’s only convicted felon President — a man whose primary motivation for running for a second term was to keep himself out of prison. But a secondary motivation has revealed itself — a desire to destroy institutions and norms with no apparent goal other than to flex his power.

That demolition of norms is chilling enough on its own. But it also manifested itself in the destruction of long-standing American institutions, federal agencies, and entire departments of the federal government.

Volumes could be written about each of the institutions being destroyed. The best I can manage in a Substack post is more of a survey course, or rather just a high-level description of a survey course, covering the main targets of this administration’s destruction.

Over the course of the 2024 election campaign, it b…