Trump Ruined Everything At Record Speed | EUROtoday

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Donald Trump made it clear when he was reelected final 12 months that he was in it for revenge, energy and hate. Political pundits, elected Democrats and liberal voters collectively frightened that his second time period would take a wrecking ball to what was left of our nation’s well-being.

But who might have predicted simply how a lot and simply how briskly the unfastened assortment of casual guidelines that preserve America functioning can be blown up?

It’s been a protracted 12 months, and you might be forgiven for having forgotten a number of the norms that we used to abide by which have since been decimated by Trumpworld. The president himself has deployed the navy to American cities towards their will, turning communities into battle zones. The Supreme Court, in its rush to bend over backward for the administration, has shrugged off the decimation of decades-old authorized precedent. Department of Justice staff openly lie in open court docket.

Some of our nation’s first-class companies tasked with saving lives have been became a shell of their former selves — or dismantled altogether. Instead of encouraging folks to get vaccinated towards lethal ailments, federal public well being companies are actually main the anti-science cost. And our high international help company has been destroyed, threatening tens of millions of lives around the globe.

The immigration system has lengthy been stricken by inefficiencies, arbitrariness and racism, however the Trump administration has made an already-flawed system much more inhumane. In doing so, his acolytes have tailored language about immigrants — each authorized and never — that may please a number of the most horrendous world leaders in historical past.

And that’s simply a few of it. For the final Politics Newsletter of 2025, we requested the HuffPost newsroom to weigh in with their ideas on what else has been normalized this 12 months — and there have been a lot of recommendations. Across the federal authorities, American tradition and common day-to-day life, there’s a seemingly countless checklist of issues that occurred in 2025 that, for those who had requested us on December 31, 2024, we could have stated have been outrageous — perhaps even inconceivable. But right here we’re!

There are, nevertheless, some important areas the place the American folks have pushed again, regardless of the administration’s finest efforts. And heading into 2026, that would proceed and even develop.

Below are eight issues we sadly noticed normalized in 2025, and a pair that we didn’t. — Nathalie Baptiste, senior nationwide reporter

Presidents have deployed National Guard troops into U.S. cities prior to now for a wide range of causes, as is their proper below federal legislation. A president hasn’t federalized troops and despatched them to a state with out the consent of a governor since President Lyndon B. Johnson did so in 1965 with a purpose to shield civil rights marchers from violence. The extremely political and controversial transfer would have made Republicans apoplectic in the present day if it had come from one other Democratic president. (Barack Obama as soon as deployed the Guard to assist patrol the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, however on the request of then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry).

In its deployments to California, Oregon and Illinois, Trump’s administration argued {that a} National Guard presence was wanted to assist fight crime and tackle protests towards mass immigration raids, regardless of opposition from the states’ Democratic governors. Federal judges have since known as the deployments unlawful, ordering the troops to go away, however the Trump administration is interesting their rulings in greater courts.

“It is profoundly un-American to suggest that people peacefully exercising their fundamental right to protest constitute a risk justifying the federalization of military forces,” U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer wrote in an opinion on Trump’s California deployment. — Igor Bobic, senior politics reporter

Although racial profiling has all the time been a key a part of immigration enforcement, the Trump administration made it express in its immigration raids, rounding up folks, together with these with citizenship or authorized authorization to be within the U.S., based mostly on their look, how they spoke, or their line of labor. In July, Southern California residents, employees and immigrant rights teams sued the Department of Homeland Security, accusing the company of utilizing unlawful, racially discriminatory stop-and-arrest ways to hold out immigration enforcement based mostly on how folks look, the language they converse or the place they’re.

But in a brief, unsigned order, the Supreme Court in September allowed these practices to proceed. The ruling spawned the nickname Kavanaugh Stop for these sorts of stops.

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.” — Jessica Schulberg, senior nationwide reporter

Trump’s political profession was constructed on racism, from declaring in 2015 that Mexico was “sending” rapists to the United States, to promising to ban Muslims from the nation. But the primary 12 months of his second time period noticed that rot pervade the federal government.

They’re brazenly embracing dehumanizing language and imagery to consult with immigrants and different marginalized teams. The Department of Homeland Security has change into a fascist meme machine.

To high it off, Paul “Nazi Streak” Ingrassia nonetheless someway has a authorities job?— Matt Shuham, senior nationwide reporter

The stately manor, which was constructed, largely, by enslaved folks between 1792 and 1800, has been an iconic landmark internet hosting state leaders, dignitaries, and atypical folks for many years. But final month, Trump employed out development employees to demolish the East Wing. The president is having a gaudy ballroom constructed as a replacement.

Historians and different specialists have stated that Trump is supposed to first undergo a authorized course of that features public enter earlier than he can begin tearing the place down. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit that oversees the preservation of historic buildings, has filed a lawsuit in search of an injunction to cease the president from developing the ballroom. The authorities, as standard, has argued that Trump can do no matter he needs to the White House. And within the meantime, effectively, the East Wing is already gone.” — Nathalie Baptiste

Department of Justice attorneys or federal prosecutors now brazenly flout judges in court docket, together with within the Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation case, the place a federal decide admonished attorneys for deceptive the court docket about the place they supposed to ship him. And for that matter, the federal government additionally dodges judges on the place different folks flagged for deportation are despatched or when. (The 137 males loaded onto planes after a decide distinctly forbade it was fairly jarring.)

And former Jan. 6 prosecutors and FBI brokers probing the riot needed to sue to cease the Justice Department from doubtlessly exposing their names as a result of the chief department and the DOJ couldn’t be trusted to not dox them. Never, within the 10 years I’ve coated courts, had I seen this form of flagrant conduct by authorities attorneys. The caginess, the obfuscation and outright denials of truth when a decide asks for specifics are obviously shameful.” — Brandi Buchman, nationwide reporter

Measles was formally declared eradicated in 2000 within the United States, due to the federal authorities’s extremely efficient vaccination program and the American public placing its religion in science and public well being specialists. But the Trump administration has been dragging the nation backward on all of those fronts, with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. routinely spreading disinformation about vaccines and baselessly fueling skepticism about secure and efficient, life-saving medicines.

As a consequence, there have been 1,912 confirmed measles circumstances this 12 months, as of Dec. 9 — the highest variety of circumstances for the reason that U.S. declared measles eradicated 25 years in the past.

Virtually all of those circumstances might have been prevented with vaccines. Ninety-two % of those folks have been unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination standing. Three folks have been confirmed to have died this 12 months from measles, and 218 folks needed to be hospitalized. — Jennifer Bendery, senior politics reporter

The pace, callousness and chaos with which the administration dismantled USAID inside weeks of taking workplace have been staggering.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was a lifeline for tens of millions of individuals: a funder for help teams distributing meals, medication and different necessities, and a font of experience able to sort out pure disasters, epidemics, wars or different emergencies. For the Trump administration — particularly, Elon Musk — it mattered most as a straightforward goal. The coverage grew to become the defining instance of the administration’s contempt for international coverage experience and a profitable check run for its plans to reshape the federal government, as defenders of USAID did not restrict Musk’s “wood-chipper” method.

A 12 months later, the administration has not confirmed misconduct by the company, however there’s important proof of the toll of its method. Worldwide, observers report tons of of 1000’s of avoidable deaths and worsening issues that danger world well being and stability. For U.S. international coverage, USAID’s homicide signifies a doubtlessly irreversible shift. Washington wields main navy and financial may — more and more so below Trump. USAID represented America concurrently attempting to collaborate, mitigate worldwide tensions and assist a number of the world’s least highly effective folks. It can be onerous to reverse the impression, inside and past the U.S. authorities, of a deep disregard for that type of mission.” — Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent

The Trump administration has been so determined to juice its deportation numbers, it’s taken up some extremely questionable and uncommon ways, together with deporting immigrants to 3rd nations, which are sometimes nations they’ve by no means been to. Hundreds of migrants have been despatched to Panama and Costa Rica, whereas smaller numbers have been despatched to South Sudan, a rustic that the U.S. says is unsafe for Americans.

Previously, third-country deportations have been uncommon. The U.S. authorities would solely use the tactic when an immigrant had a elimination order however their residence nation was deemed to unsafe. But below Trump, they’re up, in an effort to do mass deportations.” — Nathalie Baptiste

It’s not all hopeless, nevertheless. While Trump is taking a hacksaw to our freedoms, there have been some moments when his makes an attempt to normalize his bogus insurance policies simply… didn’t work. For instance:

Trump has had a longstanding feud with Jimmy Kimmel, a late evening tv host on ABC who continuously makes jokes about Trump and the MAGA world at giant. In September, after Charlie Kirk, a right-wing podcaster and founding father of Turning Point USA, was killed by a shooter in Utah, Kimmel made a joke about Trump supporters politicizing his dying.

Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission’s chair, subsequently made some not-so-thinly-veiled threats towards ABC, which broadcasts Kimmel’s present, until they eliminated him. That identical day, the community suspended Kimmel indefinitely. Trump celebrated the suspension and known as for extra late evening hosts to be fired.

But it seems, the general public didn’t have the urge for food for the Trump administration’s assault on free speech.

Millions of individuals canceled their subscriptions to streaming companies owned by Disney, ABC’s guardian firm. Demonstrators protested outdoors of the corporate’s headquarters, and celebrities threatened to reduce ties with Disney if Kimmel wasn’t instantly put again on the air. Even some Republicans criticized the transfer. It wasn’t misplaced on critics that whereas Trump and the GOP largely portrays itself because the celebration of free speech, this was an occasion of the federal government punishing somebody for speech it doesn’t like. Six days later, Kimmel was reinstated — and sure, Trump did have a meltdown about it.” —Nathalie Baptiste

Mahmoud Khalil, the Algerian-Palestinian Columbia University grad scholar who was arrested by the Department of Homeland Security after main pro-Palestinian protests on campus, grew to become one of many best-known targets of the administration’s crackdown on free speech in 2025. It was a focusing on that, arguably, solely made him extra influential.

Khalil, who’s a authorized immigrant and inexperienced card holder, was arrested and practically deported in March, ostensibly as a result of his presence had unfavourable implications for nationwide safety, the administration stated. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio detailed in a memo that it was Khalil’s beliefs that bought him arrested — a transparent violation of Khalil’s free speech rights. Khalil’s detention was met with widespread protests, and although the Trump administration got here near deporting Khalil for arguing with its coverage, he was lastly launched in June after three months of jail.

Khalil hasn’t gone silent after his ordeal. Just a number of weeks after getting out of detention, he was in Washington, D.C., demanding change. In an interview with my colleague Akbar Shahid Ahmed after his launch, Khalil made no bones about persevering with his activism.

“My arrest accidentally gave me this platform to be able to actually advocate more and more for the rights of Palestinians,” Khalil advised HuffPost. “I did not choose to be in such a position, but now that such a position is imposed upon me, I will take that responsibility with pride.” — Nathalie Baptiste

Responses have been calmly edited for model and readability.